Master Bathroom — Part 8

The last post on the master bathroom ended with the toilet installed and the wall behind tiled, but only halfway up, with some plumbing work inside the wall remaining.  That work, of course, as I mentioned awhile back, was the installation of the (uncommon) urinal.

Ubiquitous in all public and commercial men's restrooms, but uncommon in residential bathrooms.  I suspect the primary reason for this (aside from any Victorian reservations) is manufacturers don't make it easy for home installations.  That, an understatement.  There was an instruction sheet, but it was so simplistically vague as to be laughable.

I bought a Kohler urinal and a Kohler flush valve, thinking they would work well with each other.  Not.  I discovered I needed to modify the interface to make them go together (filing and grinding). 

I talked to the Kohler technical people, and discovered there were minimum pipe diameter requirements (at least 3/4"), as well as water pressure mandates (at least I had plenty of that).  I later discovered in an obscure note in one of the technical sheets that there were also minimum flow rate requirements (a lot more than my water softener would allow).  So I ran a separate 1" PEX line to the urinal, upstream from the water softener (which dramatically reduces flow rate).

The technical spec sheets gave comprehensive dimensions for mounting everything, although the critical dimensions were ranges (huh?).  It was clear that one specific measurement was required; perhaps the range was to accommodate components from other manufacturers, or different models.  Who knows?

Early on I decided on the proper height for the outflow pipe, and that dictated everything that followed.  In the photo below, you can see the brass fitting that screwed onto the 2" outflow pipe.  The weight of the urinal is supported by two steel hangers, each affixed to the wall with two large screws.  But how high should these brackets go, and where exactly did holes for the screws need to be drilled?  I checked the dimensions in the instruction sheet, and measured the urinal—they did not jive.  So I mounted the urinal on a piece of plywood using my measurements, and then made slight changes.  I discovered while the ceramic urinal body was precisely cast, the tabs that hang over the brackets were placed on by hand (before the piece was fired); the left side and right sides ended up at slightly different heights.  I made adjustments.

I then transferred the final measurements to a piece of tape, and used a diamond cutter to start the holes through the hard tile surface, then drilled through the tile and cement backboard into the wood support piece. 

 Then screwed the brackets to the wall. 

Hanging the urinal on the brackets, I discovered the brass outflow bracket was a little too high (bolt holes did not line up), so I added a couple of plastic shims to the brackets and everything lined up perfectly!  The bottom of the urinal bolts to the brass bracket, compressing a soft gasket around the outflow passage to make a waterproof seal. 

I left the white 1" PEX water supply line long and unattached until the urinal was hung.  Then I assembled the pieces of the valve and cut the PEX to suit, and connected the PEX line to the valve.  Because the PEX line didn't provide a rigid support, I squirted in some expanding foam insulation (trimmed after it cured).

There is a shutoff (quarter-turn ball) valve for the 1" supply line in the wall a couple of feet up, which needed an access door.  I installed wooden support pieces for that and then the drywall went up.  The metal access door frame screwed into the wood, and joint compound added to blend metal to drywall.  (No flushing the urinal for now, until the new water supply system is complete — half-gallon flush.)

Moving right along, finally, I installed crown molding at the top of the wall (only place in the house that gets this molding).  I first screwed nailing blocks to the underlying structure.

Here's what the crown molding looks like after some paint.

Before moving back to the guest bathroom, I added the mahogany edge trim to the vanity carcass.  With all the work going on, the vanity/workbench got pretty cluttered.

Cleaned off, as occasionally happens:

I did some more grouting, but Home Depot ran out of the 4" x 12" tile I'm using for the shower wall, so the tiling has temporarily come to a halt.  But this is a view of the current state of affairs:

I had dreams of building drawers for the vanity cabinet, but thought better of that, since drawer-building could run for a couple of months (if the kitchen and laundry room drawers are included).  So the plan is to resume work in the guest bathroom.