A tale of two faucets

Cifial Techo Straight Lav Faucet

Next week, Hands-On Construction starts remodeling a master and a family bath in Weston.  We've been working with the homeowner, designer and plumbing supplier Waterspot Natick for a few months on product selections and arranging delivery to coordinate with our construction schedule.  The homeowner and designer had selected Euro-style Cifial fixtures for the two lav faucets and the tub fill in the contemporary master bath.

A few weeks ago, our Waterspot sales rep let us know that Cifial, a Portuguese company, was unable to get shipments out of the country and was also having trouble getting component parts for their product.   Waterspot suggested a similarly-styled Graff substitute for the tub fill and offered to give us the two display models of the Cifial lav faucet from their Natick and Providence showrooms.  We conditionally agreed, but asked that Waterspot send the floor models here first, so we could examine them before accepting them for the job.

Graff M.E. Collection Lav Faucet

When the faucets arrived, we discovered that the faucets were identical, except for the brand lettering at the base of the faucets.  The company had undergone a logo update between the manufacturing of the two faucets.  Yes, it was only a cosmetic difference, but a possible source of irritation whenever the homeowner looked at the two lav faucets.  And, additionally, we don't like to start a project with products that may have service or warranty issues going forward - the future of Cifial had started to concern us.

We did some online leg work (bless the Internet) here in our office and found that the Graff lav faucet that matched the replacement tub fill was a similar design, was in stock at Waterspot and might be a viable design alternative.  Our Waterspot sales rep worked with us to match the price of the Cifial faucets and we were able to present an acceptable solution to the designer and homeowner and stay on schedule and within budget.