Contractor/designer recommended these brands I have not heard of

What are the warranties on those suppliers? Moen's can be cheap china stuff too. The warranty tells you how long the maker will stand behind their product.

Can this designer be trusted or a close friend? I know there are some designers / contractors get kickbacks (commission) from a vendor if the owner choose to go with the vendor. And when sh*t hits the fan, vendor blames contractor, contractor blames designer, designer blames vendor....

Ultimately, the owner (yourself) must do your own research to figure out what is good and what is not. You will have to think about if it fails, what impact it would have, what is the downtime looking/waiting for replacement parts, how hard is it to replace the parts, etc.

engineered wrote: ↑ What are the warranties on those suppliers? Moen's can be cheap china stuff too. The warranty tells you how long the maker will stand behind their product.

Warranty on installation? Or warranty on product? Warranty can be an extreme headache (to file the claim, waiting time, arranging to have someone to come in to replace the parts, etc).

For example, my general contractor is pretty good when it comes to warranty. Two of my tiles were loose and grout is cracked. He will have come into my house during business hours for a few hours (over a span of few days) removing the old grout, applying adhesive, allow +24hr curing, apply grout, allow a few days curing, apply grout sealant. All this headache. I ended doing it myself because it is less headache or lost time.

My contractor has an in house designer so we went with them. I’m just worried about all of these fixtures that I have never heard of and can’t find reviews on. Most of them have 1-2 year product warranty but there are so many exclusions. Our general contractor only offers 2 year installation warranty.

A lot of times I recommended brands that were discussed here and our designer shot them down with her own awful personal experiences.

This is all giving me a headache.

Didi_beee wrote: ↑ My contractor has an in house designer so we went with them. I’m just worried about all of these fixtures that I have never heard of and can’t find reviews on. Most of them have 1-2 year product warranty but there are so many exclusions. Our general contractor only offers 2 year installation warranty.

A lot of times I recommended brands that were discussed here and our designer shot them down with her own awful personal experiences.

This is all giving me a headache.

So your contractor hired this designer?
Ultimately, you are the owner, you have the power. If they don't install what you want, you can hire someone else. Why is this so hard?

Didi_beee wrote: ↑ My contractor has an in house designer so we went with them. I’m just worried about all of these fixtures that I have never heard of and can’t find reviews on. Most of them have 1-2 year product warranty but there are so many exclusions. Our general contractor only offers 2 year installation warranty.

A lot of times I recommended brands that were discussed here and our designer shot them down with her own awful personal experiences.

This is all giving me a headache.

1-2 years is pretty short on faucets.

I used only Riobel products for my bathroom remodel. Shower heads and controls, tub spout and controls, sink faucets.

I believe all are designed/made in Canada. Quality feels good and no issues in the past 5 months or so.

The thing about working with a designer is that they are supposed to deal with all the headaches of design. If you're going to use one, pick one that you trust and let them do their job, or don't use one at all. There's no value add in you second guessing everything they do or choose. If you're running around finding stuff you like, what are they being paid for? I'm not saying you shouldn't be concerned about what they choose because it is your house. I'm saying you should trust what they choose would be what YOU would choose or at least what you never thought you'd choose until you see it and fall in love with it.

By the way, the last few faucets and showers we have installed have been Riobel and they've been fine. If you're close to TUBS by Yorkdale, they have masses of different brands for you to touch and feel

Both Aquabrass and Riobel are brands pushed by our big plumbing supply stores here - I suspect they are both widely used.

Personally I think there is no comparison between Riobel and say, Hansgrohe. But you can also get a complete set of Riobel for the price of one Hansgrohe faucet (at least when we looked). We had it narrowed down to Riobel and Hansgrohe - strictly on looks - but the two didn't compare when you looked close. And again, to be fair, on price they are not close either.

We've bought many Riobel products over the years and have been really satisfied.
They are based in the Montreal region and some of their products are made in Canada.

I had a problem with my flexible handheld shower piping. It was past warranty, but a simple phone call and they sent a new one without arguing.