Okay so I thought the tile guy was only going to put cement board where the tile was going to be going, but he put it in areas that I wasn't anticipating there being tile ...

And there's some rough side out and some smooth side out (no apparent reason for change) ...

Obviously I need to verify with him how far up he was thinking of taking the tile (we did cover this AM tho)...

I thought the green board had to butt up to the cement board enough so the top tile would end up being somewhat on the green board so I could mud/tape/paint green board. With Durock (esp, rough side out) I'll have to plaster over to get smooth finish? So what do I do now? I think he has to take down the green board to basically match up with where the tile goes.

 

Im not sure where your tile will end and where your cement board and greenboard meet. If your talking about a few inches, you can tape and mud the joints with drywall compound and paint, no problem. If there will be a lot of cement board to be painted, it'll be a pia if rough side is out cause you'll have to skim coat it smooth. If thats the case it may be easier to remove the offending cement board and replace with drywall. For the record you dont need (although it wont hurt anything) cement board outside the wet areas of the bathroom. You can use drywall there and tile over the drywall.

 

Thanks, that's what I was thinking after searching several old posts last night. If there's 5" of rough cement board above the tile line I'd have to skim it + the rest of the untiled area to get it smooth. I need less work not more. He'll have to take down the "offending" cement board, recut it and reinstall then put up the rest of the wall board.

Everyone has differing opinions about whether to use cement board under tile outside of the shower area, it's interesting. I had one guy that was so adament that it was necessary he was going to install an extra support stud so the cement board could be placed the 3" outside of the shower area. That was going to be a major undertaking because all my pipes run in that area. Another said "greeen board" everywhere then put the cement board in the areas to be tiled on top of that. I can only see doing that if you wanted to add some extra demensionality to the room, not something I want in my 5' wide bathroom.

BTW for those pondering these same issues. In my old bath the area around the window (which was in the shower @ at about 5 feet) had only wall board and paint on the insides (the "shelf" was however tiled) and it withstood 40 years. There was damage 10 years ago when I moved in & I dug it out, filled and painted it with many many layer and it was water tight, paint, done well is a decent barrier.

I'm slowly beginning to trust my insincts, but as this is my first major project it's good to get ya'lls feedback!

 

So.....Is there a question?

 

Not really, more or less looking for affirmation I guess. Looks like I get to do the work myself afterall. The contractor bailed today, no show/no call. Not very good business practice, hope he's okay.

 

Wet areas (SHOWERS) get cement board or waterproof tile backer board or waterproof membrane. NO GREENBOARD. Greenboard has been outlawed for wet areas.

The rest of the areas in a bathroom do get greenboard.

Rough cement board that sometimes overruns a mark can be skimmed with joint compound the same as any drywall application.

All vertical seams must be supported by a stud. Horizontal seams not so if the studs are 16" on center.

All cement board seams must be taped with alkali resistant tape and thinset bedded. All greenboard seams can be treated as normal drywall.