How to Choose Traditional Taps

Start by choosing the taps for your bath, ask yourself the questions posed below and note the points made:

Question: Will the taps be mounted on the edge of the bath, be floor mounted and freestanding or will they be wall mounted?

IF MOUNTING ON THE EDGE OF THE BATH (through tap holes)

• There are three main kinds of traditional bath taps - separate hot and cold bath taps, or a bath filler with hot and cold controls and a spout that joins them, or a bath shower mixer which is like a bath filler but with a traditional style handheld shower on a flexible hose over the top of the tap.
• All contemporarily manufactured traditional bath taps, fillers and bath shower mixers expect 2 tap holes with the distance between the holes centres being 180mm.
• If the water feeds to the tap will be visible then you will cover these with pipe shrouds which are chrome plated and adjustable in length. For many traditional taps and bath combinations the chrome (or nickel) pipework on display is an essential part of that traditional style and look, a good example of this would be the traditional slipper baths. Pipe shrouds are usually bought with or as part of an exposed bath waste kit.

IF FLOOR MOUNTED AND FREESTANDING ON STANDPIPES

• Standpipes come in different sizes for all traditional baths with feet a set of 660mm high standpipes will be fine. For some boat baths and similar taller baths you may need a set of 710mm standpipes.
• All traditional taps will fit on a set of standpipes but not all of them will have enough reach on the spout to comfortably get over the edge of all baths, so you must check that the reach will be enough for your bath.

IF WALL MOUNTED

• Some traditional bath shower mixers can be mounted directly onto the wall, in addition traditional wall mounted bath fillers with two separate controls and a separate spout can be found. In all cases when wall mounting taps you must ensure that the wall they will be mounted in is suitable and you should make sure that whichever taps you use will have enough reach to get over the edge of your bath.

Once you have chosen a set of traditional style bath taps choose your basin taps from the same range so that they will match.

Another popular choice for high end traditional taps is to have them finished in brushed nickel or polished nickel instead of chrome. This gives a luxury traditional finish that looks fantastic but does cost more than chrome.

Thermostatic Taps

Another option that has only recently become available are fully thermostatic traditional style taps, Burlington now do the Tay thermostatic bath shower mixers which can be matched with their Claremont, Anglesey and Birkenhead tap ranges.

Special Notes for Antique Baths

• If it's an antique bath and the tap holes are on the inside of the bath then usually you may need to fit traditional globe taps, these are separate hot and cold taps designed to fit through on the inside of the bath, because of the possible variation in the shape of an antique bath between the tap holes its hard or impossible to say if a wall mounted bath mixer or bath shower mixer will fit.
• If you have an antique bath with tap holes on the top edge of the bath check that the tap holes are 180mm apart at the centres, if not then you should look for a cranked leg bath shower mixer as these have tap legs that fix the tap to the bath and which will swivel allowing the tap to fit even with non-standard tap hole spacing.