The half of a remodel nobody photographs.
Faucets, toilets, disposals, angle stops and the supply and waste work behind a new kitchen or bathroom. Get this part right and the expensive part lasts. Get it wrong and you find out in about eighteen months.
BRING YOUR OWN FIXTURE
Buy the faucet you want. We will fit it.
Plenty of plumbing companies will only fit what they supply, because the markup on the fixture is where a lot of their margin lives. We do not work that way. If you have found the tap you want, buy it and Ron will put it in at the ordinary hourly rate.
The one thing worth saying is that fixture quality varies enormously and the price on the box is not a reliable guide. What matters is the cartridge inside, whether the body is solid brass or zinc alloy, and whether you will be able to buy a replacement part for it in six years.
- A ceramic disc cartridge from a manufacturer who still stocks parts will outlast three cheap faucets
- Solid brass bodies survive hard water. Zinc alloy corrodes from the inside and cannot be repaired
- Pull down sprays fail at the hose and the weight far more often than at the head
- If a fixture has no published parts list, assume it is disposable and price it accordingly
Tell us what you are thinking of buying when you book and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth the money. There is nothing in it for us either way.
THE SMALL PARTS THAT MATTER
Four components worth more attention than they get.
None of these are glamorous and none of them cost much. All four of them cause an outsized share of the calls we take.
Angle stops
The small valve under every sink and behind every toilet. When one seizes, you cannot isolate that fixture, so a five minute repair turns into shutting down the whole house. Quarter turn ball valves are far more reliable than the old multi turn type, and swapping them is quick work. Exercise the ones you have twice a year.
Braided supply lines
The flexible hoses between the stop and the fixture. They have a service life, and the cheap ones fail by splitting under pressure while nobody is home. The washing machine pair are the most likely to do real damage. If yours are more than about eight years old, replacing them is cheap insurance.
Toilet fill valves and flappers
A flapper that seats imperfectly leaks silently into the bowl and can waste hundreds of gallons a month without ever making a sound you would notice. If yours cycles on its own at any point, that is a leak. Parts are inexpensive.
The P trap
The U bend under every fixture. It holds a plug of water that stops sewer gas coming back into the room. If a bathroom you rarely use smells, the trap has evaporated dry. Run the faucet for thirty seconds and the smell goes. That is not a plumbing fault and it does not need a call out.
WORKING WITH YOUR REMODEL
Get the plumber in before the tile goes down.
The most expensive plumbing mistakes in a remodel are made early and discovered late. Moving a toilet two feet is a small job when the floor is open and a serious one after it has been closed and tiled.
If you are planning a kitchen or a bathroom, the useful conversation happens before the cabinets are ordered. It is a free consultation, it takes half an hour, and it routinely saves people real money.
What we do on a remodel
- Rough in for relocated sinks, toilets and showers
- Supply and waste for a kitchen island
- Shower valve and tub filler installation
- Pot filler and fridge line runs
- Upgrading angle stops and supply lines while the wall is open
- Final fit off once the finishes are in
What to ask before you order
- Can the drain actually be moved to where the new sink is going
- Does the new shower valve need more flow than the existing line gives
- Is there venting where the relocated fixture will be
- Will the island run need a loop vent or an air admittance valve
- Is the existing pipe worth reusing, given the wall is open anyway
OLDER HOMES
Keep it, or let it go?
The older housing around central Tracy has fixtures worth keeping. A cast iron tub or a period basin is better made than most of what you can buy now, and the character is not something you can add back later.
The question is whether parts exist. Some manufacturers still supply cartridges and seats for fittings that are sixty years old. Others vanished decades ago, and once the internals of that valve are gone, the fixture is decorative.
Ron will tell you which one you have got before you spend anything. Sometimes the answer is that a twenty dollar seat kit gives you another twenty years, and sometimes it is that the handsome old fitting on your wall cannot be made to work again. Both are useful to know.
Fixture and remodel questions
Planning a kitchen or bathroom?
Have the plumbing conversation before the cabinets are ordered. Thirty minutes, no charge, and it regularly saves people thousands.