Selecting a New Bathtub

Photo from www.top-hottub.net.

It may seem like a simple decision at first, but there’s a lot more to renovating your bathroom than picking the colours you like. Let’s talk about one of the most important elements of a bathroom: the bathtub.

Being so frequently used by all members of the family, it is important to think about it from all angles when deciding to purchase a new one. After all, you can’t just take it back after it’s installed.

First of all, you’ll want to ask yourself, “who is going to be using the bathtub?” Do you have small children, or elderly parents? Are any of the potential users disabled? Will more than one person need to be in there at time? Questions like those will guide your decision-making, and help you to select
the most appropriate tub to meet your real needs.

Another thing you’ll want to consider is the current setup of your bathroom. Are you creating a whole new bathroom, or just upgrading an existing one? Will there be enough space to accommodate the bathtub you would like to install? What about water lines and drain pipes? True, that’s not exciting to think about, but it’s very important to take care of all the technical details before focusing entirely on aesthetics.

Three things you’ll want to consider when actually choosing your tub is the drain hole, the overflow, and the faucet location. As you might have guessed, the drain is the hole in the bottom of the tub through which bath water escapes to the drainage system. Be sure to take measurements and ensure that the holes in your bathroom and the hole in the new tub line up perfectly.

The overflow is another hole located near the top of the bathtub which is also connected to the drainage system. Its purpose is to prevent the tub from overflowing should you be so unfortunate as to leave the taps running for an extended period of time.

Last, but not least, pay attention the faucet location. Tubs come in all varieties, and may have one, two, or three faucet holes, depending on the make. Some have no holes at all; these are tubs designed to work with wall or floor-mounted faucets. Again, check the setup you have with the specifications of the tub you want to buy.