bathroom progress: backerboard

Made with Shapely

It's been a while since I blogged about our bathroom.  I think now is the time... especially since we've picked up the pace recently now that life has settled down a little bit.  The bathroom nightmare project started back in April (ugh, has it really been that long?) when we ripped out our moldy shower and after we were done freaking out, we got everything prepped.  Next thing on the to-do list was to make the shower walls with backerboard.  (Disclaimer: this is not a "how you should do it" blog, this is a "how we did it blog".  We went with the advice of the guys at The Tile Shop). 

We originally bought backerboard from Home Depot, but when we talked to our guy Leon at The Tile Shop, he recommended their product for about the same price as the HD. When we looked at their backerboard, we could tell it was higher quality so we decided to go with the Tile Shop brand called Perma Base.  Since the backerboard will butt up against drywall, it needs to be 1/2" thick.  Most backerboard comes in 3'x5' sheets and is very heavy.  We bought seven sheets and lugged them up the stairs, one piece at a time.

This stuff does not cut quite like drywall, it's a lot harder since it's basically concrete instead of gypsum (like drywall).  We got a backerboard cutter from The Tile Shop which helped with this.  Luckily we have a few extra bedrooms so we can spread out and make each room a "project room".  (Which will all eventually be re-done... of course).

And here is Cozy, always near the task-at-hand.  Along with Audrey.

We measured out the shower area and cut the backerboard to size, trying to make as few cuts as possible to use the least amount of backerboard sheets.

Cutting and hanging backerboard is hard work - not only is it hard to cut, it's hard to hang up since it's so heavy.  We secured the backerboard with... wait for it... backerboard screws!

We butted the backerboard up to the niches leaving enough space between to allow for silicone caulk.

We used paint sticks to separate the backerboard pieces to allow the thin set to join the segments together.

Walls!  We finally have walls instead of studs.

We caulked the backerboard/shower pan junction.

Ugh, popcorn ceiling everywhere in this house.  Not sure if we want to tackle that messy project.

This portion of the bathroom reno went pretty smoothly, next up is to tile the shower walls.  Eek!  Let's check out how our check-list is going...

1. Rip out tile
2. Remove old shower pan
3. Remove and clean up mold
4. Convert two shower knobs (hot and cold) to one
5. Raise shower head from six feet high to seven
6. Re-route PVC piping to allow room for shower niches
7. Raise subfloor with new plywood so new shower pan will fit over drain
8. Install shower pan
9. Install and seal drain
10. Install shower niches to studs
11. Install backerboard
12. Caulk between shower pan and backerboard junction
13. Caulk and seal around shower niches
14. Learn how to tile
15. Start tiling
16. Freak out
17. Ask yourselves, "why are we doing this?!"
18. Begin divorce papers
19. Tile for hours and hours and days on end
20. Wonder why and how people do this for a living
21. Shred divorce papers because now we know what we're doing and love each other again
22. Seal tile
23. Grout tile
24. Seal grout 
25. Install shower door
26. Caulk corners and seams
27. Install shower head and knob
28. Shower for the first time since April
29. Shower again later that day... just because
30. Remove vanity
31. Remove toilet
32. Remove light, light switches and mirror
33. Rip out linoleum
34. Rip out drywall and trim around door and window
35. Move light switch and electrical outlet because they are in the way of the pocket door
36. Install pocket door
37. Drywall
38. Paint (fun!)
39. Apply backerboard to subfloor
40. Tile floor (with less freaking out because we are pros now)
41. Grout and seal
42. Install toilet
43. Assemble and install vanity
44. Assemble and install medicine cabinet
45. Update frameless mirror
46. Install vanity light
47. Put trim and baseboards back
48. Crown molding?
49. Buy fun, new accessories
50. Bathroom dance party

The longer we use the shower in our other bathroom, the more I want to rip it out and re-do it.  Too bad you can't rush a bathroom renovation.  I hope everyone has a great Saturday - it's supposed to snow here (even though it was 60 degrees yesterday) and I'm pretty excited about it!