What rough-in dimensions does the Ella waterfall faucet need behind the wall?

Ella does not publish rough-in dimensions for the waterfall faucet, so the figures your plumber needs come from the dimensioned drawing on the faucet's specification sheet, which you request from your Ella dealer or the team at (800) 480-6850 with your tub model ready. The faucet, its three finishes and what arrives in the set are described in Where Can I Find a Sleek Wall-Mounted Bathtub Faucet for My Tub?, and this page covers what that drawing has to settle, what is fed from inside the wall, and the order in which the wall work happens.

Why the Drawing Comes Before the Framing

The waterfall is a wall faucet. The spout, the double-handle hot and cold control and the 24 inch slider bar all mount on the wall and are fed from inside it, which is what keeps the tub deck clear and gives the faucet its clean look. It also means the hot and cold supplies have to land at the centers of the faucet body, and those centers are fixed by the brass casting rather than by anything your plumber can adjust once the wall is closed. The drawing gives your plumber the position of each supply, the point where the body meets the finished wall, and the location of the slide bar's wall mounts. A wall that is framed, plumbed and tiled first and measured for the faucet afterward leaves no good options, so the drawing is the first item on the list, not the last. Have your tub model ready when you ask, because the right drawing depends on the tub it is going with.

What Is Fed from Inside the Wall, and What Is Not

The waterfall faucet comes as one complete set, and knowing which pieces are wall-fed tells your plumber what needs a rough-in and what does not.

• The main faucet body is cast from A-grade brass with a ceramic cartridge in a brass housing and separate hot and cold handles. Because the handles are separate, you set the temperature by hand each time you fill, and the hot and cold supplies each need their own stub behind the body.
• The slider has a brass base, a 304 stainless steel tube and 24 inch slide travel. Its wall mounts are in the box, and they need solid material behind the wall surface to bite into.
• The shower diverter valve sends water either to the waterfall spout or to the hand shower.
• Two stainless steel hoses, each about 59 inches long, connect the diverter and the hand shower. They run outside the wall and need no rough-in of their own.
• The extendable multi-function hand shower has four spray settings and a holder that adjusts up and down and side to side, with a reversible attachment so it can sit on either side.
• Decorative cover plates finish the points where the brass body meets the wall, and the set includes installation hardware, brass connectors and a hex key for assembly.

Maximum flow is rated at about 10.5 gallons per minute, a figure worth passing to your plumber when the supply lines are sized. Because the hand shower is wall-fed from the start, the barrel extension kit used for relocated deck hand showers is not needed. The waterfall's slider is part of the faucet set; it is a different item from the separate slide bar kit that pairs a hand shower with a deck-mounted faucet, described in What is a slide bar in a shower and who needs one?

The Sequence Your Plumber Follows

1. Request the dimensioned drawing, giving your tub model and the faucet finish you have chosen.
2. Choose the slider position where the wall can carry solid blocking, and plan blocking where the faucet body and the slide bar mounts will land.
3. Set reachable shut-off valves at the same time, so the supply can be isolated later without opening the wall.
4. Run the hot and cold supplies so they land at the faucet body's centers shown on the drawing.
5. Finish and test the supply rough-in before the wall surface is closed and tiled.
6. After the wall is finished, mount the body, the slider and the diverter, fit the cover plates, and connect the hoses and the hand shower.

This is work for a licensed plumber. Ella ships the faucet and supports your plumber with the drawing and technical support, but Ella does not send technicians, so the plumber's schedule and the drawing request need to line up before any drywall goes up.

Which Tubs This Applies to

The waterfall is a listed option for the LayDown and HomeCare tubs, and the rough-in question comes up differently on each. The LayDown 30x60 never ships with a factory faucet and has no faucet option at all, so a wall-mounted faucet of this kind is the only way to fill it and the wall rough-in is part of the plan from day one. The LayDown 32x72 is faucet-ready and takes either a deck-mount Ella faucet or the wall-mounted waterfall, so you choose when you place the order. On the HomeCare 32x60 the waterfall option is listed at 11.9 gallons per minute. Every other seated Ella tub normally ships with a deck-mounted 2-piece or 5-piece fast-fill set, and because every Ella tub is drilled to order, a waterfall on one of those is a request made to your Ella dealer or the team before the deck is drilled, so the tub can be delivered without deck faucet holes. The model-by-model picture is in Which Ella walk-in tubs can be ordered with the waterfall faucet?, and the background on the faucet itself is in What Is the Waterfall Faucet on an Ella Tub?.

Finish and Look

The three finishes are matte black, chrome and brushed nickel, and the rest of the tub hardware stays chrome whichever you choose. Chrome gives the most uniform look because it matches the tub's own hardware, brushed nickel suits a bathroom already built around brushed nickel fixtures, and matte black suits a bathroom designed around black accents. Decide the finish before you request the drawing so the whole order goes out together, and clean the finish with mild soap and water once it is in.

Related Guides

• Ella Fast-Fill Faucets: 2-Piece vs 5-Piece, Finishes, and the Waterfall Option
• The Waterfall Wall-Mount Faucet: Installation Overview, Slider Bar, Finishes and Fill Expectations

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