Plumb Innovative

Home Channel News, Oct 25, 1999 by Monica Toriello

From color-coordinated bath fixtures to plastic piping, plumbing has been redefined over the century as fashionable and easy for the DIYer to install

Residential plumbing is a relative newcomer to the do-it-yourself arena, having been the province of professional plumbers and plumbing supply houses for most of the 20th century. But innovations in both function and fashion over the last 100 years have guaranteed the category a secure place in the DIY market.

The periods following the two World Wars showed phenomenal growth in housing and, consequently, plumbing. Between 1929 and 1954, sales by distributors of plumbing and heating products more than quadrupled, to $2.3 billion from $498 million, according to Plumbing & Mechanical magazine.

It was during this prosperous period that many innovations were introduced that have become mainstays in any retailer's plumbing assortment. Among them were flexible riser tubes and one-piece supply stops, invented by Robert Zell, who founded Brass Craft in 1946; Elkay's stainless steel sinks, which started gaining in popularity in the 1950s; and the single-handle faucet invented by Al Moen, which was sold at retail for the first time in 1947 for $12 and a decade later was in hundreds of thousands of American homes.

Later years saw faucets become even more efficient. Delta Faucet takes credit for the first washerless faucets that featured a stainless steel ball valve. American Standard in 1968 introduced the ceramic disc valve as a more durable alternative to conventional rubber washers. Ceramic disc valving is now an industry standard for drip-free faucets.

Kohler paved the way for plumbing to become more than just a utilitarian category, transforming it into a fashion-oriented industry. The Wisconsin-based manufacturer that in 1911 introduced the first one-piece bathtub also takes credit for popularizing color-coordinated plumbing fixtures. In 1927, Kohler began to sell tubs, toilets and lavatories in colors such as Spring Green, Horizon Blue and West Point Gray. Four decades later it launched a flamboyant campaign, aptly titled "The Bold Look of Kohler," promoting its new product lines. Deep, dark colors on its sinks and lavatories were in stark contrast to the popular pastels of the era. Kohler's concept of decorating with fixtures -- instead of around them -- was soon emulated by other manufacturers.

Plastic man

A few years before Kohler launched its bold look, a Michigan plumber made bold moves that would eventually make do-it-yourself plumbing a reality. In the late 1950s, Robert F. Williams, master plumber, was just beginning to tout his plastic products to homeowners along Michigan's lakefront areas.

During the years after the Korean War, metals were in short supply in the United States. Standard wrought iron and copper tubing were hard to come by, and plumbers were charging astronomical prices for labor. Williams envisioned plumbing systems that were more affordable and less complicated to install, and he saw the potential of plastics. They were not only cheaper, but easier to cut and assemble than metal systems.

"My father gathered whatever plastics he could find in the market to make plastic pipes and fittings," said Robert M. Williams, who is now chairman and CEO of Genova Products, the company his father started in 1962. "And what he couldn't find, he fabricated." The elder Williams sold the plastic products to cottage owners who lived by the water in Michigan. The area wasn't heavily populated and so there were no plumbing codes. Homeowners came to Williams with rough drawings of what they wanted to do in their cottages and sought his advice about indoor plumbing. Williams designed their systems, sold them plastic pipes and fittings and then took the unheard-of tack of showing the homeowners how to install the products themselves.

"He just used simple diagrams and paint-by-numbers types of instructions," recalled the younger Williams. The homeowner as plumber was born.

"Here was a product that wasn't covered by codes, but it really worked," said Williams, who was a mere teenager when he started working alongside his father more than three decades ago. "When those homeowners went to hardware stores looking for an extra elbow or a piece of pipe and they found out that nobody carried the product, they became the 'salespeople' for plastic."

But there was strong resistance from plumbers who were afraid that the growth of plastic plumbing, particularly the PVC pipes and fittings that Williams' company made, would threaten their livelihood. Williams became very visible, championing the cause of PVC plumbing in various cities and meeting with government officials to convince them to rewrite the codes to allow plastic pipe. He wasn't immediately successful, but within 10 to 15 years PVC became widely available and accepted for drain, waste and vent systems. Later, Williams did the same for CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) hot and cold water piping.

Today, Genova is a leading manufacturer of vinyl plumbing. According to research conducted by Cleveland-based Freedonia Group, plastic pipe will be the fastest-growing pipe material through 2003.