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Do you know what is under your walls? Most people don’t give a second thought to what is under their walls, why would you? Well, when under construction, it’s important to make your material selections early so that when they are roughing in the electrical and plumbing it can be done right the first time. This planning saves time and money in the end.
You will be paying for the electrical and plumbing regardless of whether you plan for it well or not so you might as well customize and consider. Do you want to be able to roll over in bed and flip on and off the sconce and have the outlets and switches at the right height to plug in your phone and put it on your nightstand?
ELECTRICAL:
- Think about the backsplash and how you want the outlets to correlate with the material selected. And think about where you want your devices plugged in as an alternative to keeping your stuff on the kitchen counter.
- Planning ahead on paper will help you consider where lights will be switched. While we will always walk through a project with the electrician and literally mark on the studs where switches will be located, it’s helpful to know in advance roughly where they will go should you need to add any walls for switching.
PLUMBING:
- Toilet Locations. The toilet drain is large and needs to be considered when designing. Sometimes, we have to add a soffit or channel in a built-in. With open concept living, it can be a challenge, but we can plan ahead accordingly.
- Pot Fillers. By code, these cannot be located on an exterior wall. Then again, we always like to have the hood on an exterior wall in order to work best and pot fillers will need to come out of the counter for the best solution.
- Shower Faucets. These cannot run on an exterior wall so sometimes we have to build a double wall or simply put them in the interior wall if possible but also remember to think about the drain.
- Sink Faucets. These need to come from below the faucets and if you want to run the faucet out of the wall then make sure it is an interior wall.
Making decisions early is really important. As the plumber and electrician are roughing in, they need to know what the future plan is for the project. The plumber will need to have the valves installed in the wall months before the tile and final “pretty” part of the faucet is installed.
Enjoy the process and plan ahead!
