Facing Faucet Facts
Sadly, the words “minor problem” and “faucet hole” rarely go together. Most of the faucet issues I’ve worked through ended up costing someone hundreds of dollars.
Is there a way to avoid that “someone” being you or your company? The best way I’ve found is to look at a faucet as the thing it truly is: a part in a system. The plumber can’t look at a faucet as a “stand-alone” item; it’s connected to the water lines, which are connected to the shut-off valves, which are connected to ….
You get the point. To the plumber, the faucet is part of the plumbing system. He needs to look at each part of that system, as it relates to the faucet, to make sure everything works properly. To you – the granite guy – the faucet is part of the countertop system. If you’re not looking at each part of the countertop system as it relates to the faucet, you’re leaving yourself open to oversights and errors.
So how does a granite guy do this? To start with, you need to know the faucet and plumbing accessories your client has chosen.
Is it possible to see how something fits into a system without knowing the exact details about it? I doubt it.
The ideal situation for me is to have the faucet and the end user on the jobsite at the time of template. That way, the templater can remove the faucet from its box and position it to the customer’s satisfaction. This allows the templater to determine if the requested placement will actually work within the countertop system.
Is there a raised snack bar behind the kitchen sink? The best way to determine if a faucet spout will clear the snack bar is to position the faucet and use a board to represent your countertop overhang. If they don’t work together, at least you’ll know before the stone is cut. The overhang can be reduced, and the faucet can be adjusted forward, until you have a successful system or a redesign.
The same scenario can be played out with the infamous side-handle faucet that adjusts water temperature by shifting the control lever toward or away from the user. The problem is that the lever, when pushed away, will run into the backsplash before it gets to the maximum temperature.
This is particularly true if you deal with 3cm splash. Grohe was the first company to market this faucet to a wide audience, so the problem became associated with them. (I can still hear a younger version of myself saying, “Not another damn Ladylux,” as I dealt with that model on install after install.
A simple solution: Bring along a piece of 3cm backsplash to demonstrate the problem to Ms. Jones at the time of template. She’s still not going to be happy, because the faucet works just fine at her friend’s house down the street (the one that has 3/8” tile backsplash instead of 1 1/4” granite.) But, at least you’ve given her a physical demonstration why you need to turn the handle a little toward the front.
Even if you’re lucky enough to have room to position the handle fully on the side, you’re not out of the woods. It’s inevitable Ms. Jones will want the soap dispenser, lotion dispenser, push-button disposal, osmotic water dispenser, and Insta-Hot water. And you have yet to figure out where to position the dishwasher air gap.
That side-handle faucet will need a minimum 6” clearance for comfortable operation. On a standard ‘banjo’ sink, that means you’ll have room for the faucet and two accessories (and three if you put one on the outside corner of the big bowl). Ms. Jones might have to sacrifice a convenience or two to have that stylish Ladylux, but you’re not going to convince her of that without demonstrating it in the physical world.
During templating, carry a board with you that will span the opening of the sink cabinet, with pre-drilled spacing for a standard faucet as well as a side handle. Position Ms. Jones’s plumbing fixtures in the holes until she’s happy with the arrangement.
Take a picture of the faucet and accessories in their chosen holes and have her sign the drawing of the arrangement for good measure. You’ve created a functioning plumbing system and she’s approved it.
Sound like overkill? Try standing next to her at the end of an install and listen to the complaints about the fixture spacing being “not what she expected.” Overkill doesn’t exist at that point. Neither does the referral she was going to give to her neighbor.
Another issue is to be keenly aware of where the water flow from the faucet hits the bottom of the sink. If the stream of water hits right on top of the drain, it’s possible for the homeowner to experience “splash up” whenever they turn on the spout. And, water hitting a flat surface can bounce up and makes a mess on the counter every time.
This can be particularly frustrating with a bathroom vanity Ms. Jones uses to get ready in the morning. Water splashing everywhere at the flip of a handle it not going to give your customer a warm and fuzzy feeling about her counter. This is particularly important when you are dealing with taller faucets, as the falling water is particularly prone to splashing up when it has a nice head start.
When you’ve got the faucet at the jobsite when templating, it’s much easier to figure out how to make the water hit slightly in front of or behind the flat of the drain. You’ll run into the same situation with faucets that come out of the wall instead of the countertop.
Don’t let the plumber give you a PDF drawing of the faucet and wish you good luck on correctly positioning the bowl underneath his roughed-in pipes. With the wall-mounted faucet in place, it’s pretty easy to get a good bowl placement.
Here’s one trick for good faucet placement that doesn’t get anyone wet: Use a laser. A laser next to a perfectly vertical spout allows you to position the light slightly behind or in front of the drain. A laser next to an angled spout allows you to pick a spot slightly in front of where you want the water to hit and let the gravitational force of flowing water do the rest. No splash up = a successful faucet and drain system.
Vessel bowls are an inevitable challenge. For people who purchase a vessel and then think about the faucet as an afterthought, the situation can be a little weird.
Most standard faucets are not tall enough to fit with a vessel bowl sitting at its standard height. I’ve had to modify openings to lower vessel sinks into the surface of the countertop, and I’ve also had to place faucet spouts and handles on stone pedestals to raise them up off the surface of the stone.
These alterations aren’t any big deal as long as the homeowner is willing to pay for the extra effort and is happy with the end result. The most-important thing in a situation like this is to make sure your solution looks planned, and not as an afterthought.
Don’t hack up a larger opening for a bowl. Make sure it’s chip-free, and seal the opening to the bowl with a color-matched caulk. A pedestal for a faucet is going to need to flow gracefully around the back of a bowl to look good, so don’t just slap a square piece of stone under the faucet.
And remember that you’ll probably have to make a larger hole underneath the pedestal in order to hook up the plumbing. It’s a workable system; complicated, but workable.
Last, but not least, there’s the dreaded “widespread” vanity faucet. For some reason, this has given me more grief than any other plumbing scenario over the years.
It starts with the definition: “The holes are 4” on center.” This can either mean that the two outside holes are 4” on center, or that the distance between the center hole and each of the outside holes is 4” on center – making the outside-hole placement 8” on center (depending on who you’re talking to).
Always clarify this in writing. Guess wrong and you may be buying a new faucet.
For the 8” spread, there’s also the choice of running the faucet and handles in a straight line, or offsetting the handles forward to match the curve of the bowl. If the customer wants to match the curve, always determine how far forward the handles will be set by measuring the curve of the bowl at the chosen faucet spacing.
It’s usually pretty small – around 1/2” for an 8” spread. Push the handles too far forward, and you may not leave the plumber enough room to connect them behind the back of the bowl. Not a workable system.
Faucets need to work well within the countertop project as a whole in order to call the entire job a success. Remember that before you start to drill holes, and you’ll save yourself a lot of grief.
Jason Nottestad, a 16-year veteran of the stone industry, is National Customer Service Manager for VT Stone Surfaces; he’s now on his fourth year of “The Installer” columns for Stone Business. He can be reached at JNottestad@vtindustries.com.
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