I recently inherited a small addition project from an aweful contractor (we’ve had to redo most of the work he did already.)
The addition includes a small bethroom that has a shower stall and seperate bathtub. He had framed and drywalled the rough-in for the tub before he intalled the actual tub, I guess he didn’t plan on actually tiling at all. After discussing it iwth the homeowners we deided to tile around the tub about 16 inches above the rim.
I’m having trouble figuring out how to make the surround moisture proof. I thought about putting a membrane over the drywall and then putting 1/4″ hardibacker over it, I’m just not sure about leaving the drywall there. I also considered taking the drywall out, installing a membrane and hanging 1/2 backer over top and tiling. The only problem with that is it will leave a gap that I don’t think the tile could cover, the tub has about a quarter inch gap between it and the drywall.
The best thing I think to do is pull the tub and the drywall and start over, but I don’t want to break it to the homeowners, ($4,000 in fixes already.) I wouldn’t worry about it so much but I keep hearing about mold litgation and it doesn’t sound like something I want to tangle with. Any ideas?
Replies
Bathtub Tile dilemma
At the very least, I'd explain the situation to the homeowner. If you button up the tub with just plain drywall behind the tile it is eventually going to leak. And as we all know, with water comes mold. Eventually they will be forced to pull apart the bathroom and redo - costing far more than just biting the bullet upfront. Personally, I'd pull the drywall from around the tube and get it done the right way.
If the bathtub had no showerhead (or shower on a hose), you really don't need to be that obsessive about moisture issues. You're worrying about splashing, not the strong stream of a shower beating against the tile joints. You really just need to make sure that the tile joints are grouted/caulked well enough that splashed water won't soak through in significant amounts.
Does the tub have a flange?
Sounds like it doesn't. Is a flange kit available for the tub? If so and you could seal that well, a flange would be all that's needed and it would cover the 1/4" gap. Or would a tiling-in bead work? It all depends on the tub and I can't see it from here.
One of the other guys already mentioned that a non-shower tub surround isn't considered a "wet area", so while you don't have to go crazy with this, a little waterproofing won't hurt.
Some topical membranes can go right over gypsum board, some can't. Sheet membranes like Kerdi can. I always have scraps of Kerdi around, for a job like this you could (urethane or Kerdi-Fix) caulk the Kerdi to the tub then run it up onto the drywall.
Or hang cement board and redgard that.