Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - Durock question

Hello,

I am remodeling a bathroom. I had a 1960's era room with all pink toilets, sinks, and tub. I have stripped the room down to the studs and am starting from scratch. I would like to tile around a new tub and have purchased Durock for the base of the tile. A few questions I have......

1) Which side of the Durock boards do you adhere the tile to.....the smooth side or the mesh side?

2) When installing as the tub wall, do I bring the durock board to the top of the lip of the tub, or do I want to come over the lip of the tub into the tub itself?

3) I will install moisture-resistant drywall in the rest of the bathroom. Where this wall board meets the Durock, how do I seal those joints? Do I use standard drywall tape and compound, or do I use Durock tape and mortar to seal it?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

1) The rough side. It gives the thin set more to get hold of.

2) Over the lip, assuming you're talking about walls from the tub to the ceiling.

3) I'm sure there will be different opinions on this one. I'll tell you how I do it, some others may do it differently, and you can choose which you like. Make sure there is framing behind the joint to allow sufficient fastening on both edges coming together. I don't tape this joint. I plan the job so the tile will lip over the joint about an inch or so, caulk the joint to seal it, and tile over it. This insures the majority of the tile is on the concrete board and yet the edge lips over the sheet rock and provides a nice clean look. BTW, some state codes require green board, some don't. I'd check yours. I've never seen any real benefit to it.

If you want to bring the durock over the flange of the tub, you need to fir out the walls so that the durock will hang over the lip without being pushed outward by the tub flange. That being said it is perfectly acceptable to end the durock just above the tub flange. The bottom row of tile will cover this. Dont forget to use a vapor barrier behind the durock. 6 mil poly or 15lb roofing felt will due. The vapor barrier should lap over the tub flange.

As to the joints where drywall meets durock. If tile will cover these joints tape and mud them with thinset. If tile will not cover these joints tape and mud them with drywall joint compound. Sorry Smokey.

As for the greenboard, I agree with Smokey. The greenboard does not perform any better than regular drywall but it is more expensive. If its not required by code in your area then dont waste your money.

Thanks for all of the advice....it is very helpful

I've got an '82 Volkswagen pickup I'm restoring and I get advice from a forum dedicated to them. There are normally more than one response to my questions and they don't always agree. Seeing the different opinions helps me see the problem from different angles and some times I'll take some from all of them and formulate my own conclusions or solutions. Consequently, there's no need for "sorry". One of the things I really like about this group is there's none of that, "you idiot" stuff going on. If advisers disagree, it's done civilly which helps the folks in need of help in the long run. Thanks for your input HeresJohnny.

Smokey - I couldnt agree more.