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Whether building your dream home or just remodeling, there are several things you should know before you start shopping for plumbing. In the world of decorative plumbing fixtures you will find many options to satisfy all ranges of taste as well as budgets. Knowing a few simple things can help you narrow your search, saving you time as well as aggravation.
First things first. Know your budget. At least have an idea of what you can afford to spend. With most contractors you will find that they have a price in your contract that shows what they budgeted for finished plumbing. If you are doing the job yourself, you might want to shop for all of your finished products before you get started. The cost differences can be enormous. For example, you can purchase a very well made top brand toilet for $150.00 or get the most state of the art toilet and spend over $4,000.00. If you want to know why contractor bids can very so greatly, look at the budgets you are getting for finished product. Knowing what you want before you send your job out for bid will help ensure that you get the job done they way you want it.
After you have selected the product you want installed on your project, talk with your installer. Make sure that he/she understands exactly what you are trying to achieve. One of the biggest problems I see in construction is the lack of communication. This can cause many problems. If your installer has questions have them contact your salesperson for clarification.
Here are a few quick tips that will help your salesperson guide you to the selecting the right products.
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The Sinks:
Before you can select a sink, you need to know what kind of counter top you will be installing. By knowing what kind of top you will be using you can cut your selections in half. When using a solid top like marble or granite, 9 out of 10 times your sink will be installed under the counter top. If you are using cultured marble or Corian, you can chose to have your sink molded part of the top. With tile counters you will find most installers prefer to have the sink sit on top of the tile. Decide if you would like your faucets on the sink or installed through your counter.
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The Faucets:
There are many different manufactures of faucets. This selection tends to be one of the more difficult decisions. With hundreds of designs from hundreds of manufactures it's easy to get overwhelmed. If you walk into any plumbing showroom and ask what makes one faucet better than another, most would tell you a faucet made of solid brass that uses ceramic valve technology is the best. By using ceramic valves you almost eliminate the chance of developing leaks. Hard water does not hurt them, calcium does not build up on them and there are no rubber parts that ever move. Most manufactures will give you a lifetime warranty on the ceramic valve. The best part about this warranty is the fact that most people will never need to use it. The price of faucets will come down to the name brand as well as design. You can purchase a top of the line quality faucet for less than $100.00 or spend well over $1,000.00 for a more custom design. You don't have to spend a lot to get top quality.
Will primarily children or adults use this faucet. A faucet with only one handle is sometimes easier to use as well as safer for smaller children. With most single control faucets you can limit how far the handle turns towards the hot side. This will enable you to control the temperature of your faucet.
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The Bathtub:
When selecting your bathtub try and think about who will be using it. If this is going to be the kid's bathroom and your children are young, the shallower the tub the better. A standard 14" deep tub would be best for this application. If your kids and you guests will be using the same bathroom, you may want to use a tub that is a little deeper. Tubs can be purchased in depths from 14 inches to more than 20 inches. Tubs can be made of many different materials. The two most common would be cast iron or acrylic. Cast iron is very heavy and will take a few people to get it installed. Although very durable, it is a very cold material and will take more hot water to keep you in the bath. Its hard to mold a cast iron bath so you usually have much fewer choices. With an acrylic tub you will find an almost unlimited selection. Because the ease of molding acrylic, you will find tubs with molded arm rests, lumbar supports for your back, molded tub spouts, integrated grab bars and a number of different designs. Although acrylic is a type of plastic, it is very durable and easy to refinish. The color will not fade or stain. Scratches can be polished out. And because most acrylic tubs are sprayed with a fiberglass reinforced backing, they keep the water hotter much longer than a cast iron tub.
If you are looking for a tub with some kind of jetting system ask yourself a few questions first. How often do you take a bath now? If you have a tub with jet will you use it more? Do you use bath oils or sea salts? Are you okay with the noise the motor will make? Will there be more than one person in the tub at a time? These are just a few questions you should answer before you purchase a tub. You will find that most people that have a jetted bath don't use them all that often. If you like taking baths and you know you will use it then go crazy. You can get tubs with pulsating back jets, massaging neck jet pillows, chroma therapy lighting and air massage systems. You can even get tubs that will have a little of everything, including ones with flat screen televisions. If you are not a big bath person but would like to have one anyway, consider the air systems. This kind of system injects air into the bathtub gently massaging the entire body. Not as strong as a jetted bath but very relaxing. Some of the best features about an air masseur tub is not only the relaxing bath, but because it does not circulate water, it is very hygienic. With a jetted bath you will have standing water left in the piping system after you drain the tub. This is the same water you were just sitting in. All of the oils on your body and the soap you use runs through the tub and some gets left behind when you turn it off. If it is a long time before you use the jets again take a look when you hit the one button and you will see a gray burst of bacteria and water shooting out into your tub. Although some jetted tub companies do a good job at draining most of the water, you will always have something left over. With an air system tub you eliminate this problem. Because you are just moving air there is no water left over. Most air systems will turn on after you have drained the tub and blow dry the air channels just in case water backed its way in. Because you are not circulating dirty water through a pump, you can use all of your bath oils and sea salts as well as bubble baths. If you are still looking for the harder massage that only the jetted tubs can give then make sure you use it. Once a week will keep the old water from getting to old. If you don't use the bath at least once a week, you should fill it up and run it for a minuet anyway.
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The Shower:
Many years ago the master bathroom was centered around the bathtub. Now more than half of the master bathrooms I do don't even have a tub. The focus has moved over to the shower. There are so many things you can put inside of your shower today. From the standard showerhead to the adjustable hand shower, from the ceiling mounted rain showerhead to the wall mounted body sprays. Steam showers, waterfalls, body bars, the list goes on and on. First decide how many outlets you would like in your shower. If this is your master shower, how many people will be using it at one time. Will there be a place to sit down. If so, then placing an adjustable hand shower near the bench will make it easy for women to shave their legs. If you get hurt or as we get older, you may need to sit down and shower. If you install an adjustable slide bar for your hand shower you can use it as a regular head as well. If two of you will be taking a shower at the same time then you might want to put in two shower heads. One could be a standard fixed head and the other the hand shower. Rain style showerheads are also very popular today. You see a lot of these installed from the ceiling but you can purchase a long arm and just have it come out of a wall. Body sprays are also very trendy right now. These look like little showerheads and they mount below the neckline in rows of two or three (usually) and spray horizontally out at you. The idea here is to take a shower without wetting your hair. Once you select how many sprays you want and where you want them installed this will lead you to selecting the right valve system. The valve is what turns your water on and off as well as gives you control over the temperature. The law tells us that your shower must have a temperature control that will not change due to pressure fluctuations in you plumbing. This means if you are showering and someone flushes a toilet or starts the dishes, you will not freeze or get burned. Most of these valves are called pressure-balanced valves. This does exactly what it says. It balances the pressure so that if the hot side drops, the cold drops with it. The majority of these kinds of valves do not give you volume control. What this means is once you turn your handle the shower is on and full blast. You can not control how much water you are using. Also, the flow out of these kind of valves are usually between 4 and 6 gallons a minuet. This is more than enough water for most single head showers or tubs with a shower over them. However, if you are planning on a shower with a lot of sprays you will have to move up to a thermostat type of shower. This is by far the smartest valve you can use. Not only does it balance the pressure of your water, it knows what temperature your water is. If you are the third or forth person to take a shower and your heater is producing cooler water, your valve will automatically adjust the hot and cold to keep your shower the same. This kind of valve will also give you a lot more water. Some can give you as much as 30 gallons a minute of temperature controlled water. If you are looking for a shower that will give you volume and temperature control then a thermostat shower is the way to go.
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