Sometimes, just five inches of extra space can make all the difference.
In a New England Cape Cod-style home, five inches of space gained in a bathroom, thanks to a Viega in-wall carrier system, was the difference between night and day.
Viega Technical Manager Rudi Tillmann, a mechanical engineer with an extensive background in plumbing, has been working on a remodel of a 1960’s bathroom that was “old, outdated and not really functioning anymore.” He put a variety of Viega products to work, and the small space was transformed, both functionally and aesthetically.
The biggest change, at least visually, was installation of an in- wall carrier from Viega. The toilet and shower are across from each other in the bathroom; and previously, the shower was a tiny 30-by-30 inches, with a small linen closet adjacent to it. By removing the closet, Tillmann was able to make the shower 30-by-48 inches, but he also wanted to give it a nice, modern feel with a glass door and not a curtain. Cue the in- wall system.
There would have been no way to open the glass shower door without it hitting the bowl of the toilet – no way until Tillmann used an in-wall carrier, moving the tank into the wall and adding about five inches of space to the bathroom. That shift created enough room for the shower door to open properly.
“With the wall-hung toilet, we have the benefits of it aesthetically looking better and it being cleaner, but it also saved us space, too,” Tillmann said.
Another significant change in the bathroom was tearing out the baseboard heat and replacing it with Viega ProRadiant heat in the floor. There were multiple reasons for the switch.
First, the baseboard heater in the bathroom was controlled by the thermostat for the entire house, so the bathroom was often cold and uncomfortable, particularly in the winter. To get the temperature warm in the bathroom meant making things too hot in the rest of the house.
Second, Tillmann said it was a bit of a visual eyesore, running the length of the bathroom wall. He said it was a mechanical component, much like the tank of the toilet, that doesn’t need to be seen, so “hiding” the heat in the floor made sense.
The radiant heating in the floor has its own controls, so the bathroom can be individually heated without affecting the rest of the home. And the added space in the bathroom, thanks to the dumped baseboard heat and added in-wall carrier, feels luxurious and spacious.
Tillmann said he appreciated some of the benefits of the Viega in-wall carrier, particularly the installation guide. A line on the carrier shows exactly the height it should be off the finished floor.
“It helped me not to have to do a lot of calculations,” Tillmann said. “You figure out where your finished floor will be, then use the line and secure it in. It’s a very nice feature.”
He paired the in-wall carrier with the Visign for Style 12 flush plate, in mat chrome with dual volume buttons.
The Viega products complete the greater-Boston-area home’s bathroom, bringing it up to date and making it attractive at the same time.
