What Size and Spacing Are the Faucet Holes on the Tub4Two?

The Tub4Two deck is drilled at the factory for the faucet selected on your order, and the spec sheet gives three opening sizes for its two-piece fast-fill faucet: a 2-1/2 inch diameter hole for the faucet body, a 1/3 inch diameter hole for the mounting rods as printed, and a 7/8 inch diagonal hole for the pull-out hand shower. The center-to-center spacing between those holes is not printed on the spec sheet, so a plumber checking whether another fixture will fit needs that figure confirmed by the team before the tub is ordered. The broader rules for pairing an Ella tub with your own fixture are in Using Your Own Faucet: No-Faucet Orders, Pre-Drilled Decks, Wall-Mount Options, and Which Tubs Require a Customer-Supplied Faucet.

What the Tub4Two Spec Sheet Lists, and What It Leaves Out

What these figures mean in practice: the three hole sizes tell your plumber whether a fixture's body, its mounting hardware and its hand shower receptacle can physically pass through the deck openings. The spacing is the piece the spec sheet does not give, and it is the piece that decides whether a two-piece fixture from another maker lines up at all. A fixture whose body fits the 2-1/2 inch opening but whose hand shower sits a different distance away still will not land on the pre-drilled holes. That is why the comparison has to be made with the team against your specific order rather than from the published sheet alone.

Why the Deck Is Drilled to Order

When your order is placed, your tub is pulled with your name on it and drilled for whatever faucet you selected. Ella's faucet options walkthrough shows the three factory choices side by side, the two-piece high-flow faucet, the thermostatic control valve faucet and the five-piece high-flow faucet, and makes exactly this point: each bathtub is custom drilled for its selected faucet. The Tub4Two spec sheet documents the two-piece set, so the openings in the table describe that configuration. A different set means a different hole pattern, which is one more reason the team confirms the layout for your order rather than quoting a universal figure.

Two shipping details matter to a plumber. The faucet is assembled on the deck but is not hooked up to the supply lines when the tub leaves the factory, so the tub can ship fully drained, and your installer connects the supply lines on site. And on a no-faucet order the deck still arrives drilled for the Ella set, so you need to plan a matching deck-mount faucet or cover plates for the openings. The Tub4Two is a seated tub, and every seated Ella tub is normally ordered with its fast-fill faucet set and pull-out hand shower included. The LayDown60 is the only tub that never comes with a factory faucet.

The faucet is treated differently from the grab bar in this respect. A faucet can be left off your order and supplied on your own, while Ella does not factory-install a grab bar from another supplier, as Can Ella Factory-Install a Grab Bar From Another Supplier? explains. In both cases the holes placed at the factory fix the spacing for anything that goes into them, and a replacement has to match those holes exactly.

How the Two-Piece Faucet Uses the Pre-Drilled Holes

The installation video on this page shows the sequence on a tub that arrived with the pre-drilled holes, which is the clearest way to see what each opening does.

1. The two-piece unit is inserted into the main hole. A built-in gasket on the bottom of the faucet set has to be seated correctly.
2. Under the deck, a metal locking plate with a cutout and a foam gasket go on. The attachment bolts are hand screwed, secured with a screwdriver, and the locking nuts are tightened with an extra quarter to half turn without over torquing.
3. The supply lines go on next, hot marked red and cold marked blue. Both lines have reverse threads. After hand tightening, add a quarter to half turn with a wrench.
4. The hand shower receptacle, with its own built-in gasket, drops into its pre-drilled hole and is held by a plastic locking nut, again with a quarter to half turn beyond hand tight.
5. The shower hose is threaded through the receptacle and attached with an adapter nut on the brass connector, with the gasket seated before tightening.

A fixture from another maker has to accomplish the same things through the same openings: a sealed body in the large hole, hardware that locks from below through the rod hole, and a sealed receptacle in the hand shower hole. Anything that cannot do that is a cover plate job rather than a direct swap.

What to Send the Team Before You Order

• Open a ticket at ellasbubbles.com/support, call (800) 480-6850, or ask your Ella dealer, and say that you are planning the Tub4Two around a specific fixture.
• Give the fixture's own installation template or spec: its body diameter, the number and size of its mounting holes, and the hand shower opening it needs.
• Ask for the hole layout and the center-to-center spacing for the Tub4Two with the faucet on your order. Measuring center to center is how the team matches other factory-drilled holes on an Ella tub, as described in Replacement Interior Grab Bars: Matching the Hole Spacing on Your Tub.
• Confirm the supply side at the same time. Two 5 foot lines with 3/4 inch connectors ship with the Ella set, the hand shower is limited to 1.9 GPM, and the fill rate is designed for up to 16 GPM at 60 PSI.
• Settle the choice before the order is placed. Once the deck is drilled, the options are the Ella set, a matching deck-mount fixture, or cover plates over the unused openings.

Watch: Ellas Bubbles: Two Piece Fast-Fill Faucet Set Installation video with chapters and a full transcript.

Related Guides

• Do I need 3/4 inch supply lines for the Ella fast-fill faucet?
• Ella Fast-Fill Faucets: 2-Piece vs 5-Piece, Finishes, and the Waterfall Option
• Ordering a Complete Drain and Overflow Assembly and How It Is Replaced

Common Questions