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Trade terms for professionals and design studios
Balocchi is an everyday Italian word, and it means toys. Fantini put it on a faucet in the Seventies, and the name fit: the handles are plump four-lobed crosses, the spout is a round red arch, and the set looks as if it came out of a toy chest instead of a plumbing supply house. Paolo Pedrizzetti and Davide Mercatali designed it, and Fantini calls it the company’s icon to this day. A toy is honest about one thing: it is made to be liked on sight. So is this faucet, in a room where most hardware gets specified to disappear.
Anyone used to sorting designer faucets by metal finish will find this one sorted by color: red with chrome, matte black, matte white and, by request, a color from the RAL Classic chart. There are three lavatory faucets to choose from. With three holes, the arched spout stands between a pair of handles; the single-hole version carries spout and handles on one body; a wall-mount brings the spout straight out of the tile. Every edge is rounded off, and under the paint the body is brass. On the stone vanity of an executive or guest bathroom, the three-hole set in red is the one Fantini itself treats as the classic.
The same handles turn up through the rest of the house. Beside the toilet, a single-hole bidet faucet. In the shower, a thermostatic valve set into the wall, a round rain head on a wall or ceiling arm, and a hand shower on its hose. At the tub, either an exposed wall-mounted filler with a hand shower or an in-wall valve paired with a wall spout. In the kitchen, a single-hole faucet with two handles and a swivel spout. Drains, trap and flush plates can match. La Mercanti writes the color callout into the fixture schedule so the red arrives exactly where it was drawn.
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RAL 3000, and it is always paired with chrome: the finish is listed as Red/Chrome under code 0602. On the lavatory set the spout and handles are red while the bases and flanges underneath them are chrome plated.
A quarter turn, 90 degrees. The handles drive ceramic stems, and Fantini fits that same quarter-turn stem to the lavatory, bidet, kitchen and tub faucets, to the in-wall tub and shower valve and to the stop valve.
The spout, which reaches 4.5 in, the two handles, flexible supply lines and a push pop-up drain. Nothing has to be added to the order to get water in and out of the sink. La Mercanti confirms the list against the manufacturer’s part number before the order is placed.
Yes. Fantini’s technical manual lists acoustic insulation as a feature of the in-wall thermostatic valve and of the stop valve that goes with it. The manual states the feature and stops there, so we do the same.
2.1 gpm at 43.5 psi, held there by a flow restrictor. The kitchen faucet is a single-hole model with two handles, delivered with flexible supply lines and without a drain, since the sink brings its own.
The I Balocchi rain head mounts on a wall arm or a ceiling arm, each in several lengths. Five steps to fix its position before the tile goes up.
The rain head is round, 7.9 in across and made of brass, with an anti-scale system and a check valve. Its size does not change, so the two decisions left are where it hangs and how far it stands off the wall or the ceiling.
A wall arm carries the head out over the person showering; a ceiling arm drops it straight down. Both finish in a round flange. In a remodel the choice often follows the piping: whichever surface the supply can reach without opening finished work.
Wall arms are made in 11.8, 13.8, 15.7 and 17.7 in. Ceiling arms are made in 3.9, 9.8 and 17.7 in. Under a tall ceiling the longest drop brings the water closer; under a low one the shortest keeps the head out of the way.
Where the arm lands on drywall and not on masonry, Fantini lists an optional in-wall piece made for exactly that case. That piece goes in before the board is closed, so it belongs on the rough-in list.
The head carries a 3.2 gpm restrictor at 43.5 psi and needs no less than 2.6 gpm to perform as intended. Have the installer confirm the line delivers that much before the arm is ordered.
