Framing job

[Matt Wolboldt]

So I'm helping a friend of mine redo his bathroom. It turns out the tub he bought is 1" too short for the opening. How would you guys go about attaching the backerboard to the studs so to compensate for the gap? If it's not clear forgive me. Thanks for all your help.
Cheers,
Matt

[Lee Schierer]

If the tub is 1" shorter than the finished walls will be I would cut some 1" shims and shim out the wall. I would nail and glue the shims to the wall, then put the wall board over that.

[Ken Shoemaker]

+1 for Lee's suggestion

[Walter Plummer]

Make sure the valve(s) and shower head mount get blocked in at the correct depth in the wall so when the board and tile are installed everything works.This is true which ever end you shim.

[Michael Peet]

What they said. That's what I had to do on my bathroom remodel. Works fine.

Mike

[Harlan Barnhart]

I always shim tub enclosures so the cement board clears the tub lip. Just use think shims and make sure of the proper mounting depth for the plumbing. A half an inch shim on either side is nothing.

[scott vroom]

Fur out the wall at the opposite end from the plumbing. Glue is not necessary and in fact is not desirable (at some point you may want to remove the furring strips and glue will make the job VERY difficult). I've done this many times without glue with absolutely no problems.

[Bob Lloyd]

As Harlan said. I always shim all the walls so that the backer board clears the lip and does not "bend" over it. I also have never glued them and have never had a problem.

[Matt Wolboldt]

Thanks Everyone. That's what I was planning on doing, I just needed some confirmation. I guess the last question is how to make it flush with the remainder of the wall? Should I make a gradual taper along the wall since it won't be noticeable at that point? The problem I have getting my brain around is the 1" gap. It's enormous. Thanks for the replies!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Matt,

Don't try to make it in line with the rest of the wall.

Put a small 1" "corner" at the foot end of the tub and sheet rock it.

Rip a 2x4 to 1 1/4" wide by 1 1/2" thick. When you are done you will attach the furring strip so the 1 1/2" width will match up with the 1 1/2" width of the wall studs.

Now measure the height of the footend of the tub and notch one end of the fur strips the thickness of the tub up to the height of the tub.

Placing the notched end down, screw or nail the furring strips in place. Now the footend of the tub will sit into the notched end so when you put wonderboard or backerboard up, the wonderboard will overlap the lip on the tub for a nice waterproof overlap.

Now you will have a 1" corner in the wall at the foot end of the tub to contend with but that is not a big thing. Just tile it or wrap it with wall board and paint it.

I hope this makes sense.

Basically you want your furring studs to take up the space by the shorter tub. You notch the bottom of the furring studs so that the tile backerboard overhangs the tub which will make a nice flat surface for the tile and the overlap should make it a waterproof transition.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

One last piece of advice based on my personal experience.

While you have it gutted, nitpick the framing. Make sure everything is straight and plumb. It's easy to take the time to square everything, make everything straight and plumb ON THE FRAMING.

Cut long wedges/shims....do what ever you have to do to get the walls as perfect as you can.

If you don't, your mistakes will show up on the resulting tile and will stand out like a sore thumb.

While you are framing, nit pick...make it perfect. It will show up in the final product!

[Walter Plummer]

Another solution I have seen is to put a double layer of blue-board or blue-board then Dura Rock and use the bull nose tile meant for a true mud set tile job. I was thinking what he tore out may have been a mud job. If he has small children I also recommend this detail. The "extra" row of tile in front of the tub keeps the water off the drywall.

[Bill Orbine]

Get a tub stretcher :D:D Otherwise packing out is the way to go! Seems like your're working on an older house where the old tiles were laid up on a thicker metal lathe cement wall. I've come across that time to time even if I wasn't replacing the tub.

[Paul Atkins]

It's a good thing the tub isn't 1" longer than the wall.