Hi all:

I’d like to tear out and replace the existing tile tub surround
without tearing out all the sheetrock in the room. I’ve come up
with a plan to do this but I’d like some feedback.

The bathroom walls are standard sheetrock, with greenboard around
the tub. The tile of the tub surround extends past the sliding
shower door frame by about 4 inches both horizontally and
vertically; wallpaper covers the rest of the wall, including above
the tub, this is above where the tile ends.

The sliding glass door frame is screwed into studs on both sides, so
the edge of the tile extending horizontally past the frame and into
the rest of the bathroom is about 5”– 6” away from that stud and
about 10” – 11” away from the next stud over.

What I’m thinking of doing is removing the sliding glass door, then
carefully cutting the wallboard/greenboard about 1/4” away from the
vertical and horizontal edges of the tile. It would be tedious to cut
all the way through the wallboard/greenboard this way, and use a lot
of utility blades, but I’m sure it can be done, leaving a clean edge
all the way around. I’d then tear off the tile/greenboard around the
tub, exposing the studs.

After the destruction of the surround I’d then rip 2” - 4" wide
strips of 1/2” plywood and affix these strips to the backside of the
wallboard/greenboard that surrounds the empty hole with a 1” - 2"
reveal, using construction adhesive. The plywood reveal would give me
something to screw into when I cover the wall with concrete back
board. I’d leave about a 1/8” gap between the concrete backer board
and wallboard/greenboard and fill the gap with silicone. I’d then re-
tile the surround having the edge of the tiles overlap onto the
wallpapered area by a very small amount, like 1/8” – 1/4” resulting in
a good-looking edge.

Will this work? Or, is there a better way?

TIA

Tom Young