The journal / Pune
Bathroom Fittings Planning: What to Decide Before Tiling Starts
Bathroom fittings planning guide for Pune homeowners: concealed plumbing, fixture positions, drainage slopes and the decisions that must happen before tiling begins.
Written by H&H SPACES — a Pune-based construction and civil contracting company serving Pune and PCMC.
Illustrative imageLast updated: 2026-10-10
Why everything must be decided before the tiles go up
Bathroom fittings planning is the one part of a home build where timing is everything. Once the tiles are fixed on the walls and floor, moving a single concealed pipe or shifting a tap point means breaking the finished surface, redoing waterproofing and retiling — expensive and avoidable. Every fitting decision, from the shower type to the exact height of the taps, has to be locked in while the bathroom is still bare brick and concrete. A little planning at this stage prevents the most common and most frustrating rework in residential construction.
Concealed vs exposed plumbing: the core choice
The first decision is concealed versus exposed plumbing. Concealed plumbing, where pipes run inside chased walls and only the taps and outlets are visible, looks clean and modern and is what most Pune homeowners choose for new construction. It demands precise marking of every point before the walls are closed, and any future leak means opening the wall. Exposed plumbing, with pipes running on the surface, is easier and cheaper to repair and is common in renovations or budget builds. For a new home being built from scratch, concealed is usually worth it — but only if the point positions are finalised first.
The full fittings checklist
Walk through the full fittings list with your contractor before tiling: wall-mounted or deck-mounted taps and mixers for the basin, the shower type and its height, the commode type (a wall-hung commode needs its concealed cistern frame fixed into the wall before tiling), the health faucet, angle valves for every connection, bottle traps or P-traps for the basin, and floor drains. Decide the number of taps — for example, whether you want separate hot and cold taps or a single mixer — because each choice changes the number of concealed points in the wall. Buy the actual fittings or at least confirm the exact models, since different brands use different thread sizes and point spacing.
Drainage, slopes and waterproofing
Drainage planning is invisible once the bathroom is finished, so it gets the least attention and causes the most grief. The bathroom floor needs a gentle slope toward the floor drain so water never pools in corners, and the drain positions must be fixed before the floor is screeded. The entire floor should be waterproofed with an upturn onto the walls before tiling begins — this is the layer that protects the flat below yours. In Pune's older apartment buildings, bathroom leakage into the ceiling below is one of the most common neighbour disputes, and it almost always traces back to poor waterproofing or flat floors.
Electrical and geyser points
Do not forget the electrical and geyser points while the walls are still open. The geyser needs a dedicated power point positioned above its mounting location, the exhaust fan needs its point near the ceiling, and any shaver socket or additional light should be planned now. Keep all switches and sockets outside the splash zone and at safe heights. If you plan a water softener or a pressure pump for the bathroom line, their inlet and outlet points also belong in this planning round — adding them after tiling is far messier.
Mistakes homeowners regret later
The mistakes we see most often are depressingly consistent: shower and tap heights chosen without checking against the actual fitting dimensions, concealed stopcocks buried with no access panel for future maintenance, mixing fitting brands so threads do not match, forgetting anti-skid tiles for wet areas, and floors laid dead flat so water sits instead of draining. Another classic is deciding the bathroom layout after the plumber has already chased the walls. Each of these turns a finishing job into a repair job, and each is completely preventable with a single thorough planning round before tiling.
Get the sequence right in your build
Bathroom work rewards the homeowner who slows down before the tiles arrive. If you are building in Pune and want the plumbing, waterproofing and fittings planned in the right sequence, H&H SPACES — a Pune construction company doing civil, residential, commercial and turnkey work — plans bathroom civil work around the fixtures, not the other way around. Reach out on WhatsApp at +91 84850 54612 to talk through your bathroom plans before your contractor starts tiling.