HELP

Does the vanity stand on the floor or hang from the wall?

The vanity stands on the floor AND also seems to be attached to the wall.

Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.

Then it must be one of two things...

1. What you are referring to is not the vanity itself but a separate piece standing vertically along the vanity top next to each wall...a splash guard. Those are attached in various way but regardless of the method they rarely meet the wall perfectly and any gap between the wall and splash guard is caulked. It may be that the splash guard has loosened or warped a bit and there is now insufficient caulk to hide the gap. In this case, the easiest soultion is to add more caulk although 1/2" is pretty wide to caulk. Alternatively, remove the splash guard and replace or reinstall...probably not a DIY job for you.
2. If it is actually the vanity itself that has moved relative to the wall then the screws/nails holding it in place are not doing their job. Either that or the wall has moved or the floor has tipped down :)

This probably isn't a DIY job either as the cause of the loosened fastenings needs to be determined; eg, have the studs within the wall rotted? has something rotted within the carcase of the vanity?

About the best you could do without really tearing into things is to try tightening the fastenings or shimming the front edge of the sides of the cabinet. Even if one or both work, you need to find out *why* the cabinet has leaned forward.

First you have to figure out why it separated, the solution depends on what the root-cause problem is.

Did someone bump the vanity top and knock it loose? Push it back into place and reattach the fasteners.

Has the floor sagged, causing the whole vanity to tilt one way or another? Shim the vanity to get it level again.

Has the bottom of the vanity rotted causing the vanity to tilt? Fix the water leak problem, then repair the rot damage.

Has there been an earthquake and the house was knocked off the foundation? Fix the foundation first, then relevel the vanity.

Sorry to sound so obtuse, but we need to know why it has pulled away form the wall.

Ken

On 10/8/2009 12:30 PM dadiOH spake thus:

Meta-comment: regarding your sig:

dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

Just curious: I used to use RoboHelp in a previous life as a tech writer. Is that what you used to create the .hlp? As I remember, it was a pretty slick little app, and I enjoyed using it, something I can say about very few pieces of software.

Vanity have a backsplash? Is the gap between only the formica and the wall? Cabinet back and wall? Can you move the vanity at all if you push it back toward the wall?

If you look inside the cabinet, you should see where the screws are that anchor the cabinet (typically) to the wall. If there are none, then perhaps only the plumbing is holding it in place. If the cabinet leans a little bit, it may need shims at the bottom to level it, then screw to the wall studs.

Good advice. This is not an example of what architects do to cover mistakes (plant vines), but the situation may be covered up with a suitable-sized bit of quarter-round.

Move the wall closer.

I used Shalom Help Maker

I made it a hlp file because it was written long ago and programs for compiled help files weren't all that available. I made it a hlp file because MP3s were very big at the time and I figured that people reading it would use it (for a while) as a reference; as such, it would be handier on one's own box.

There is an html version at

Mac users have to fend for themselves :)

Thanks for your help, there's no leak, it is just the backsplash, have decided a border tile will hide the space.

Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.

Thanks for the update.

Hiding the space may work for a while, but aren't you the least bit curious as to why the backsplash is pulling away for the wall?

Don't you want to fix (or at least stop) the root cause of the problem instead of just hiding the gap?

I'm puzzled as to how there can be a 1/4 to 1/2" gap behind the backsplash that would not simply be repaired by refastening the backsplash....why tile?