Yesterday was the first day I feel like there's light at the end of the bathroom tunnel. Together, Rod and I managed to get the backer board laid, taped and mudded. Not as simple as it sounded when I read up on the process.
Step 1 included ripping out the old floor. There were two layers of linoleum on top of wood planks over the sub floor. A dusty mess. The original builder (Sargent April) did an amazing job cutting in the wood floor to the tub (the tub has a curved side), I didn't even see the joint at first -- it was that precise. And I live in what is probably the only bungalow with exactly square corners in the rooms. Amazing. It made cutting the backer board much easier, since we could work with square corners. Backer board is a cement board that, once in place, creates a bond with the sub floor and the tile, effectively creating a single unit of many different materials.
As we were cutting the board we laid it out in a jigsaw-like pattern, around the plumbing and the old radiators to make sure it would fit before we added the mud. Then I troweled the mud down in sections and placed the backer board and then Rod added fasteners to hold the board down. Finally I mudded and taped the joints. This process is remarkably similar to joining theater flats, here instead of ripped muslin or canvas dipped in paint I used nylon mesh tape and lots of mud. Messy. Very messy. But it's done now and with a little cleanup I'll be ready to spread the waterproofing this afternoon.
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