Remodel of 100-year-old showroom avoids breaking through Terrazzo flooring with Saniflo above-floor plumbing solution

Mini-Case Study | November 2021

Winthrop Supply Company converts 3,500-square-foot showroom into plumbing educational center, choosing Saniflo’s Sanibest Pro for the bathroom build-out.

Problem

INDIANAPOLIS — Winthrop Supply Company is a family-owned and operated, independent plumbing wholesaler, founded in 1939. The company provides top-quality residential and commercial plumbing supplies to plumbing, heating, and mechanical contractors throughout the central Indiana area. Fritz Steck, now retired, has been with the organization for over 50 years.

“Our customers have been able to find and complete a number of nonconventional plumbing projects because of the new opportunities the above-floor products give them,” he explains.

According to Steck, Winthrop owned a 3,500-square-foot showroom across the street from the company’s main facility in Indianapolis and saw it as a perfect opportunity to utilize the space. The plans were to build out an education center/conference room to present products (like Saniflo’s Sanibest Pro) to the plumbing trade, including an employee break room with a full bath and a separate office.

When Winthrop started construction on the bathroom in 2019, Steck quickly realized going the conventional plumbing route would require breaking through the floor — which wasn’t really an option, given the building’s age and irreplaceable Terrazzo flooring material.

Steck knew this opportunity would require an above-floor plumbing solution to provide the proper drainage for the new bathroom build-out, while saving the Terrazzo floor.

Solution

Given Winthrop Supply’s success with Saniflo products, Steck was confident in installing the Sanibest Pro to handle a public facility like the new break-room bathroom.

“The grinder system is able to accommodate drainage of multiple fixtures, eliminate clogging worries, and maintain a flexible drain line, all without having to break through the floor,” says Steck. “This saves us installation time and labor costs.”

The 1-horsepower pump and heavy-duty operation of the Sanibest Pro grinder can quickly dispose of sanitary objects that might well clog a conventional toilet. With each flush, the unit’s cutting blades rotate 3,600 RPM to quickly reduce the waste that is pumped from the bottom of the unit upward 25 feet and/or horizontally 150 feet.

Once the water level inside the container goes down, a micro switch deactivates the system until the next flush. A normal operating cycle for the Sanibest Pro takes about 10 to 12 seconds depending upon the configuration of the discharge pipe run.

The Sanibest Pro can discharge waste from a toilet while also discharging gray water from two additional fixtures; e.g., a sink and shower in a conventional bathroom. In Winthrop Supply’s application, the wastewater from the toilet, a lavatory, and shower, drains into the Sanibest Pro grinder. The unit then pumps the wastewater via a one-inch discharge pipe over 60 feet into the building’s sewage system.

The installed unit was concealed behind the bathroom wall and can be accessed in the small mechanical room adjacent to the facility.

Results

The entire bathroom renovation took about two days to complete and only three hours to install the Sanibest Pro. According to Steck, “The grinder system has been running for a little over two years and we haven’t had to service it once.”

Steck considers this another successful installation of a Saniflo product that Winthrop Supply can now showcase to other plumbers in their Education Center.

“We recommend this product all the time. Having it installed in our space is the perfect show and tell,” he says, adding: “Older plumbers tend to push back on this kind of stuff, so it’s great that we can demonstrate to them how easy and accessible it can be for some of their projects.”

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ABOUT SANIFLO
SFA SANIFLO U.S.A. – whose parent company originated macerating plumbing technology — offers a complete line of waste and drainage pumping systems for residential and commercial applications. Saniflo developed its innovative, “above-floor plumbing” technology more than a half-century ago and has led its commercialization worldwide. Today, the company markets macerating technology through 24 subsidiaries in 50 countries and has sold more than seven million units worldwide since 1958. Saniflo markets through independent sales agents throughout North America, and the product line is currently available at distributor and dealer locations throughout the United States and Canada.

For more information, contact Saniflo at 1-800-571-8191. Or visit the Saniflo website at saniflo.com.

For editorial assistance, including photography, contact John O’Reilly c/o GreenHouse Digital + PR: 815-469-9100 or [email protected].

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