Our construction manager got started with and was still running a plumbing business, so this was a pretty trouble free trade for us. We knew that we would have to pick out some things before the rough could start, and we were on top of that, and in addition to picking out things in most or maybe all cases we ordered fixtures and roughs and other so everything was on site and the plumber could proceed with the roughs.
First part of the rough in was waste lines. For that we had to finalize the location of toilets, sinks, bath tubs, showers, dishwasher, and washing machine. The plumber also coordinated with the sub putting in the heat pumps system (for condensate lines).
The architect plans were pretty close for all of this, but we did work with a kitchen designer on the kitchen design and while we were doing cabinets for the kitchen we increased the scope to include bathroom vanities and the laundry/mud room too, so we used adjustments that had been made in those drawings.
I guess I would describe the aesthetic we were going for as modern European, maybe a touch of Japanese minimalism, and choices here were mostly consistent with that.
Early on we decided to use wall-mounted toilets for three main reasons, (1) ease of cleaning, (2) clean look, and (3) ability to set any bowl at a comfortable height (we went with 16.5″ to rim, which is about 17.5″ to seat top, I am tall, wife is not so tall). After we doing some homework we settled on Toto Aquias, which appear to have been discontinued (wall-mounted version, anyway), but seemed to get good ratings for doing what they are supposed to do without extra fuss, and are elongated (and not rectangular, definitely not a fan of square toilets). I ordered them from supply.com (now Ferguson, my approach on fixtures was to figure out what we needed and order online for most things). Toto makes (or made?) an in-wall system/tank, but Geberit is the 800 lb gorilla in this space so we used Geberit in walls, ordering them from Amazon.
For consistency we used Toto sinks, same cotton color/glazing as the toilet bows. I initially ordered LT540G sinks, which are 21.25″x14″ undercounters, but when they arrived I realized they were enormous, so sent them back and ordered LT542G sinks, which are 19″x12.375″, which is a plenty big for our vanities, which are 22.25″ deep. Same sinks for the 2.5 baths, so four of them. These Toto sinks are a similar shape to the Kohler Ladena, which I liked and was ready to order (easy to clean/pleasing curved shape), but I figured might as well have the same glazing and as it turns out the Toto is available in a slightly smaller size that I think works better (I’d prefer to have a little extra vanity top space than a giant sink).
While I am taking about sinks, for the kitchen we wanted a decent size single basin undermount stainless sink. We could have spent more money on a Franke, but the Elkay sinks seem to be high quality and made in the USA, so for kitchen and laundry room we went with Elkay stainless sinks. For the kitchen an EFRU311610, which is 16 gauge, has tight corners (low radius in the lingo), center/rear drain placement, 30.5″x16″ at the bottom and 10″ deep. In the laundry room, which has a Durat (like Corian) countertop we went with a PLA19190 drop-in sink, and to keep things simple for that sink used an Elkay faucet, their LK2000CR, which fit with no drama.
For the master shower I thought that use of (somewhat expensive) Schluter system components would save on labor, not sure that really panned out, but the Schluter system stuff is nice and I am a sucker for German engineering. So I did my own (curbless, something we specced early with architect, which was good, because shower floor area had to be dropped, doing that later would have been hard to impossible) shower layout, including a prefabricated bench, and ordered Schluter Kerri-Line linear drain and a solid grate. I also ordered Kerdi prefabricated/sloped shower tray, several shower niches, and some membrane, corners, etc. It was harder to find this stuff online, I think I had the plumber order most of it from a local plumbing supplier.
For the master bath tub I locked on to the idea of getting a Duravit Paiova tub early in the design process. It comes in a bunch of different sizes and configurations, a few of which are available in the USA. The one I wanted was a whirl tub, which of course was a discontinued model in the US. But I lucked into finding one, must have been a leftover, it was steeply discounted and must have been sitting in a warehouse for awhile, I grabbed it and it works great, and it has both water and air jets.
For the guest bath shower/tub we were working with a bathroom that was 6′ wide (before sheet rock and tile). Seems like a lot of tubs are 5′, but I managed to find one that was 66″ long, had a nice sloped back for relaxing, and a good size tub bottom so not treacherous to use for a shower, also nicely with a tile flange, and like the Duravit acrylic. An Americh Kent 6632, which was also available with jets and other, but for the guest bath kept it simple and just ordered the tub from a local supplier.
Plumber wanted to set tubs right away so he could get working on drain plumbing, but I pushed back and insisted that radiant tubing be installed under the tub locations, than 1/4″ cement board on top of that, then the tunes were set. I should have done a better job protecting them during construction, with blue sticky film, next time.
For plumbing fixtures we wanted something clean looking and wanted to use wall mounted faucets in the bathroom for (a) the clean look, (b) ease of cleaning, and (c) increased vanity top space. Not surprise but the product line we liked the best was from a German company, Hansgrohe, the Axor Citterio M line. Smooth, simple, modern lines. Weird there is not really much out there that compares to this, a lot of the other modern stuff has a lot of sharp angles, not my taste. So I cobbled together the pieces we needed, ordering fixtures and roughs from supply.com and even picking stuff up on eBay and Amazon (everything in brushed nickel). Showerheads I have loved Speakmans since my college locker room days, so we went with Speakman Icon S-2252 shower heads in brushed nickel. These shower heads provide really good flow and coverage and I don’t think I even pulled the (2.5gpm) restrictor out. We put the rough at 85″ above the shower floor, with a 6″ Hansgrohe Shower Arm the shower head is at about 6’7″, so tall people should not need to duck. Rainhead is a Hansgrohe Raindance 300 on a 12″ Grohe arm.
For the kitchen faucet we went with a Hansgrohe Axor Citterio in stainless. We wanted something with a spray head, but don’t really like the spearheads that pull out of the faucet. This is a cool look and a little simpler.
The connection to the water main was 1″ copper and we opted for a 3/4″ meter over the standard 5/8″ meter, a little more expensive, including recurring cost, but wanted to make sure we have plenty of water pressure. Most of the plumbing rough was with Plex tubing, color coded, red for hot, blue for cold, and brown for hot-water circulation loops. Speaking of hot-water circulation loops, plumber put in two of those (I think), one to the kitchen, and second to the master bath. I think these loops can be an energy-waster, and to increase the efficiency the plumber installed a Taco SmartPlus circulator, which monitors hot water use and only circulates at times when there is normally demand. We went through a green certification process, and I think this was required for us to get the certificate we got (more on that in another post).
Also worth noting that the plumber used a cast iron drop/waste line for the upstairs bathroom, which line comes down in the wall separating the powder room from the front entrance. PVC drops can apparently be noisy, so it is good to use cast iron where the noise could be noticeable.