move a small wall

[canalrun]

Hello,

I have a small 1000sqft house with 1 full bath. The sink / vanity currently measures 25" wide X 19" deep. On the left side is a 3 inch gap to the wall that excells at collecting dirt and grime. In front is 8" of wasted space.

I would love to put in a slightly larger vanity sink combo butted up against the left wall, but all I can find are standard 6" increment sizes. The next standard size up from what I have is 31 x 22 which is too big.

One option is to move a small wall 4" to the left. This would allow me to install the 31x22 vanity base and top.

On the other side of the wall is a closet which would lose the 4" of width (no depth or height). This is not a problem. The wall is 7 or 8 ft tall and 28" wide. It has one outlet and a light switch.

Any guesses what this might cost? Is it a project loaded with potential complications? (It's a 1955 house). Going this route may be cheaper than buying non-standard sized vanity components. That few inches of extra space in the bathroom would be precious also.

Thanks, Barry.

[aemeijers]

Cheapest and least painful route is a special-order or custom vanity, or a least a quality brand where you can get a matching filler panel. If you go with a laminate top rather than faux marble, you can get whatever length you need. Changing or eliminating the closet makes this almost a gut job, to make it look right. Bumps in a bathroom also often hide other things like vent stacks and chimney chases. Alternative is a pedestal or wall-hung sink, and just add corner shelves here and there to recover the storage. Replacing the vanity will likely mean changing the floor, unless it is setting on top of a full tile or vinyl job.

aem sends....

[canalrun]

Thanks for the reply. A custom or semi-custom vanity base and top were my first choices. My needs are simple for the base - a door on one side, a couple of drawers on the other. Vanity top - anything with a nice sized bowel and splashes at the rear and on the left side would be nice. I got a Home Depot quote for the top - about double the price of "off-the-shelf".

I have not been able to find a reasonable semi-custom base. I would rather not waste the 3" with a filler panel. The ideal solution would be to take someones stock design and just have them scale it or chop it to a custom width. Do you know a place that does this?

Thanks, Barry.

[aemeijers]

Home depot charges a fortune for special order, because they can, and because they don't really wanna do it in the first place. Take your dimensions to local custom kitchen place, and get a price from them. If you want a molded fake stone top with integral sink bowl, they will be the only ones that can locally modify a stock longer size. No way to cut down the vanity, unless they have one with built in wide edges. But there are stock sized other than what HD carries, and the quality will be higher anyway. Also take them a graph-paper scale layout of your bathroom- they may be able to suggest other possibilities.

aem sends...

[AAllc.architects]

Excellent suggestions. T

[hallerb]

lowes low price cabinets can be custome sized. I had to do that for a kitchen base cabinet once, worked out fine.

I would add a filler strip before moving a wall, but thats probably just me. 3 inches wouldnt be worth the effort

[beecrofter]

Poke a hole or two in the sheet rock on the closet side to see what is inside the wall -pipes wires etc and then decide which is easier.