I can answer your questions and help you right here...... once the tub is in! (YOU probably know more about plumbing than I do!)

First off, answer a couple of mine-- is this tile going all the way to the ceiling, or just above the showerhead? If it does go to the ceiling, is the ceiling getting tiled?

Bill,
So glad you chimed in here. This is my daughters new (old) house and my husband is going to try and do most of the work himself maybe with the help of a friend.The ceilings are 95 inches. The tile will go as high as you recommend. No we were not planning on tiling the ceiling. Should we?

It's completely up to you. The only requirement would be to bring the tile up to 72" off the floor. Other than that, it's up to you how far you go. I WILL say this, though-- tile lasts alot longer than painted sheetrock. :-)

Bill, If we went to ceiling with the tile it would not be that much more tiles so I am wondering do you think it looks more finished by going all the way up and also would it make the job easier as for the finishing row being up to ceiling rather than putting a finishing edge tile at 72. We are looking for it to be easy and nice looking.

That's a matter of personal taste, but yes, I think it looks better all the way to the ceiling.

Now, you want to use a membrane on these walls, and it depends which way you want to go as to what goes first. The normal way to go about putting this together is to take some 6 mil polyethlene or 15 pound tar paper, once the tub is in, and put it over the studs to use as a vapor barrier. let whichever you use, lap over the lip of the tub, and then cut it off flush with the face of the cement board once you install it. Plan B is to install the cement board right over the studs, and then coat it with a roll on waterproofing, such as Laticrete's Hydroban, or Custom's Redgard. Either one is sufficient, but the waterproofing will obviously keep things a bit drier, being the only things on top of it will be the tile, thinset, and grout. Once you're to this point, you're pretty much ready to set tile.

One other thing-- the cement board should set above the tub's lip, as opposed to over it. Otherwise, it'll kick the bottom of the cement board out. Afterward, you can fill the resulting channel with a stiff thinset to provide backing for the bottoms of the first row of tile.

Thanks Bill for the info. I will post again no doubt asking more questions when the gutting of room is done. I hope all goes well.

Bill, One more question. You say cement Board...Now my hgusband says they sell a special drywall for bathrooms, do you think that is OK or is he misssing something. Name brands if possible would be good. I am in Canada.

No drywall. It'll rot out way too quickly. The products I'd look for are Durock (my favorite), Wonderboard, Permabase, Hardiboard, or Fiberock. Durock, Wonderboard, and Hardiboard (as well as Denshield, which I don't care for) can be found at Lowes or Home Depot, if you have em up there.

Bill, Mongo or anyone who knows,

It took awhile but we are now ready to do the bathroom. We gutted the whole thing and finally my husband and SIL got the cast iron tub out. Now in this alcove where the new tub/shower combo is going is one outside wall with not too much room for insulation because the original old house is made of brick blocks. We will be putting some kind of insulation. So my question is for all three walls should we put the 6 ml. plastic and then the cement board, do we then need to roll on something to waterproof or have we taken care of this step with the plastic?
Thanks for any help..

Either the plastic or the roll on waterproofing, not both.

Thanks Bill,
I want to be sure I have it right.
We took down the mud wall in the whole bathroom and floor.
So in the bath /shower alcove we might have to build up the wall with something more than this.
On the outside wall , after putting the insulation, we put the plastic, then put backerboard up with screws, then mesh over seams and screws,do we have to seal the screws and jloints with anything else? If not then thinset and tile.
Same for other two walls in alcove except we skip insulation step.

Sounds good. No, you don't have to seal screwholes and joints with anything.

One more question Bill,
I read somewhere about putting that plastic over the outside installation wall may be a problem something about two vapor barriers together. I am not sure what that means.
Where is the vapor barrier in insulation?
also if my walls are still not thick enough after I do the above steps because of the thick mud walls I tool out what else can I use in there to build them up?

If it's paper faced, just put a few slices in the paper.

if my walls are still not thick enough after I do the above steps because of the thick mud walls I tool out what else can I use in there to build them up?

If necessary, you can take a 2x4, and run it through a table saw and cut strips to the size you need to fir out the wall, and put them on the face of your studs before putting up the cement board. Or if it's not much that you have to come out, you could even use strips of whatever thickness plywood.

Bill,
We are finished another day of bathroom work.
I have enclosed a photo so you can see the shower/tub wall that is an outside wall. It is made of cinder blocks and they had very little of what looked liked shredded paper as insulation. That is gone and now my husband put a piece of black #15 roofing paper next to the cinder blocks, then 1 inch pink R5 styrofoam insulation because he could not fit in anything else and then finished it off with aluminum covered R5 insulation,
I am sure there are more technical words for this stuff.
Now my question is should he put the black paper again down this wall before putting the backer board or will that be what you guys call 2 moisture barriers, and therefore not good.
What is your thoughts on this?
Thanks again for all your help.

{{gwi:1505837}}

That would be the proverbial moisture sandwich.

OH Oh , so what do I do?
Would I just put the backer board up now?
Thanks

My vote would be to use Laticrete's Hydroban waterproofing on the face of the cement board. It is NOT vaporproof, and therefore would not be creating that "moisture sandwich".

Would I only use that on the one outside wall and then put the black paper under the backerboard on the other two inside walls.
I ask because I believe the hydroban is quite expensive, is it not?
Thanks

Just checked and would have to buy large quantity of Hydroban and we do not have the money so next best solution.
Since I have a vapor proof wall on that one outside wall, can I just proceed with my Durock and then thinset.
And on the other two inside walls just put the black paper and then durock and then thinset.
By doing it like this , are we completely screwing up our combo tub/shower.
Hope you can follow my post but I am getting so frustrated that I think I am not always explaining things well.

bump for Bill

Unfortunately, you need to have the vapor barrier directly behind the cement board, because it needs to tuck into the pan membrane. I know they sell Redgard in smaller containers. One thing though-- if you waterproof one wall, you need to do them all-- IOW, no vapor barrier anywhere.

BUMP