Jay's bathroom Q of the day: Shower door install!

[Jay H]

Hahaha, hope you guys aren't too mad about this novice bathroom installer.... But I got the bathtub in last night and I have a few questions..

1) Regarding the shower door, the installation guide mentions no requirements for the side guides to be screwed into studs. Right now, with the old greenboard gutted, I have the oppo. to add basic 2x4 studs to where the shower door sides would be screwed into the wall. No mention at all in the guidebook. Should I go for it? I am going to insulate the wall even though it is internal, it will make it quieter in the bedroom which is next door.

2)I am preparing to sheetrock the walls above the bathtub. The old jacuzzi tub never had any finished walls below the skirt of the tub and I used to have those glue on shower walls above the tub, very basic. However, I have a dimemma now with the new tub. The new tub (Kohler aka Sterling Performa) has a lip above the skirt, which is made to attach to prefinished shower enclosures. I plan on tiling over Densarmor Plus and waterproofing. However, the skirt is flush to the panelling on the back or the studs on the side, there is NO space for the 1/2" sheetrock so I can either lay the sheetrock OVER the lip of the tub which means any future removal of the tub would require me to remove the tile and sheetrock.. ugh. or I could lay the sheetrock above the lip which means there will be a crevasse/cave between the bottom of the sheetrock and the skirt which would look funny.

I'm more inclined to lay the sheetrock over the lip so there will be a nice right angle to the skirt and be dammed if I ever have to replace the tub... Any suggestions?

Jay

 

[Jack Straw]

Question #1) I've Installed quite a few shower doors and just used anchors and screws. In your case I wood put a stud where the the ends are then it's bullet proof.

Question #2) I would not worry about removing the tub someday. If you do you will want to replace the tile anyways. Tile right down to the tub.

 

[Jay H]

OK, I spoke to a friend of mine who said this is what he did. He layed a backerboard to the top of the lip, then silicone'd the gap between the backer board and the tub lip. Then when he tiled it, he tiled the tiles straight down, below the backerboard to be flush with the skirt on the tub. Now with the gap behind the tile and below the backerboard, he used grount to backfill as much as he could and made the visibile area finished nicely. This has a possibility of a gap behind the bottomost tile but it isn't visible and should not fill with water if the grout is good and sealed.

Jay

 

[johnn]

2x4`s while its open? why not
Both methods above seem good,,,I would try to determine the best fill material for reasons of mold and such(pretty humid enviroment)Spray foam can be quite shapeable with a chinese draw knife (for voids) . Your description is pretty clear with what you are dealing with,,perhaps a call to a plumber would help.

 

[Highbeam]

If you ever have to remove the tub then the sheetrock will be the easy part.