How we test products on Greybough.
This page is the same in-house evaluation we apply to the walk-in tub recommendation and to every other review on the site. There are nights we install a fixture in the shop, compress the test, and produce a quick take — but the rule of the house is real install time, real cost, real warranty claims. We test what a contractor would spec on a walk-through, then we test what a buyer would actually live with for fourteen years.
Three ground rules govern every review on the site: install difficulty is scored against a real 48-hour job, not a spec sheet; slip resistance is measured with a wet-floor COF reading, not a marketing claim; and the bottom-line price is the all-in installed figure, not the manufacturer's MSRP. The five dimensions below are what we score against — the same five, on every product, every time.
A founder and a small crew, all from the trades.
20+ years combined.
Greybough is run by Daniel Holt, CAPS — a remodeling project manager with twenty-plus years on framing crews, lead-carpenter years, and senior-friendly bath installs behind him. The supporting crew is a short list of working carpenters, project managers, and a former walk-in shower installer. They are not content marketers, not SEO writers, and not commissioned affiliate managers.
Every hand that holds a tape measure on a Greybough review is a hand that has held one on a real job site. The rule of the house is the same Daniel uses on a 36-inch doorway measurement at noon: read the tape, do not infer the figure, and write the number down before it drifts.
- 01
Framing & rough carpentry
Twenty-plus years on framing crews, lead carpenters, and addition punch-lists. The crew that reads a tape measure without flinching and acknowledges that the most expensive mistake on a remodel is letting one trade wait on another.
- 02
Finish carpentry & trim
Pocket-door hangs, door-swing clearances, reveals — the tolerances inspectors don’t forgive. The crew that specs a 36-inch doorway the same way on a $4k guest-bath upgrade and a $90k kitchen gut.
- 03
CAPS-certified project management
NAHB Certified Aging-in-Place Specialists and former senior-friendly bath installers. The crew that has actually lived through the midnight Google session on behalf of an aging parent — and written down what the family should have asked.
Five fields. The same five, on every product.
Every product on the site is scored against the same five fields, in the same order. The pick card you read in a review is a summary of those five fields, not a five-star average. Where a pick falls short on one dimension we say so in the verdict — we do not bury a thin score under a top-line rating.
Install, slip, threshold, warranty, real cost.
- 01Install difficultyHours to fit, number of subs required, surprise pipe reroutes that show up when the wall opens. Scored against a real 48-hour job, not a spec sheet — the rough-in hours determine whether a price band is the family can actually pay.
- 02Slip resistanceCoefficient of Friction (COF) reading on a wet floor; whether the surface passes the ADA .42 floor spec for a curbless shower or exceeds it on a tub deck. We measure, we cite, and we do not guess the floor rating.
- 03Threshold heightMeasured at the door sill, listed in inches — not in marketing language. The ADA spec is ½" maximum; walk-in tub thresholds run 1.5"–4"; curbless shower entries run 0"–1" depending on the pan and drain.
- 04WarrantyShell years, door-seal years, dealer service window, and the actual response time of the local dealer. A 10-year shell warranty is meaningless if the door-seal warranty is 3 years and the closest service tech is 80 miles away.
- 05Real costAll-in installed price — the unit, the install labor, the electrical work, and the trim rebuild. Not the manufacturer's MSRP, not the MSRP plus a flat install fudge. The dollar figure a family actually wires to the contractor.
At least 8 weeks of in-home use before a review publishes.
A review on Greybough does not publish on a spec sheet. Every product sits in a real install for the minimum duration before we name it in a recommendation. Short-field retests — threshold height, COF readings, weight, electrical load — get re-measured across the window so the figure you read on the page is the figure we read at the final walk-through. Where the warranty territory is in doubt we run an additional service-call scenario: a leak at the door seal, a stuck thermostatic valve, a tripped GFCI. The product has to pass the test it would actually fail in the field.
- 01
Fast-track — 8 weeks in-home
Used on bath fixtures (tub, shower base, grab-bar package, anti-slip floor). The fixture sits in a real install for two months, gets at least two walk-throughs at the 30-day and 60-day marks, and is rated by the daily-user diary we keep on every review.
- 02
Long-form — 12+ weeks in-home
Used on anything with moving parts, service intervals, or warranty territory in doubt (walk-in tub jets, anti-scald valves, threshold kits, electrical rough-in). The fixture sits long enough to see a service call scenario and a real warranty claim, not just a clean install.