Backer board question

[Nancy Young]

I'm confused, I hope you can set me straight on something. Here goes:

I'm finally pulling the trigger on renovating my bathroom. It's just as much fun as I remember. The previous remodel has me leery of having a contractor do the tile job, so I went to a tile place.

The guy is telling me that they are not sheetrock installers. Check.

But they need to put backer board around the tub area and it needs to extend past the current tile where there is now just painted wall, to reach a stud. Check.

This is where I don't follow and I should have gotten him to explain.

Why can't I (or a sheetrock guy) just tape the seam where the backer board and the sheetrock meet? Is backer board thicker or thinner than the green board that's already up?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

nancy

[Pointer]

The joint needs the support of the stud to avoid cracking at the seam.

[Nancy Young]

I do understand that. I don't understand why they need to tile up to that seam. I do apologize that I wasn't clear.

He's telling me they would have to tile wherever this backer board is, and I don't understand why they can't just tile up to a certain point and I could have the seam covered with tape, etc, then painted, and you wouldn't see that it was a different material under the paint job.

nancy

[Steve Barker]

you can do whatever you want. It's YOUR house. Just tell them what you want done. Yes, what you propose will work. The backerboard will have to have a skim coat of drywall mud in order to blend in with the sheetrock. Shouldn't be any different than any other taped joint for an experienced drywall person.

[clare]

Because you NEVER have an unsupported long (vertical) joint between drywall and drywall, drywall and backer board, or backerboard and backerboard. Any flex will damage the joint. There IS an option when a wall is open. Add another stud at the point the 2 panels will join.

[clare]

quoted text -

Never.

The other solution is backer board to the stud and a good mud job, with setting type compound, between the tile line and the existing drywall. A good drywall guy can do it - but as the tile guy said, they are not drywall guys. The OP will need both a GOOD tile guy and a GOOD drywall guy / mudder-taper.

[Robert Neville]

What he said. And that you don't tape the seam between sheetrock and backerboard. Tile should completely cover the backerboard.