QuickDrain USA

Resource-rich website offers intelligent, user-centric product selector tool, allowing installers to customize QuickDrain shower-drain products to their particular specifications QuickDrain USA has unveiled a new and completely reimagined website, quickdrain.com, designed to offer the ultimate user-friendly experience to design professionals and their clients. Providing intuitive design, improved navigation and functionality, the new website allows visitors Read more

Resource-rich website offers intelligent, user-centric product selector tool, allowing installers to customize QuickDrain shower-drain products to their particular specifications

QuickDrain USA has unveiled a new and completely reimagined website, quickdrain.com, designed to offer the ultimate user-friendly experience to design professionals and their clients. Providing intuitive design, improved navigation and functionality, the new website allows visitors to immerse themselves in the full QuickDrain portfolio and to customize those products through a new and innovative product selector tool.

The new website affirms QuickDrain’s brand promise; an elegant blend of design, versatility, and functionality. With high-quality, visually appealing, in-use imagery and clear calls to action, the website delivers to designers, architects, installers, and showroom consultants not only a service, but also an experience, offering an abundance of bath-design inspiration, helpful tools and resources.

The site incorporates the following enhancements:

  • Product Selector Tool: The new selector tool (located under the Products tab in the navigation menu) allows installers to customize QuickDrain products to meet the needs of their particular application. Designers and their clientele can now configure a QuickDrain shower solution themselves by responding to a series of questions: Curb or curbless? Linear or center point drain? The selector tool also requests details on drain placement, outlet orientation and enclosure dimensions, while offering customers a visual interface where they can change various attributes (drain cover finish, material, parts, etc.). The payoff is a fully customized PDF-outline of the QuickDrain system designed to their specifications.
  • Where to Buy: Quotes and information on where to purchase QuickDrain products are now easily requested through an online form that speeds and streamlines the process. Once the form has been submitted, a member of the QuickDrain Customer Champion Team will contact the customer to walk them through the purchasing and installation process.

“Our primary goal during the redesign process was to create a more valuable, user-centric, and responsive resource for QuickDrain customers,” says Chris Oatey, General Manager of QuickDrain USA. “Specifically, we wanted to focus on delivering our brand’s promise of luxury, while making it easier for users to learn and locate valuable information about our linear and SquareDrain solutions for their particular application or building type.”

The new website features five key navigation channels: Products, Markets, and Installation, plus Education and Training. Besides accessing product and application information, including case studies, visitors can use these channels to access technical documents (submittals, BIM Revit, Code Approvals, etc.) and explore how-to videos and online training opportunities.

The new site at https://www.quickdrain.com/ can be fully accessed through all the major browsers, especially the latest versions of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox.

ABOUT QUICKDRAIN USA AND OATEY CO.

Part of the Oatey family of brands, QuickDrain USA is a premier manufacturer of curbless and curbed shower solutions for showers and wet areas. Balancing elegant design with exceptional performance and universal design, QuickDrain’s shower solutions offer best-in-class accessibility, flexibility and ease of installation, making them the ideal choice for healthcare, hospitality and residential renovations and new builds alike. For more information, visit www.quickdrain.com or follow QuickDrain on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.

Since 1916, Oatey has provided reliable, high-quality products for the residential and commercial plumbing industries, with a commitment to delivering quality, building trust and improving lives. Today, Oatey operates a comprehensive manufacturing and distribution network to supply thousands of products for professional builders, contractors, engineers and do-it-yourself consumers around the world.

Oatey is based in Cleveland, Ohio, and has locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and China. For more information, visit www.oatey.com, call (800) 321-9532 or follow Oatey on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

 

General contractor Turner Construction uses QuickDrain USA’s ShowerLine linear drain with adaptable pre-sloped PET shower pans to convert old cast iron tubs to modern walk-in showers, reducing installation time and labor costs. The 5-star Four Seasons Houston hotel is only steps away from Minute Maid Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros, making it Read more

General contractor Turner Construction uses QuickDrain USA’s ShowerLine linear drain with adaptable pre-sloped PET shower pans to convert old cast iron tubs to modern walk-in showers, reducing installation time and labor costs.

The 5-star Four Seasons Houston hotel is only steps away from Minute Maid Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros, making it a favorite of out-of-town fans who come to see their favorite team in action. Opened in 1982, the Four Seasons Houston is now in the latter stages of upgrading 404 guest bathrooms to transform the iconic downtown hotel, as part of a multi-year renovation project.

QuickDrain USA's tub-to-shower conversion kits, drains, shower drains, plumbing, service and repair, QuickDrain USA, contractor, Turner ConstructionThe bathroom renovations involve converting 40-year-old cast iron tubs to modern showers. According to project assistant-superintendent, John Upshaw of Turner Construction, converting 404 bathtubs to step-in showers in a building constructed in the ’80s, is no small feat.

The construction team has encountered numerous job-site irregularities, with some bathrooms having more than one layer of drywall in the shower enclosure, altering the dimensions of the enclosure. Meanwhile, other bathrooms were missing cement boards, resulting in damage behind the walls.

“When we demo out a tub, we’re essentially running into different conditions in 404 different bathrooms,” Upshaw explains. “You just don’t know what you’re going to run into.”

So the team had to find a solution that would allow them to adapt to unexpected plumbing rough-in configurations and various shower-enclosure sizes. A product that would speed installation would be the ultimate find for a large project like this one.

QuickDrain USA's tub-to-shower conversion kits, drains, shower drains, plumbing, service and repair, QuickDrain USA, contractor, Turner ConstructionWhich is exactly what the hotel’s architecture and design firm expected to accomplish when they specified QuickDrain USA’s tub-to-shower conversion kits for the project.

QuickDrain’s tub-to-shower conversion kits include an integrated PVC drain body, combined with a pre-sloped PET shower pan and waterproofing sheet membrane.

ShowerLine, used for the Four Seasons Houston project, is a high-quality PVC linear drain system and features a fully sloped trough where water exits through either a vertical or a side waste outlet.  Installers can select from among six decorative drain-cover designs to accent the overall design scheme of any bathroom. In this case, the drain cover “Lines” was deemed the best fit.

Plumber Larry Adams, from Kilgore Industries in Houston, says he highly recommends the QuickDrain linear drain system because it’s easy to install and provides flexibility for the drain installation. Adams was the foreman apprentice during the original construction of the building in the 1980s.

QuickDrain USA's tub-to-shower conversion kits, drains, shower drains, plumbing, service and repair, QuickDrain USA, contractor, Turner ConstructionCore drilling impossible: “These are old cast iron tubs, so the drains were set at different positions and often off-center,” explains Adams. But jack-hammering or core-drilling through the concrete to adjust drain positioning wasn’t an option. Since the hotel is constructed via post-tensioned slabs, core-drilling would compromise the building’s integrity.

To allow enough room for Adams to stub out the existing DWV (drain, waste and vent) lines, which are made of copper, Turner Construction had to chip out the concrete surrounding the existing pipe. “We had a scanning company come out to determine where the rebar was in the slab,” explains Turner’s Upshaw. “Fortunately, we were able to find a location between the rebar to chip a small area around the drain.”

In addition, there was no way to solder the existing copper pipe to a new copper joint because of jagged pieces of metal coming through the concrete and less than half a hand space. Adams had to use a mechanical fastening coupling between the copper and the transition material. Thanks to the PET shower pans’ flexibility, the construction crew was able to cut the drain support panel in half to allow Adams to make the mechanical connection.

 

QuickDrain USA's tub-to-shower conversion kits, drains, shower drains, plumbing, service and repair, QuickDrain USA, contractor, Turner Construction

Made of extruded rigid PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic foam, QuickDrain’s pre-sloped shower panels can be easily cut and pieced together without costly customization, eliminating the time and labor to float the typical pitched concrete shower base.

“The flexibility of the PET pan is a big advantage,” says Upshaw, “especially given the irregularities we run into after removing the tubs.”

Furthermore, the QuickDrain system eliminates the need to knock down and reframe walls. According to Upshaw, the fact that they can cut the PET pans on-site to adjust to practically any condition, saves much needed time and labor costs for a renovation project of this magnitude.

Model-room training critical: QuickDrain conducted on-site, model-room training before the start of the project, performing a full installation to support Turner and Kilgore, as well as tile subcontractor Gulf Coast Flooring, also based in Houston. The training was essential because it provided the tile-setting crew with a solid grasp of how the QuickDrain system works.

“Gulf Coast Flooring is installing the PET pans and tile in all of the bathrooms,” says Upshaw, “so they had to fully understand the process.”

Upshaw believes Kilgore benefited the most from the training because they were able to determine which tools they would need to perform the job. “We were able to knock out any kinks and learn our lessons on what we can do better,” he says. “After that training, Kilgore hit the ground running.”

Tile contractor Jaime Rosa, of Gulf Coast Flooring, says each crew member completes an average five showers per day at the Four Seasons Houston project. “It takes less time than a conventional mud bed, and that translates into cost-savings for us and the hotel.”

Turner’s Upshaw adds: “The finished installation looks great, and as long as it looks good, the hotel is happy.”

Upshaw says he likes the QuickDrain system. “I’ve actually been thinking of putting it in my own home, and we will use it again for similar commercial projects.”