When you tear out and rebuild your shower walls you are left with a transition between the old, existing drywall and the new stuff – cement backerboard or drywall (if you’re using kerdi). Whaddya do with it? And how do you do it? And why am I the one asking questions – that seems backwards.
If at all possible, when you remove the old stuff you want to cut a straight line down the drywall to make for a clean transition. If it isn’t straight or was simply torn out without any regards to actually rebuilding it, then find a spot where you can cut a straight line from top to bottom. You want to have a level line for your transition.
So before you begin you want something similar to that horrible graphic right there I just created with a bottle of scotch and my toes. The left side is looking into the wall cavity with one stud, that big brown looking thing? Yeah, it’s supposed to be a wall stud. You are not allowed to give me crap about my lack of Photoshop skills!
What we need is a way to shore out the new substrate (backerboard) to be solid and on an even plane with the existing stuff. We have a very, very specialized item for this. Listen carefully, because it’s a deeply guarded secret. Ready?
It’s a 2×4.
Take a 2×4 and cut it to the length of either the entire wall or simply from about six inches from the top to six inches below the bottom. The latter is often the only way to do it – you still need to be able to get it into the wall cavity over the tub and around the other studs. It needs to fit in there.
Just take the 2×4 and get it into the wall. Turn it so that the width (3 1/2″) is split between the open space and the existing drywall. There will be 1 3/4″ behind the existing drywall and 1 3/4″ to screw the backerboard to. Once it’s in there it will look nothing like that second horrible graphic – but it will give you the gist of it.
You can see 1/2 of the 2×4 and the dotted line on the drywall outlines the other half. Just screw right through the drywall into the stud to hold it in place.
Now you can take your cement backerboard (or whatever your substrate is going to be) and place it up to the edge – leave about a 1/16″ gap between the backerboard and drywall. Then just screw through the edge of your substrate into the other half of the 2×4.
Make sure you measure whatever product you’re using for your substrate. Your existing drywall is likely 1/2″ thick – your substrate likely is not – it is probably a touch smaller. To get them even and on the same plane you can use regular drywall shims behind it.
1/2″ backerboard is rarely 1/2″! It is often smaller – make sure you measure it and shim it out as necessary. Once you get it installed you still need to tape and mud the seam. Just use the same alkali-resistant mesh tape and thinset that you’re using for the rest of the backerboard seams. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Read Installing backerboards on walls for shower tile.
Once that’s all finished you can install the tile as normal, just like the photo below. The transition is directly under the bullnose tile on the edges of the shower. And yes – you can paint right over the thinset if you need to.
Roger,
Do you recommend stopping tile in a tub surround at the edge of the tub or running some over the edge from the floor to to the top. All the bad bathrooms i’ve seen have rotted “legs” next to the tub. Thoughts?
Adam
Hey Adam,
I go all the way from the floor up to wherever I’m ending the tile, usually the ceiling. I’ll also waterproof the legs of the tub with silicone between the tub and drywall and either kerdi-band or liquid waterproofing.
Hi Roger,
Our tub sits in an alcove where the end fixture wall makes a 90 degree angle with a regular wall with sheetrock. We have the hardibacker hung on the tub wall and are ready to hang our corner beed. Should we use thinset on the hardi wall and joint compound on the sheetrock wall, meeting at the corner? Or do you recommend just wrapping the thinset around the corner onto the sheetrock (our drywaller recommended not to do this, but it sounds like it would be ok based on your previous posts).
Thanks,
Megan
I should add that the tile will end at the edge of the hardibacker. The sheetrock wall will be painted.
Hey Megan,
It will be fine either way. If your tile is stopping at the corner no reason not to use drywall mud around the corner. Thinset can be used also, it will sand just like drywall mud, it’s just harder to paint over if you don’t prime it first.
Thanks Roger. Prior to applying thinset, how do you suggest I install the corner bead to the hardiebacker, since I can not nail/screw it in?
With construction adhesive (pl glue). I prefer to just install the corner bead at the same time I’m taping and mudding the seams in the shower, then you can just use thinset. Either one works fine.
Roger,
I have finally finished hanging my drywall and cement board in the bathroom (which only took ~4 months!). I have an inch gap in spots – from drywall (wall) to drywall (ceiling) and a half inch in spots from cement board (wall) to drywall (ceiling)… but most areas have the correct gaps that can be easily filled with caulk.
Is there something I can do, short of cutting new sheets? Great Stuff plus caulk, push a bunch of thinset/joint compound in the crevice?!
Thank you again for any input. Your advice has been a godsend.
*I apologize for posting here in this forum, but I couldn’t find a closer match.
Hey Russ,
1/2″ is huge, 1″ is even huger! You can use the mesh tape and thinset to essentially extend your wall substrate to the adjoining material and spanning the gap with those. Once cured it’ll be fine.
Hey Roger! Great website! If you can answer this, I’ll buy you lunch if you’re ever in Atlanta.
The problem- The tile guys on my job site tiled multiple showers this way. The shower walls are tiled and the random thickness of the thin set is seen at the entry to the shower because there is no face trim/ face molding tile that turns the corner coming out of the shower and into the bathroom. The problem is the unsightly thickness of thinset. At the floor level, it may be a 1/4 thick and as it goes up the wall, it may grow to 1/2″ thick. Sometimes it is a consistent 1/2″ thick. It’s ugly looking. What is the trade standard thickness?
Without ripping it all off, how can I make the painted wall and tile transition cleanly without such an eye soar of thick thinset? Can I seal and smooth over the thinset with a layer of caulk and paint it the wall color right up to the edge of the tile? Or try to sand the thinset smooth, like the drywall and then paint?
How do I put lipstick on this pig? If it were my own home I’d tear it all down, but that isn’t really an option on here.
Thanks Roger!
Hey Cartter,
You can sand and finish thinset just like regular drywall mud, so that’s an option. If it were mine I’d get a pencil rail and install it up the sides. This will cover the uneven thickness and give you a smooth transition to the wall. Typical thinset thickness is from 3/32″ – 7/16″ or so, but it does vary according to both the substrate and tile.
I am installing a tile tub/ shower surround. The problem is that the flange on the tub causes the cement board to stick out farther than the drywall to be installed in the rest of the bathroom a good 1/4 inch at least. my tile ends with a bullnose, no coordinating corner piece. Is there any way or suggestions to fix the transition between materials without rethinking my tile choices? Thanks.
Hi Jen,
Stop the backerboard right above the flange. As long as your waterproofing laps over the face of the flange you’re fine.
And no, you don’t fill the gap with thinset or anything else at the bottom behind the tile – it just hangs there. No, it won’t hurt anything.
Did I cover all the follow-up questions?
Hello
Great site you have!
i am installing tile for a shower renovation. I have two questions.
the existing drywall that will be meeting the cement board i plan on using in the shower portion that i have gutted is 5/8″ thick. the cement board 1/2″ thick. can this just be transitioned with the thin set? if I shim this small difference, the cement board portion may actually be a bit higher and this is where the tile is going. Hope this makes some sense.
2) at the back of the tub is a built in sitting ledge of sorts. it was sloped for water drainage slightly by what appeared to be wire mesh and thinset. no moisture or cracking issues were apparent and this was about 30 yrs old. can i build in the slope during my renovation by just using thin set and making it thicker in back and thiner up front, or should i build slope with another product?
thank you!
Hey Gord,
You should shim out the backerboard with cardboard drywall shims to meet flush with your drywall. If you float it out you’re not going to have a flat plane and the tile will need to follow that inconsistency at some point. Somewhere along that wall will not be flat – that really shows in the tile. Get the substrate flush and it will all be flat.
You should build your slope with deck mud. If the thickest spot is no more than 1/4″ then you can do it with thinset, but any thicker than that and it will crack.
Hi
thanks
are “cardboard type drywall shims” an actual product i can buy at hardware store, or do i literally make my own shims from cardboard that is the thickness i require?
thanks a bunch!
They are actual 1 1/2″ x 4′ strips of cardboard. You can buy as many or as few as you need. Drywall Shims
I cut out the row of tile and backer board to remove my tub….so there is a 5″ gap between the top of the new tub and the existing tiles…. Is it possible to replace the backer board and install a new row of tile …or do I need to rip out all the old tile & start from scratch?
Hey Rob,
You can install new backer and a new row of tile. It will be fine.
Roger,
Doing a total gut of our bathroom and I have a question regarding plumbing one of the walls. We are doing a tub in an alcove with Kerdi and tile on the three walls. The end wall runs the width of the bathroom on the outside wall with a window in it. That wall is out of plumb by about 1/2″ and I was looking to span the total width of the wall with two horizontal sheets of drywall. I can’t figure out a good way to shim or sister the tub area for tiling. Shiming/sistering the whole wall would leave my window jamb out of plane with my new drywall surface and that would look lousy. Any suggestions on how to handle it or do I just live with a crappy corner on that wall?
Hi Mike,
The ideal option is to remove the window, plumb up your wall and reset the window. I know that’s unlikely, though. Give the two options it would be better to plumb the wall. The window will not be nearly as noticeable as the entire wall out of plumb.
That makes sense. About that area between the wall and the tub, though – do you just silicone the heck out of it? It seems that if the plastic overlaps the flange and the backerboard does not, even if it’s only 1/16th” then you are still faced with a gap. If I am understanding this correctly, the tile itself hangs over this gap, how much? 1/32″? That’s kind of hard to make certain of. I guess you would silicone any small gap between tile and tub… but doesn’t tile hanging out in the air create a sort of structural weakness? There’s nothing but air under the backerboard between the tile and the plastic.
You don’t do anything with it. A one inch strip at the bottom of the tile will not make anything structurally unsound, you aren’t walking on it unless you’re spiderman. (If you are, contact me – I have some unique marketing opportunities…).
You do not want to fill it with silicone – it will trap any moisture running down the barrier which will cause problems. You don’t want to fill it with thinset or grout either, it will crack due to differential movement. You want water running down that barrier to run into the tub. You do silicone between the tile and tub, but you need weep holes there as well.
By the way – your left eye looks funny in your avatar – are you okay?
Very nice site and photography!
Thank you! Thanks for reminding me that I need to change my avatar, btw.
How does the (water that hopefully doesn’t get behind the wall) find the weep holes? Wouldn’t it possibly have a tendency to pool behind the rest of the gap (the sealed portion)? Or is it hopefully in such a miniscule amount that it doesn’t matter? Couple more things I can think of for now – since most guides that recommend using a plastic sheet as a moisture barrier recommend stapling the sheet to the studs, what do you do about the staple holes? If you are using drywall shims to get your backerboard flush with the rest of the sheet rock, do you put the shims on the tub side of the plastic or the stud side? Thanks for all your help.
Gravity. A properly installed tub angles toward the outside of each side arm and in a bit from the outside of the tub. The staples in the plastic create a dimple which is sandwiched between the stud and backer which water runs around rather than into. Everything that isn’t waterproof behind the plastic, including the shims.
So as for the structural integrity of the bottom row of tile, what do you do when you are applying grout? You have to apply some cosiderable force, no? The flange of our tub is about an inch tall. If the bottom of the substrate is above that, the tile may even hang down more than 1 inch over the edge of the substrate. What say ye?
It does hang over there. Not sure why you say you need to apply considerable force, you only need enough to fill the grout line. The grout bonds to the sides of the tile, not the substrate beneath it. And yes, it hangs down by however large the flange is. It’s still not a problem, nothing should be placing any type of force on that area at all.
The reason I was thinking that way is because our wall tiles are 6×6. So, if they hang over the bottom edge of the backerboard by about an inch, that’s close to 20% of the tile that is hanging into nothing. I was thinking that when applying the grout, the bottom tile would have the tendency to want to tip downward under the lip. It could just be my amateurism talking, but with 1/8″ grout gaps, grouting the tile and then cleaning the grout off the face of the tile later seemed to me that it might require some pushing, even on the bottom edge of the tile where it isn’t backed by anything. It made me wonder if the thinset on the rest of the back of the tile there would be enough to hold it in place while I was pushing on the bottom edge to apply grout or clean the leftover grout haze. Please, school me.
If you hang 50% of a tile off the edge of a board and only bond the other half onto the board with thinset, you can step on the half hanging off and the tile will break before the thinset bond to the backer fails. Once that thinset cures it isn’t going to dip anywhere. Again – there is no force placed on that area significant enough to even stress the tile, let alone crack or break it.
It works.
Oh my other questions – do you have to put drywall behind the hardibacker before tiling or just the plastic barrier and does the hardibacker have to be a certain width. We originally got 1/2 inch but then someone told us we needed to drywall, put on waterproof sealer on the drywall, then hardiback of 3/8th inch and then sealer on top of that, then another waterproof sealer on top of the tiles. !!! Yikes. What to do?
Just the plastic barrier, no drywall behind it. The width is normally 1/2″, or determined by whatever substrate you are butting against. I don’t know who told you that but you should send them to my website so I can verbally dress them down. Wow, that’s so convoluted I don’t even know where to begin.
I think what Rachel was meaning in regard to the drywall behind the backer board was in order to shim the backer board out so that the bottom edge of it did not have to bend when screwed down if it were overlapping the tub’s flange. I have made a handy-dandy diagram in MSPaint (I won’t criticize your Photoshop skills if you promise not to ridicule my MSPaint skills!) to illustrate what I mean. Which brings up my question(s): does the hardibacker need to be shimmed out away from the studs by some other means in order to overlap the tub flange in front? It wasn’t clear to me how this was supposed to occur. IIRC, you said that you stop the backer board about 1/8″ from the top of the tub. I wasn’t sure if you meant the tub flange, or the flat topped edge of the tub. I gather that your method for tiling assumes the backer board is flush with the surrounding drywall on all edges – I suppose this would dictate what type of rounded edge tiles to use, the ones WITHOUT the curved back edges, correct? I hope I’ve made sense.
http://i.imgur.com/AMUwKfW.png
Hey Neil,
Yes, the bullnose without the curved back edges. Ideally you want the backer to overlap the tub flange. This, however, requires that the space be so that the tub runs from stud to stud. The backer is then simply shimmed out with drywall shims to overlap the flange without sticking out at the bottom. If the flange does not sit directly against the wall studs then you can shim out the backer enough to overlap the flange provided you can still meet up with the adjoining drywall on a flush plane, or you can stop the backer 1/16″ above the top of the tub flange in order to meet that drywall and the tile overhangs the flange.
Thanks for correcting my HTML. I found out that it wasn’t valid AFTER I clicked submit, and also that it wasn’t editable.
Hi – my husband and I are installed a new tub/shower and are tiling the surround. On your website you mention installing a plastic barrier in between the studs and the hardibacker and indicated that it should cover all edges when adhering to the studs. I understand how to address this toward the bottom of the tub so that any water rolls into the tub but at the top of our wall surround we have drywall that was already existing above the fiberglass shower. Do we allow this plastic barrier to be attached up behind that drywall or in front of it and then screw in the hardibacker? In my mind I keep visualizing having plastic hanging out a the top but that doesn’t sound right. We have never remodeled a bathroom before and having been getting mixed info on how to do it all. Thanks!
Hi Rachel,
At the top of the shower you want to either leave the drywall and tuck the liner up behind it at least to the height above the shower head, or remove the drywall, run your barrier all the way up and install cement board in the remainder. The liner only technically needs to run to above the shower head, water will not get above that (enough to do any damage).
Hello Roger,
I am tiling a shower surround and both end walls lean in to the shower about a half inch each. The existing sheetrock is doubled up, one regular, one green board. So there is an inch of rock to match where the tile ends at the outside of the shower. I know I have to shim the inside corners of the shower so that my tile pattern doesn’t taper, but if I do that, how do I match up with the existing rock that is a half inch out of plumb. Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks, Bill
Hey Bill,
I would remove both layers on each end and add strips of 3/8″ plywood, shimmed plumb out to 1/2″, to the faces of the studs. Then just install one layer on each end and it should be level, plumb, square and meet up with the existing rock.
Hi Roger,
I’m new to your website which is very helpful. I wish I had read some of the topics before today. I used thin set to make the transition between Hardibacker and drywall which was approximately 1/16 inch higher with out using any mesh tape. Hence the thinset filled the gap between the drywall and the Hardibacker. Can I leave it like this or do I need to create a gap? Each of the transitions were in the same plane except at the ceiling where the wall met the ceiling which I’m also going to tile.
Thank you for your reply in advance. (How do I know this question found its way to you.)
Hey Douglas,
You can leave it like that. Unless it’s a steam shower or something with a lot of water vapor saturating the substrate there won’t be enough pressure pushing that moisture through the thinset gap.
Questions always find their way to me, I have telepathic minion elves!
Roger, I’m finally on the homestretch of completing my massively stretched out(almost a year now) shower project. After pouring a new pad and putting up a waterproofed sheetrock type material with sealed seams and screw holes I’m about to start tiling. The outside corners of the opening into the shower is where my denshield and sheetrock meet. I would like to put a border around this opening which would lay on top of the sheetrock using bullnose tiles. Could you advise how to attach the “frame bullnose” tiles to the sheetrock or should I have a tile backer behind these as well. Main reason I ask…I tossed all my denshield scraps so if i need to cut out that 3″ strip of sheet rock around the opening and put denshield there i need to buy a whole new sheet. Thanks for the great website! I’ve recommended you to many.
Hey Garth,
You can bond it directly to the drywall with thinset.
Hello,
Thankyou for this wonderful site, by far 1 of the best I have came across! We are replacing our surround with tile & I would like to put a mirror in there. Can we attach the mirror to the backer board or does tile need to be under it?
Also I think my husband is going overboard with the hardi back then cement board over it, what is the best underlayment to use?
It would be better to have tile under it. You can always replace it when needed (and it will eventually, mirror backings are not made to withstand continuous use in a shower, it’s completely normal).
I don’t understand what you mean by hardi back and cement board over it. Hardibacker is the brand name of a cement board. I prefer hardibacker or fiberboard, but your question has me confused.
Guess it’s time for a beer…
Sorry for confusion, had to get it straight myself. He is going to put the concrete board over the green board/sheet rock that already there
Now I was digging alot further in your site & found http://floorelf.com/installing-cement-backerboard-for-tile-in-a-shower So this answered my question.
Thanks for your help, Enjoy the cold 1!!
Hi Roger,
I came to this page to see what to use between the Greenboard and Hardiebacker seam in my bathroom.. and thinset it is!
I do have another question, though. Am I able to use thinset throughout my entire tile installation? The shower enclosure is cement board, but the rest is Greenboard. I’d find it easier to use one type of applicator, instead of mixing thinset for the cement board AND a mastic for Greenboard.
P.S. I bought your How to Waterproof a Shower… it’s such an incredible help!
Hi Russ,
Thinset should be used everywhere. There are very few applications I would even use any type of mastic, and with every one of those thinset is still a better option. It can be used anywhere you would use a mastic.
Thank you, thank you! All my questions have been answered without even asking them.!!!!!! Yea!
Hi Miriam,
Glad I could help.
Roger,
The sink in our bathroom doesn’t have a backsplash and we were looking to add one. We were going to use a glass mosaic. Is there an issue with applying this backsplash directly to the existing drywall? I know that is a big no no for showers but wasn’t sure if that was an issue since ideally a back splash will see marginal amounts of water. Is there still an issue with movement in the wall causing cracking? Would I have to cut out a chunk of drywall and add backerboard? Please help. Thanks.
Hi Casey,
You can bond it directly to the drywall. It’ll be fine.
I’m remodeling my bathroom and I’m using 1 of those preformed waterproofed shower bases. The shower stall is the full width the bathroom (69″ wide x 36″ deep) and sits at the far end of the room, not that the room is all that big. The tile inside the shower will go up to the ceiling and about backsplash height of the vanity I’ll extend the tile outside the shower and down each wall. The floor inside the shower is a 3/4″ x 3/4″ mosaic glass tile and outside the shower are standard ceramic tiles. Hopefully you can picture that. Anyway my question is when I tile the wall and it meets the floor both inside the shower and outside the shower how much of a gap should I leave between the tile on the wall and the tile on the floor? Do I grout that gap or use a clear silicone to fill that void? I have read where you shouldn’t grout because of floor movement and using silicone will allow that movement without causing tile or grout to crack on the walls or floor.
Hey Brian,
Leave 1/16″ to 1/8″ gap and use silicone. Most grouts have the matching silicone available from the same manufacturer.
Hey Roger,
Thanks again for your help. I just have a question about what to do with the joint where the backerboard on the shower wall and the sheetrock on the ceilling meet up. i have a feeling that i need to tape it with alkali resistant tape and thinset. (folding the tape in half length-wise and embedding the thinset into it and the joint) if this is not what i’m supposed to do, than please help. if this is correct, than will i have trouble smoothing out the thinset near the seem in order to paint the ceiling? thanks!
Hey Brian,
Nope, that’s fine. You can sand thinset just like cured drywall mud, it’s just a little harder.
Try to get it as flat and smooth as possible.
Hello Roger,
I hope my website link works, as it is a picture of the situation. I am installing a tile shower surround with a preformed base in a new bathroom. I put up all the backerboard using traditional waterproofing per your fantastic instructions. But this project has a nice twist — there is a glass block window which is recessed from the surface of my backerboard by a bit more than an inch. I taped my plastic sheeting all the way up to the caulking around the window and installed the backerboard over that. But I want to be sure I know exactly what to do to end up with a nice looking transition from tile wall to glass block. Additionally, I want to be sure to make a durable installation, as this is an exterior window and Minnesota is known for its harsh winters.
So please let me know how this plan sounds. First I will caulk around the tape edges to seal my waterproofing film around the window. Next I will devise a way to attach strips of concrete board perpendicular to the window to create a frame (construction adhesive or embed in thinset mortar?). Then I will use (silicone) caulk to fill the seam between the concrete board strips and the window — it’s a change of plane and will be subject to lots of thermal stress. Would it be cool to use thinset mortar and fiberglass mesh tape to create the outside corner between my frame strips and the wall boards? This is a change of plane, but I don’t know how I’d form an outside corner with caulk! Of course when I get around to tiling, I’ll be sure to get a bit of a slope at the bottom of the frame so water flows away from the window. Would you recommend tiling the wall first and then using bullnose tile for the frame to make a nice finished corner?
Thanks so much! I am hoping for some awesome and durable results thanks to your guide!
Hey Xander,
I would probably use construction adhesive and silicone to bond and seal the backer for the frame. You can use thinset and tape for the outside corner. Just be sure to seal all changes of plane in the backerboard as well as the backerboard to the window. It will help keep a lot of water out of there. Be sure that all your barrier corners and everything are sealed up under it as well. Yes, I would tile the wall first then install the bullnose.
Hi Roger,
I understand to use of the alkali-resistant mesh tape and thinset for the seams so here is the question, if you have backerboard that will not have tile on it can you have drywall mud over it and texture treatments (sprayed type)? Will either of these be affected by the backerboard?
Thanks,
Paul
Hey Paul,
As long as it is not in a wet area and you aren’t using thinset on it you can do anything to it that you would do to regular drywall, including taping and mudding, texture and painting. It will come out the same.
Hey Roger,
Once again…I’m back! So I just finished my shower wall tile, got pretty ballsy and installed a couple of those fancy built-in shelves like above too. I gotta say, for my first solo tile job and first shower wall tile, with your tips and help of course, it turned out pretty darn good. So thanks for the help and tips with that! Now to the next step, tiling the floor. My plan is to tile the floor and instead of wood or fake wood base board molding, doing a 3″ bullnosed tile up the wall. My question, how do I attach the tile to the wall? Do I cut the sheetrock off the wall and install a thin strip of hardie backer? Can I use the leftover redgard from my shower walls and paint 3-4″ up on the sheetrock so the thinset doesn’t destroy it with moisture? The tiles I’m going to be using are 3×6, fairly weightless tile. I have no idea how to do that part and would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on it. Let me know what you think of my ideas and/or the correct of way of doing that. Thanks again!
Bane
Hey Bane,
I do that quite a bit. Just comb thinset on the back of the bullnose and stick it right to the drywall. There is so little thinset there that it won’t affect the drywall at all before it cures. The next day it’ll be nice and solid.
Hi-Thanks for the fantastic site!
I am working on a complete reno of my in-laws bathroom, with the “help” of one of their friends. Today I came over to find that he had mudded over the durock/green board joint with drywall compound to make the seam I had filled with thinset prettier. To my understanding I can’t put my tile over this because it WILL get wet and eventually deteriorate.
Am I thinking right here?? I plan to score a line about 1/4 inch in (under) from the edge of the bullnose and get the compound out as much as i can, then fill with thinset. Or am I making a bigger deal out of this than necessary?
Thanks!!!
Hey Dan,
Nope, you’re right, it will get wet and will probably eventually deteriorate. You can fix it as you’ve described – that’ll work fine.
Thanks! Started fixing it last night. Another experienced friend clued me in on how to remove the drywall compound. He suggested to rub it off using a fairly wet sponge. I used an extra grouting sponge (which happened to be 2″ on a side), and it worked really well. No sanding or scraping involved.
This makes sense because the reason I was removing it was because I thought it would come off when wet…. and it did! So, all that’s left is the mesh tape and the thin-set joint – to which I will add my border bull-nose tonight.
Hi,
We have decided to remove our old tub surround and install tile. We have removed the drywall and installed Denshield in its place. We have not installed the Densheild around the tap area, as we have come to a dispute. The new faucet installation came with a plaster guard, are we to drywall over the plaster guard or should we cut a hole around the plaster guard? Can we install the escutcheon without using the plaster guard?
Please help as we are without a bathroom!!!
Hi Kim,
That plastic guard is your template. The hole in the wall needs to be cut around it for the escutcheon to fit properly and it also gives you a z-axis reference (how far into or out of the wall) for the proper depth of the valves. The flat face of the guard should sit flush with the finished wall covering – the tile. It’s not usually necessary to be exact, but it helps to gauge where everything ends up. Cut the hole around the guard and remove it when you’re done to install the fixtures. It helps protect the valves from things like flying hammers and thinset as you are tiling.