Choosing plumbing fixtures for a custom home in BC: valves, finishes and rough-in

The showroom shows you the handle. The plumber cares about the valve behind it, the drain under it and the rough-in dimension that placed both months before the fixture arrived. The trick to choosing fixtures for a custom home is to know which decisions are furniture, changeable up to install day, and which are structure, locked the day the drywall goes on.

Two passes, months apart

We run fixture selection twice on a Burnaby build. The first pass happens before plumbing rough-in and settles everything that has a dimension buried in the wall or the floor: shower valve bodies and their outlets, tub drain and filler locations, wall-mounted faucet heights, toilet rough-in distances, and the drain size the shower needs. The second pass happens months later and picks trim, handles and finishes, which can change up to the week they go in.

Owners who try to do it all at once burn out on the showroom and default to whatever the display had. Owners who do the first pass on time can spend as long as they like on the second.

Faucet valves: what is inside the body

A kitchen or bathroom faucet is a brass body with a valve cartridge in it. The cartridge is what turns the water on and mixes it, and it is the part that fails. There are three types worth knowing.

Compression valves close a rubber washer against a seat. They are the oldest design and the one that drips after a few years because the washer wears. We do not specify them on a new house. Ball valves, common in older single-handle kitchen faucets, use a slotted ball with springs and seals. They work, and they leak at the seals eventually. Ceramic disc cartridges use two polished ceramic plates that slide against each other with no washer to wear. They are the standard on any faucet worth putting in a custom home, and the thing to confirm with the supplier is that the manufacturer sells the cartridge as a replacement part, because a faucet body outlives its cartridge and the cartridge is the repair.

Single-handle versus two-handle is a preference, with one practical note: a single-handle mixer in a kitchen can be worked with a wrist or a forearm when both hands are dirty, which is why it wins on the working side of a Burnaby kitchen and two-handle sets show up in powder rooms where they are chosen for the look.

Finishes that hold up in a hard-water city

The finish is what the owner touches every day, and it is the part most likely to look tired in year five if it was chosen badly. Two questions settle it.

First, how is the finish applied? Physical vapour deposition, labelled PVD by most manufacturers, bonds a hard metallic layer to the brass at the molecular level. It resists scratching, tarnish and the abrasive side of a cleaning sponge far better than a thin electroplated finish or a painted one. Matte black and brushed brass are the two finishes where the coating process makes the biggest difference, because a poor version of either shows wear at the handle within a couple of years and a good version does not.

Second, what is the warranty on the finish itself? Manufacturers often warrant the valve for a lifetime and the finish for a shorter term, and the finish is the one that fails cosmetically. Polished chrome and brushed stainless remain the most forgiving choices in daily use. They hide water spots and clean with anything. Which is why in our own read on materials that age well, solid brass with a hard finish sits near the top and painted finishes sit near the bottom.

Wall-mounted or deck-mounted

A deck-mounted faucet bolts through the countertop or the sink, and its supply lines connect underneath. Its position floats with the vanity until the countertop is templated. It can be swapped for any other deck-mounted faucet with the same hole pattern for the life of the house.

A wall-mounted faucet has its valve body inside the wall and only the spout and handles come through the finished surface. It looks cleaner, keeps the counter clear and is easier to wipe around. It also locks three dimensions at rough-in: the height of the spout above a countertop that has not been built, the projection of the spout over a sink that has not been chosen, and the spacing of the handles. Get the counter thickness wrong by the depth of a stone slab and the spout sits too low over the basin. Wall-mount is a fine choice in a primary ensuite where the vanity, sink and counter are all decided before rough-in. It is a poor choice anywhere the owner might still change the vanity.

Shower valves and the scald rule

The shower valve body is the fixture decision with the most consequence, because it sits inside a tiled wall and the tile is not coming off to change it.

The 2024 BC Plumbing Code, which is Book II of the BC Building Code and applies to permits applied for on or after March 8, 2024, expanded its water temperature control requirements from fixed-location shower heads to the water supplied to all shower heads, which brings hand showers and body sprays under the same rule. The code sets a maximum delivered temperature for a residential shower, and a lower maximum of 43 degrees Celsius for water discharging from shower heads or into bathtubs in healthcare facilities and seniors' residences. In practice the valve has a limit stop and the plumber sets it on site to the code maximum, which is a step we check at the pre-occupancy walkthrough.

Two valve types meet the rule. A pressure-balancing valve holds the ratio of hot to cold steady, so when a toilet flushes elsewhere in the house and the cold pressure drops, the valve closes down the hot to match instead of letting the shower spike. It has one handle that controls temperature and volume together. It is the right valve for a secondary bath or a guest suite.

A thermostatic valve holds a set temperature regardless of what the supply does, with separate control of temperature and volume, and it can feed several outlets at once through a diverter or through individual volume controls. A primary ensuite with a rain head, a hand shower and body sprays wants one, because a pressure-balancing valve cannot serve multiple outlets well. Both types are rough-in parts. Both have to be chosen, with their exact outlet count, before the plumber roughs the wall.

The outlet count matters for a second reason. Under the 2024 code, shower drain sizes are based on the litres per minute discharged from all shower heads and body sprays combined, where earlier editions sized the drain by the number of heads. Add body sprays after rough-in and the drain in the floor may be too small for the water coming out of the wall.

Buy the valve before the tile. Everything else in the bathroom can wait.

Icon Projects Team

Toilets: flush performance over flush volume

Flush volume is the number on the label. Natural Resources Canada's R-2000 standard calls for toilets using 4.8 litres per flush or less and notes that the figure is based on the WaterSense specification, and the BC Plumbing Code 2024 keeps the province's existing dual-flush limits at 6.0 litres full and 4.1 litres reduced. Any toilet a Burnaby supplier sells will sit inside those numbers.

What separates a good toilet from a bad one at the same volume is the bowl and the trapway: how the water enters the bowl, how large the trapway is, and whether the design clears the bowl in one flush. A toilet that needs two flushes to do its job is using twice the water the label says, which makes the efficiency claim meaningless. We ask suppliers for independent flush performance test results rather than the marketing sheet, and we favour a fully glazed trapway and a skirted base that is easier to clean around.

Wall-hung toilets deserve a specific note. The tank and the carrier frame live inside the wall, which makes the room look larger and the floor easy to mop. The carrier is a rough-in item, its rough-in height sets the seat height forever, and the toilet can only be replaced by a model that fits that carrier. It is a good fixture for an ensuite that is designed once. It is a permanent decision, and we say so.

Floor-mounted toilets connect to a drain flange set at a fixed distance from the finished wall, and that distance is chosen from the toilet's specification before the drain is placed. Most models use a common standard distance, which is why they are the easy fixture to swap later. Choose an unusual rough-in distance because a particular model needed it, and the replacement pool shrinks to that model's family.

Freestanding tubs: the drain decides the tub

A freestanding tub looks like furniture. It is plumbed like a fixture, and every dimension of that plumbing comes from the specific tub model.

The drain and the overflow on a freestanding tub connect below the tub through the floor, at a location set by the manufacturer's drawing. The filler can be floor-mounted, a tall spout rising from the floor beside the tub with supply stubs at a precise offset from the tub's edge, or wall-mounted, or deck-mounted on a ledge. Each puts the water supply somewhere different. On a suspended slab or a heated floor, the drain location and the floor-mounted supply stubs are set in concrete or under a heating mat and are permanent.

So the tub gets chosen, by model, before rough-in, and the drawing goes to the plumber. We also confirm the tub's footprint against the room, because a tub that is too big for the ensuite layout is not a tub anyone will use, and a tub that fits with no space to clean behind it is a tub that grows mould at the wall. A structural check follows on any upper floor, because a large tub full of water and a person is a real load on a floor framed for a bedroom.

The rough-in dimensions that lock when the walls close

Here is the list we hand owners before their first showroom visit, so they know which choices are permanent:

• Shower valve body type, outlet count and mounting height.
• Shower drain size and location, sized to the total flow of every outlet.
• Tub model, drain and overflow location, and filler type.
• Wall-mounted faucet valve height and spacing, against a known counter and sink.
• Toilet rough-in distance from the finished wall, and the carrier height for any wall-hung unit.
• Supply and drain locations for any fixture on a slab, a heated floor or an exterior wall.

Everything else, the handle style, the spout shape, the finish, the toilet seat, the vanity faucet on a deck-mounted vanity, is furniture. Change it as often as you like before install day.

The owner who understands that list spends the first pass carefully and the second pass happily. The owner who does not usually meets a concrete saw somewhere in month nine.

Frequently asked questions

Should I choose a thermostatic or a pressure-balancing shower valve for a Burnaby custom home?

Both meet the 2024 BC Plumbing Code's temperature control rules, which now cover the water supplied to every shower head rather than only fixed heads. A pressure-balancing valve reacts to pressure changes so the shower does not spike when a toilet flushes elsewhere in the house, and it is the simpler and less costly option for a secondary bath. A thermostatic valve holds a set temperature regardless of supply changes and gives independent control of temperature and volume, which suits a primary ensuite with multiple outlets. Either way the valve body is a rough-in part and has to be chosen before the walls close.

What does the BC Plumbing Code say about scald protection in showers?

The 2024 BC Plumbing Code, which is Book II of the BC Building Code and applies to permits applied for on or after March 8, 2024, expanded its water temperature control requirements from fixed-location shower heads to the water supplied to all shower heads. It also sets a lower maximum of 43 degrees Celsius for water discharging from shower heads or into bathtubs in healthcare facilities and seniors' residences. For a private home the code sets a maximum delivered temperature for showers that the valve must be limited to, and the limit stop is set on site by the plumber.

What is the difference between a wall-mounted and a deck-mounted faucet for a bathroom in Burnaby?

A deck-mounted faucet bolts through the countertop or the sink and its supply lines connect underneath, so its position can move with the vanity until the countertop is cut. A wall-mounted faucet has its valve body inside the wall and its spout and handles come through the finished wall, which means the valve height and spacing are fixed at rough-in relative to a countertop and sink that do not exist yet. Wall-mount looks cleaner and frees the counter, but it locks three dimensions months early and depends on the exact sink and counter thickness being known.

How much water does a water-efficient toilet use in Canada?

Natural Resources Canada's R-2000 standard calls for water-saver or ultra-low flush toilets using 4.8 litres per flush or less, and notes the figure is based on the WaterSense specification. The BC Plumbing Code 2024 keeps BC's existing dual-flush limits of 6.0 litres for a full flush and 4.1 litres for a reduced flush. Flush volume is only half the story; a toilet's bowl design and trapway determine whether that volume actually clears the bowl in one flush.

What has to be decided about a freestanding tub before plumbing rough-in?

The exact tub model, because its drain location, overflow position and the filler type all set where pipes come through the floor. A floor-mounted tub filler needs its supply stubs in the floor at a precise offset from the tub, and a suspended slab or a heated floor makes that location permanent. Deck-mounted or wall-mounted fillers move the supply to a different place entirely. We ask owners to confirm the tub before rough-in and treat a later change as a floor-cutting job, which on a Burnaby slab-on-grade basement bath is exactly what it is.

Which faucet finishes hold up best over time?

Finishes applied by physical vapour deposition, often labelled PVD, bond a hard metallic layer to the brass body and resist scratching and tarnish far better than a thin electroplated or painted finish. Polished chrome and stainless are the most forgiving in daily use; matte black and brushed brass look good but show water spots and wear at the touch points, and the difference between a good and a poor version of those finishes is the coating process, not the colour. Ask the supplier how the finish is applied and what the warranty on the finish itself is, separately from the warranty on the valve.

Why does the shower drain size depend on the shower heads in BC?

Under the 2024 BC Plumbing Code, shower drain sizes are based on the litres per minute discharged from all shower heads and body sprays combined, where earlier editions sized the drain by the number of heads. A primary ensuite with a rain head, a hand shower and body sprays can put out more water than a single drain built for one head can carry away, and the drain and its pipe are rough-in items. That is why the full list of shower outlets has to be settled before the plumber sizes the drain, not after tile.

Can I change a faucet or toilet model after the house is built?

Deck-mounted faucets and floor-mounted toilets with a standard rough-in distance are easy to swap for the life of the house, which is one reason we favour them in secondary baths. Wall-mounted faucets, in-wall shower valves, wall-hung toilets with an in-wall carrier, and floor-mounted tub fillers are tied to dimensions inside the wall or floor and are only swappable within the same manufacturer's system, if at all. On a custom home we tell owners which fixtures are permanent choices and which are furniture, and we spend the selection time on the permanent ones.