KCB Boiler Room Breakfast Club: “Shower In An Hour”
Perhaps you’ve seen this at JLC Live, in a distributor’s warehouse, or even on a harbor tour boat. Recently, Installations Plus hosted this amazing demonstration by Schluter Systems in the Boiler Room. Here’s a recap.
Mornings in the Boiler Room, which we refer to as “Breakfast Clubs,” often are more technical than our evening events. Stone restoration, lighting, heat pumps, and custom metal work are some of the topics we’ve platformed.
Earlier this year we were approached by long-time trade partner, Installations Plus, with the idea of hosting an event in our Boiler Room. We listened and agreed to their wish of bringing in reps Brian Holden and Louis Fowler of Schluter Systems to do their "Shower in an Hour" installation demonstration—and we are glad we did. Together, they've presented it hundreds of times, and it showed.
Watching these two in action was really watching a masterclass in storytelling. With Louis working at a fast clip installing the Schluter Shower System, Brian spoke the entire time, and often utilized different books of samples to help tell the Schluter story, along with illustrating what Louis was doing. They delved into Schluter's history while explaining why and how their products were developed. Louis would occasionally jump in, offering his own experiences as a tile installer when working with the Schluter System. Much like their waterproofing membranes, it was seamless.
In the audience were builders, other tile installers, at least three interior designers, and a group of students and their teachers from Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School in Rochester. They also had some time to take a quick tour of our shop. Hopefully we’ll see them again!
Diane Burcz, one of the interior designers with her own firm in Jamaica Plain, shared that this presentation was profound, allowing her a new vantage point when it comes to waterproofing showers.
“As an interior designer, I want to make it easy for the tile installer and the general contractor. I want to make sure that as I’m doing my drawings and specifying materials, I want to make it …easy…. And now I’m thinking of questions that I want to ask general contractors that I’m working with. For instance, ‘Hey, is this a good tile to use?’ And I might even go change some curb heights!”
Other interesting points they brought up, especially while fielding questions from the audience—Brian broke down how important it is to use all parts of the Schluter kits for installation, with Louis sharing a story of a $48,000 shower install failing because the plumber didn’t use an essential component of the kit; Brian also discussed the material of your tile and how that can factor in the waterproofing of the install; the construction of castles beginning in the early Middle Ages of Germany came up as Brian walked us through the function of uncoupling membranes and the tamped-sand method; and when assessing the proficiency of your tile installer, he suggested the importance of the open-ended request: “Tell me what you do for prep when you’re putting a shower together; don’t give them options;” Or “What do you do for waterproofing under your tile?”
We could go on and on.
Thank you all who attended, and keep an eye out for more events like this in the future.
