One thing I'm discovering in home repair and home improvement: nothing is as simple as it might seem when first starting out.
My first project took nearly two years to finish. Fortunately I learned a lot from it and got the help of you fine people, so I'm determined not to make some of the same mistakes on my next project: rebuilding the shower area in the guest bathroom. This HAS to be finished by the 24th, as I will be starting grad school the next day and the amount of reading I'll need to do is staggering.
To start: we noticed a water stain in the ceiling of the hallway below our guest bath one weekend (when, of course, guests were here). After cutting away the wet portion, I could see the wallboard behind the shower was pretty rotten. Here was the culprit: not just a cracked tile above the tub spout, but bad construction to boot (the house was built in 1970).
The drywall behind the shower fixture had basically melted away over the years because of the poor sealing of the area around the back plate and over the spout.
Anyway, it took a while to knock everything down to the studs, and I'm in the process of rebuilding the walls. The plan so far has been to only put dry wall only where necessary, otherwise shim the studs so that Hardiback will meet the tub flange (actually hanging over it), Redgard the entire thing, then tile.
I have two questions, however:
1) Because of the internal layout of the studs, the old shower fixture didn't align straight. The spout was visibly off center from the tub drain switch, and the showerhead closer to the wall than I would have liked. Here's a photo of the pipes with the new shower fixture installed:
I would like to remove a section of the stud to the right of the pipes and move them over (there seems to be enough play to at least get the spout more centered than it is now). How do I determine if this is a load-bearing stud? Or is this safe to go ahead and do?
2): because of the superior standards of the original construction crew
, one of the studs behind the far wall (the only one I need to replace the sheetrock on) was twisted. This resulted in an edge that stuck out further than the other studs to the left and right, which was covered up by the original construction. So, when I replaced that drywall, it resulted in overlapping edges:
The existing wall is to the left of the edge.
I tried to shave the offending stud edge down enough to get an even fit, but obviously I was less than successful, as I didn't want to take too much off of it. Here's a photo of the original construction:
As you can see, the tile edge pieces started at the end of the tub, extending a couple inches beyond that. Here's a different photo of the new section of drywall:
The next left stud isn't for about four inches or so from the cut. As you can see, I had to put 1/4-inch furring strips on the drywall to meet the tub edge. I thought about putting a larger piece of Hardibacker (the full 36" width) so the tile would extend a little further out, which would put it about at the split, and taping/mudding over the seam, but I'm concerned that would be too prominent of an edge. Or should I have run the drywall replacement all the way to the next stud and just flexed it over?
Anyway, all suggestions welcome. It isn't too late to put another piece of drywall in if necessary, but I need to get the tiling started soon.
Thanks - Dan
for making the edge look like the design feature it's gonna be. 
from a friend across town). 
