Moen — Bath Habits

by Joel Barkman

People often ask the question, "What products are included in my home?" They want to make sure they are not paying for a home built with cheap materials and I enjoy answering them by telling them that I've never built the same house twice.

My clients are often surprised at the level of freedom they have to express themselves. As a custom builder I believe that it is my job to educate — it is your job to make the choices.

Recently a couple that I was consulting with was surprised that I do not include as a "standard" the brand of windows they saw advertised on television the night before. "Aren't they the best?" the couple asked. The windows are on TV, in magazines — even the guy at the "big—box" store said they were the best.

I feel that it is my job to cut through the hype and educate my clients on the facts about what makes a good product, how the product is rated, the features, and the value in terms of cost, maintenance, and warranty. In most cases the most important factor is — you. The product might be perfect for the rest of the world, but is it the right product for your home and your lifestyle.

I have been using Moen faucets for over 20 years now not because of their commercials, but because of their focus on the persons who use their products every day. The manufacturer recently conducted a survey of both parents and kids about children's bathing habits — including questions about how often they bathe, for how long and just how many kids can fit into the 30" x 60" standard bathroom in American homes.

"The findings we discovered in this study were really quite interesting — and in many cases, contrasted significantly with our previous 'adult' research," said Jack Suvak, Moen's director of market research and insights.

"We identified some surprising insights — for example, children shower outside of the home an average of three times per week; and the average child spends an average of 23 to 25 minutes in the bath."

Among the findings of the study:

Baths vs. Showers

On the "bath versus shower" topic, many children take both baths and showers. However, not surprisingly, according to adults, a bubble bath ranks highest with the younger set: 85% of six- to eight-year olds take baths (vs. 77% who take showers). Nearly all "tweens" take showers, rather than baths: 97% of 12 to 14-year-olds take showers (vs. 55% who take baths).

Ironically, when children were asked whether they take baths or showers, the results differed significantly. Fifty-five percent of children aged six to eight said they took baths (versus adults, who said that 85% of their children took baths) - a 30% difference in responses; and 71% of tweens said they took showers (versus adults, who said that 97% of their tweens took showers) — again a nearly 30% difference.

Seven Days a Week

When asked how often their children bathe or shower, parents stated that their children (particularly those in the 12-18 age group) bathe or shower every day.

Morning or Night?

Children and parents agree — children are four times more likely to take a bath in the evening than in the morning. They also agree that more than half of the showers taken by children in a week occur in the evening.

How Many in the Tub?

While most adults prefer to bathe solo, three in 10 parents report bathing children together. Those who bathe multiple children would stop doing so for boys and girls together at around five years old and for siblings of the same sex at approximately seven years old.

Parental Supervision?

Most young children are allowed to bathe or shower unsupervised at around seven years old. Seven in 10 adults with a child six to eight-years-old report that their child bathes or showers unsupervised.

Tick Tock in the Bath...

Another unexpected find — children spend about 23-25 minutes lathering up and playing in the bath versus 16 minutes in the shower. A previous study by Moen found that adults spend an average of 13 minutes in the shower.

"If the average child spends 16 minutes in the shower, there are obviously quite a few that spend more time than that," added Suvak. "If water conservation is a concern, there are a number of low-flow showerheads available that do not sacrifice performance."

Moen has nearly 20 showerheads, many of which are kid-friendly hand-held models that meet the recently introduced WaterSense criteria for showerheads. These products offer flow rates of up to 32% less than the industry standard, and many feature modified spray formers that actually increase the velocity of the water streams hitting the body, treating users to a full, satisfying spray.

Keeping It Clean... Outside of the Home

Another unpredicted finding of the study — one in five children report taking baths/showers away from home, averaging nearly three per week. The notion is that many of these children are in middle- or high school, and shower before or after sports and after-school activities.

It's easy to see that for every one question you ask me, such as — "What products do I use?" — there are ten different questions that I need to ask you.

Don't be fooled by sales gimmicks. The best product is always going to be a piece of well placed advice by a professional partner — just "Ask a Builder."

As always e-mail your questions or comments to joel@goldenrulebuilders.com or write to "Ask a Builder" at P.O. box 294, Catlett, VA 20119.

Barkman is president of the Fauquier Chapter of The Northern Virginia Building Industry Association.

Read Joel's column weekly in the