Shower Renovation

When i did my bathroom, I ended up using the Tile Coach videos as a good foundation for my knowledge. He has a video here that I believe may answer your transition question.

Tile Coach

You want to overdue the cement board, waterproofing membrane, and tile as much as possible OP.

Lets step back for a second. Describe what kind of shower you have, shape, what kind of curtain/ glass, etc.

You want to do everything possible to have sheetrock not start until you are absolutely sure there is no water run off or spray. For example, if this is your standard shower/ tub combo you want to have the cement board go 2-3 inches at least outside of and down the tub to the floor. Otherwise you will have spray from the shower and then run off from the tub that goes down the tub and gets the sheetrock wet over time. Especially if this is a kids or guest bathroom. People will argue this and opinions will vary, but I've seen many showers with mold and water damage because the tile was stopped too soon. You don't need a lot, 6 inches or so is best but just 2-3 is usually sufficient.

You can water proof the joint where the sheetrock and cement meet and you can skim coat it with drywall mud if need be.

The last thing you want is to not go far enough with the waterproofing and tile and then get water/ moisture damage and mildew.

good example going well past shower/ tub with cement board and waterproofing:



Bad example where they stop with the tile at the end of the tub. If this is used at all you will get moisture damage on that baseboard and drywall overtime.:

I would do as much cement board as you can. When we had commercial bathrooms done it was always specified all the walls where cement board. If I was doing a bathroom from scratch they would all get cement board.

Wherever your drywall and cement board meet, you need to float it in with thinset not drywall mud. Use the mesh tape instead of paper drywall tape. It sands down pretty easily to a nice finish.

You can drywall and overlay with Kerdi schluter waterproofing. You’ll need to follow the manufacturer guidelines. I’ve installed countless of these shower systems and They are bullet proof if done correctly. I’ve done the math and they shake out about the same opposed to a red guard and cement board application including labor. Good luck.

https://www.schluter.com/schluter-us/en_US/


No reason to remove drywall unless it is damaged.