Well, a couple weeks ago our tub drain sprang a leak upstairs, it's the kids bathroom. Small bathroom about 5 feet wide by 10 feet long. The tub is at the end of the bathroom, an alcove type I guess you could call it.

The water has been soaking into our downstairs ceiling some time now, for who knows how long, finally the drain gasket gave out completely and a tub full of water poured into the ceiling, and forced me to open up the ceiling and discover mold and damage. Called the insurance company and they would have nothing to do with it, because there is mold in the downstairs ceiling, it's assumed it's been going on for a long time, and it's deferred maintenance that we should have performed, but, I had no idea it was leaking!

So, this extensive water damage, has lead from one thing to another, and I just ended up gutting the kids bathroom completely a couple weeks ago, and we are going to give them a new one. So I cut the old dingy fiberglass surround in three pieces, and took it out, and I gutted the rest of it, vanity gone, toilet gone, floor tile gone.

Today we went and got the tub, we were wavering between cast iron and steel, the fiberglass just gets dingy after a decade and looses it's luster, I have seen 50 year old cast iron tubs look as good as new. After much investigation, we decided on a compromise, a tub Made in the USA, called Bootzcast. It's a steel tub, porcelain coated, and it weighs 88 lbs, instead of the massive 365 lbs for the base line Kohler cast iron. I love the quality of the cast, but it's just heavy, and we have a small bathroom, hard to menuever in. I really like this Bootzcast, it feels just like cast iron when you knock on the sides, it's thick, and dense sounding, has a 1" to 2" layer of foam coating the outside, so it's really insulated like a cast iron tub is. But again, light on the back! And we get the benefit of it being steel with porcelain, a nice compromise I feel.

 

So, sorry for the long winded explanation, but the tub has the flange that you are suppose to nail off to the studs with roofing nails, but my question is, do I have to let the flange in to the studs so it's flush to the studs, to allow the green board to float over the flange nicely? We are tiling the surround area.

Thanks for any help. I am currently setting my stringers for the support right now as I type.

Here is a link to the tub, Bootzcast Bath Tub

By the way, most insurance companies may have covered this, but our insurance company covered a 36 thousand dollar kitchen and living area replacement due to flooding last summer, and they cashed me out on my truck that got whacked by our neighbor, all in the same summer! So I think they are just kind of done with us for now.

 

Looks like you don't 

Great video Lew! Shoot, I could of found that! Didn't even think of Youtube.

I have seen heavy paper build-up strip shim type things to ease the transition for tub installation perhaps this will work for you?

John, when I replaced ours, I just nailed to the studs and put the backboard over the flange. It didn't created any problems and you couldn't tell by looking, in other words it didn't make it stick out.

Thanks John Hechel, and thanks John M, that was my main concern if the board with flare out at the bottom causing the tile to look like it was flaring out as well. But as you stated John M, no problem, so I guess I will not worry about it and just install the board over the flange.

John H, thanks for the great tip, I may still look into those strips.