BY ROBERT P. MADER
OF CONTRACTOR'S STAFF

COOKVILLE, TENN. — Eggrock LLC, Concord, Mass., announced the first-ever installation of 93 pre-built guest bathrooms for a Holiday Inn Express here being built by Platinum Hospitality Management. Eggrock manufactured the Holiday Inn Express bathrooms in a controlled factory and delivering them to the construction site ready to install. All 93 bathrooms were placed into the hotel in only four days, which resulted in a significant reduction in construction schedule. Each bathroom was pre-tested and inspected to conform to Holiday Inn Express brand's quality requirements.

The company is offering factory built bathroom modules for hotels, healthcare facilities and college dormitories. The modules leave the fixture installation and piping fully inspectable by local plumbing inspectors. The bathrooms are built to meet local codes in force where they are to be installed and can contain any type or brand of plumbing product that the customer specifies.

Eggrock is introducing a concept to the U.S. that is common abroad, Eggrock President and CEO Jeff Barrett told CONTRACTOR. In Europe there are 20 manufacturers, Barrett said, and 95% of the multiple dwelling unit bathrooms in Japan are factory-built.

The bathrooms are shipped on flatbed trailers and are lifted into place with hoisting equipment provided by Eggrock. Once the demising walls have been installed in the room, the bathrooms are rolled across the slab to their final resting place.

Eggrock can supply the plumbing contractor with a template for core drilling through the slab for the drain lines.

For a first floor installation, the drain lines sticking out are cut flush to the slab and the module is rolled into place. The toilet is not installed in a bottom floor unit, so the plumbing contractor can install the toilet flange provided, glue it into the hole, and then install the toilet. The bathtub drain is usually boxed out of the slab so the plumber can usually reach under the module from the outside to connect the drain.

In Europe, multiple dwelling unit buildings are designed to take advantage of modular construction, Barrett said. They use wall-mounted, rear-discharge toilets, for example, and elevate the bathtubs slightly so all of the modules can drain to one, central, two-hour firerated chase that holds all the plumbing, ventilation and electrical lines.

"It's thinking about the bathroom as an appliance," Barrett said.

Bathrooms are one of the most problematic aspects of hotel construction and can be a major cause of schedule delays and quality problems.

In the case of the Holiday Inn Express, the customer was happy with the speed of installation.

"Bathrooms are a critical part of hotel construction because they require a variety of high-skilled trades to be perfectly coordinated under less-thanideal construction site conditions," said Mitch Patel, president of Platinum Hospitality Management. "Eggrock's pre-built bathrooms eliminate this problem by providing a plug-and-play solution to a very complex room. As a result we will open our Holiday Inn Express in record time and with a dramatically improved workmanship quality."

More information is available at www.eggrock.com.