I finished a very nice looking sunken garden tub in a bathroom. It's one of those Jacuzzi soaking tubs that sits on a crib that you build around it.

I built the crib with wide-side-down 2x8 boards and then put backerboard on top of this and then laid ceramic tiles on top of that.... ( yes, i know over did it ! ).

The dilemna if face now is that all fixtures i can find do not like the width which is is 1.5" + about another 1" from the backerboard/morter/tile on top of that... leaving me with a 2.5" deep rim around the tub.

I called the fixture company and they told me that i really cannot get an adapter for their sink fixtures for something that deep for connecting and they recommend that i "cut out" the 2x8 board ***below*** the backerboard/tile for this small area where the fixture (hot and cold and water spout ) must be exposed.

How best would i cut out this under piece of 2x8 ? Sinking holes into the 2x7 with one of those pipe-hole drill bits ? I want to do it in a way that is quick and doesn't damage the backerboard too much.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.!

 

Moen has a pretty wide deck thickness for their Roman Tub Rough in Kit. It is a universal that accepts many different styles of trim kits. Would work in most any installation situation. To cut a bigger hole, nothing beats a forstner bit for a smooth round hole. Moen recommends a 1 1/4" hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmIsSsH-fZ8