I recently had to remove a tile from the shower wall which inevitably removed the backerboard. Had to do a plumbing repair. The good new is I only had to remove one tile,]. The bad news is-how do I replace the tile since there is no longer anything to attach it . The hole is maybe 6x6.

I am assuming that you have extra identical tile to replace what will be coming down, but it won't be just one.

Since you pulled the substrate (backerboard) with the tile, unfortunately you will need to remove tiles up to where you have a stud. Once there you can check to see if the backerboard has a seam on the stud. If so use a blade and score a straight cut on top and bottom all the way to where you started. If where you started does not land on a stud then you can drill a backerboard screw through the bare spot and attach a small piece of 2x4 or smaller, so that you have something to then replace the backerboard.

Cut a new piece of backerboard and screw at the 2x4 stud and the piece you screwed to hold the other side.

Tape and mud and replace tile.

What? You should be able to use the same techniques that one might use for drywall repair. Drywall repair doesn't require removing the drywall to the seam.

KISS... good point, however depending on the "backerboard" being used, it can be anything from the old "green board", to now Hardibacker in the shower area.

Therefore the newer the construction the harder it would be to use the same drywall technique. It would be wise to cut to each stud on either side of the missing tile and then determine if the sheet "luckily" fell on a seam.

The shortcut would be to remove the tile on either side of the tile that was taken out (do not destroy the substrate, insert a 12 inch long piece of wood then screw the wood to either side of the substrate to create the "backing" that the new piece of substrate will be screwed into.

The choice depends on how professional "charmins67" was to have it look.

Hardibacker would not have come apart like this guy describes, this must be greenboard. I'd use a drywall patch technique but truth be told the whole job should be ripped out if this is inside a shower or tub area. We have not used greenboard in an enclosure for many , mant years.

The backerboard is water resistant durock used for the shower. It looks like a cement board. It didn't come apart,I had to remove it to get to the hot water pipe behind it. We are trying to avoid replacing the entire wall since we just installed the new tile a month ago. Also, I'm not a "guy". Trying to save money since we've already dumped thousands into our 100 year old house.

Well, my suggestion is to use the drywall technique, but with a different choice of materials. You can probably make two or more furring strips out of the durorock and use some epoxy available at a building supply store to glue the strips in place.

Then you can glue the durock in place. Maybe you can tap and use a helicoil to attach the new durock.

Use the same epoxy cement to make the repair.

The epoxy I am talking about is used to glue concrete when pieces chip off. It's about $20 per quart.

Thanks For Everyone's Help. I'll Let You Know How It Goes-as I've Said Before,I'm A Novice At This Stuff. Not A Big Fan Of Plumbing

DabaAd's method of installing furring strips just larger than the hole and then screwing a scap piece of Durouck to that should work just fine. That is a well know drywall patch technique without tearing out to the studs.

Thanks For All Your Help. Will Be Working On This Tonight :)