Leveling Hardiebackerh Shower Walls

DemoDiva

Hi all- am gutting half bath to retile. have installed hardiebacker on walls, mortared joints and taped. can/should I put a layer of mortar over the entire surface and let it dry to level the walls before I apply tile?

in short, whats the best way to level shower walls before tiling? Am using 4x8 ceramic subways.

thanks.

Greg Di

You SHOULD HAVE shimmed the studs before installing your Hardie.

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DemoDiva

yes, i did that. clearly didnt work out so well. house was built in 1809 so most jobs are pretty tricky. so what i am looking for is some guidance on a SOLUTION and insight from someone who has a lot more experience with tiling a shower than I do. are you suggesting i rip out and reshim or is there an alternative.

wizendwizard

In my opinion you have 3 choices.

1.) Hire someone who does have more experiance than you do to tile the bathroom.

2.) Rip it out and start over shimming and leveling to get Sq. and True walls.

3.) Use your idea of skim coating and waste many hours trying to get it perfect.

4.) Hire someone who does have more experiance that you do to tile the bathroom.

Hope this helps.

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user15686

Easier to be a "Demo"Diva than an "Install"Diva, I guess Stop, asking yourself, why all your installs look like demo's and hire a pro.

kevjob

How do you level walls? I think you mean plane them out and plumb them.

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scuba

UMMMMMMMMMMMMM

#1 or #4 are the smart choices for all Diva's

1809 ? Send some pics

Greg Di

I dunno...if I'm going to get a wall in plane, it's OOP before I start and in-plane when I'm done. There is no middle ground. What exactly did you do?

I think you're in trouble.

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cleveman

I'll give you a serious answer. There has been a lot of pissing and moaning about people who give smart ass answers, and I've started to lose sleep about it.

You are using smallish tile. Let's say you are tiling three walls, like a tub surround. Take the 5' wall first. Let's say that both the end walls are out of plumb-they're tilting in so hard that the 5' wall is like a triangle. It starts at 5' wide at the base and ends 8' up at 0 wide.

So what do you do? Just tile it. Lay it out from the center, so that you won't have small tile on the ends. You're probably using a half bond pattern anyway, which will help. Get your tile tight into the corners, say within an 1/8".

Now the side walls. Let's assume that your long wall was wack as well and leaning away (out) at the top. Strike a plumb line somewhere, and lay into the long wall from the plumb line to get your layout going. Cut your tile where they meet the wacky wall so they are angled (scribed) to fit it.

Your corners should have a straight (not plumb) line running up them, not a staircase effect.

That should do it. Hook up the exhaust fan to the plumbing vent line and it's time to move on to the next job.

kevjob

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TileLady

Trying to level it out with mortar is going to take more time than it's worth. The best thing to do is to remove the hardibacker on any wall where you know the hardi isn't lying right.

What you have to do is find the 'crown' stud. The stud that sticks out the furthest. Then you need to shim the other studs so that all the hardi will lie correctly. I know it sounds like a pain but it will save you a considerable amount of time and aggravation in the end.

sk071077

That should do it. Hook up the exhaust fan to the plumbing vent line and it's time to move on to the next job.


Dont forget to run the condensate line from the air handler so it drains into the shower. (true story)

jarvis design

Sometimes, after finding the "crown" stud, I will take my hand planer and plane that stud down until flush with the others.

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TileLady

Ya, that's always an option as well. Whatever is the easiest or least time consuming is always best for me. As long as it's done right!