# Another custom house - all Grohe faucets



## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

Just finished this little custom. Lots of hours in this finish. Customers wanted all Grohe faucets, Kohler toilets and Blanco kitchen sink. It came out pretty nice.

*Master Ensuite:
**


















*
That floor mount Grohe roman filler is by far the nicest piece of brass I have ever had the pleasure of installing. Beautifully engineered and built. It went together like a fine clock. So nice! Too bad most of it is hidden behind the tub.*









Main Bath:


















Powder:
*I've installed a couple variations of these Grohe shower systems. They're a close second to the roman filler above for quality and fine engineering. They're a pleasure to install.


















*Kitchen:*
Blanco sink, kitchen faucet & soap dispenser. No complaints. Very good quality.









That big glass door in the background opens up all the way to open the whole dining room to the deck. *Very* expensive piece. It all folds back to the far side.

Miele dishwasher at right of kitchen sink. These people have money to burn. There's a Fisher and Paykal refrigerator not shown - also with cabinet front. Nice...









Nice Delta pot filler.









*Laundry:









Outdoor Shower:
*This was pretty crazy to do. Owner supplied the board. I don't know what that wire is for. I was dubious about this idea, but it came out great. I kinda like it.

This house is walking distance from the beach. People like to spray off the sand and salt when they get home and not track it into the house. In colder months a cold hose bibb spray is pretty uncomfortable, so outdoor showers are popular in this area. Good if you have a dog too.









I hollowed out the back and glued in backing. It wasn't as difficult as I had expected. That plywood got painted before install.


----------



## Fatpat (Nov 1, 2015)

I love when a good rough in works out perfectly through finish.


----------



## chonkie (Jul 31, 2014)

Looking good. I like working with Grohe and Blanco stuff. That outside shower is really neat. Floating cabinets are tons of fun to work in aren't they.


----------



## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

chonkie said:


> Floating cabinets are tons of fun to work in aren't they.


They're not bad if you know at rough-in that they're coming. If they spring them on you then they're a big problem. On this job I had good specs, and had no trouble at all. The only problem I had was that I had to take a grinder to the main bath undermount lavs to get them to fit into the too-small cabinets.


----------



## Plumbus (Aug 4, 2008)

That toilet is butt ugly. 
I never understood why people like free standing tubs. I will grant that they have a distinctive look. But, they're about as practical as a sits bath.


----------



## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Plumbus said:


> That toilet is butt ugly.
> I never understood why people like free standing tubs. I will grant that they have a distinctive look. But, they're about as practical as a sits bath.

















I concur. And I'll add, all of the garbage is ugly. No offense to my highly esteemed plumbing colleague, but I do not like anything about Grohe, or Hansgrohe or any of that fancy European junk.

Our colleague Futz obviously knows what he's doing and he doesn't pick the stuff, just installs what he's told like we all do.

Hey Futz, here in Florida, the guys who install the marble and granite tops always mount the under-mount sinks, which makes the plumber's job a bit easier.


----------



## indyjim (Apr 29, 2017)

Grohe is good stuff until you need parts. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

Tommy plumber said:


> I concur. And I'll add, all of the garbage is ugly. No offense to my highly esteemed plumbing colleague, but I do not like anything about Grohe, or Hansgrohe or any of that fancy European junk.
> 
> Our colleague Futz obviously knows what he's doing and he doesn't pick the stuff, just installs what he's told like we all do.
> 
> Hey Futz, here in Florida, the guys who install the marble and granite tops always mount the under-mount sinks, which makes the plumber's job a bit easier.


\


Futz....That is really nice looking work,,, and it probably took forever and was very stressful to do...... Is this the job where you dropped the tub while attempting to get it into the room and thought it broke???


Installing those lav faucets and roughing them in with a mirror on the wall makes me cringe just thinking about how those mirror guys had to cut that glass to make it all work out ok. Then you got to fool with that trim work on the mirror wall and god help you if something dont go right...


I totally agree with Tommy that Ghroe is ugly and trouble in so many ways..


.


----------



## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

Master Mark said:


> Is this the job where you dropped the tub while attempting to get it into the room and thought it broke???



No. That was the much bigger (almost) all Kohler house.

This house was an Acri-tec acrylic tub. The tub has an integral overflow, and Acri-tec has zero clue how to do an integ overflow drain. The drain it shipped with could not be made to hold water, and had no way to properly seal to the tailpiece, so I complained to them - sent pics and explained how the drain had to seal. Of course they didn't believe me and sent me another that fixed the tailpiece problem, but ignored the bottom washer problem. They still have the idea in their heads of a standard top-seal bathtub drain, which won't work at all with an integral overflow. There you have to bottom-seal with a wedge washer. But they know better! Idiots.

I complained again - sent more pics and explanations of how they could solve their, and my, problems for good. They sent two more drains. One was useless. The other was crap, but I managed to get it to hold water (testing with the tub up on blocks).









So it's installed, but I would not be surprised if it started leaking again. Acri-tec won't listen to my free advice on how to cure their problems easily. They'll have to get sued a few times I guess. Then maybe they'll remember my good advice.  

Luckily, the tub is over the powder room downstairs, and leaks run right out the exhaust fan hole. So any leak will be spotted early, and it's a small ceiling to repair if it becomes necessary.

Stressful? Oh, ya! Just a bit... After seven months of six days a week of long hours (the two big customs, a 4-plex and various renovations), yes, very stressful...




Master Mark said:


> Installing those lav faucets and roughing them in with a mirror on the wall makes me cringe just thinking about how those mirror guys had to cut that glass to make it all work out ok. Then you got to fool with that trim work on the mirror wall and god help you if something dont go right...



I was pretty panicked about those faucets when I heard they wanted mirror all the way down. But my install went very smoothly. The mirror guys' job? Not so much. Three of the four holes are good, but the silvering chipped off around the furthest right hole, and you can see it around the bottom of my escutcheon. They'll be cutting another one and reinstalling later.




Master Mark said:


> I totally agree with Tommy that Grohe is ugly and trouble in so many ways..



I think they look pretty good in a modern style house like this one. I agree that parts availability could be a problem in future. But I'm in Canada, where parts for anything can barely be had anyway. It's a frickin joke sometimes. Anything breaks and we'll just order a whole new faucet in desperation! :laughing:


----------



## futz (Sep 17, 2009)

Plumbus said:


> That toilet is butt ugly.


Maybe it's just the pic? I thought those pots were pretty nice looking. Kohler did a nice job on them - they're a good install (like some of the higher end Totos).



> I never understood why people like free standing tubs. I will grant that they have a distinctive look. But, they're about as practical as a sits bath.


They're just another big stupid fad. They're a *major* pain in the ass for plumbers. But they look great, and that's probably going to make this fad run for a long time, unfortunately.


----------



## chonkie (Jul 31, 2014)

futz said:


> They're not bad if you know at rough-in that they're coming. If they spring them on you then they're a big problem. On this job I had good specs, and had no trouble at all. The only problem I had was that I had to take a grinder to the main bath undermount lavs to get them to fit into the too-small cabinets.


They usually spring stuff like that on us. It's like the cabinet guys upsell after the fact or they just plain want to redesign the layout at trim stage.

I didn't pay attention to them being wall mounted faucets. Not having to mount faucets to the tops makes the floating cabinets easy.


----------



## Plumbus (Aug 4, 2008)

Wall mounted faucets come with their own set of issues. 
1) Everything has to line up. 
2) If the wall is out of square, the spout and handles will look like they were put in crooked.
3) The spout has to be just long enough.
4) Like a shower valve, the depth the inwall is set has to align with the finish tolerances. 

Plus, it takes longer to rough and trim a wall mount than to set a deck mount.


----------

