How to Choose or Make Your Bathroom Vanity Unit

A bathroom vanity unit provides:-

1. Storage for cleaning materials, spare loo paper and other important but ugly bathroom necessities

2. A surface to put pretty things and also tooth brushes, razors and similar daily needs.

3. For the young family, a surface to change daipers (nappies) with a wash basin right there to hand.

4. A cover for all the plumbing pipework.

Vanity units come in all shapes and sizes from about 24"(600mm) wide which is about the width of a normal wash basin so will have limited work top surface area  to double basin units with surfaces each side 96"(2400) wide

A neat arrangement is a unit that combines the loo flushing cistern and the wash basin along side - a common layout in many houses.

Another idea is to use an existing piece of old furniture and adapt it to the purpose.  Wash bowls that sit on top of the worktop like sinks together with long stemmed faucets (taps) make the conversion of such units easier.

Make your own vanity unit

The carcase of the vanity unit can be from a bedroom, bathroom or kitchen range with a width to suit your layout. With a kitchen carcase, choose a sink unit carcase as it will be designed to allow space below the worktop for the basin and pipework.

The work top can be of any material (I used a slab of slate once) but a standard HDF top is easier to work. Make sure that the edge exposed by the cut-out for the basin is well sealed against water ingress.

The vanity basin you purchase will come with a pattern to help you to cut out the hole accurately with a jig saw.

Discuss the position with your plumber before you start as he will be able to advise you on hot and cold water supply pipework and waste pipe layout. Also discuss with him the type of taps (faucets) to purchase. If you have a low water pressure supply then one-hole taps, though fashionable, might not provide enough water flow.

While hot and cold water pipes have few limitations on how they are routed, the waste pipe must fall with gravity so often defines where the vanity unit can be positioned.

A macerator can be used in tricky situations such as a vanity unit required in a bedroom away from the bathroom drains. The macerator collects the 1 1/4"(32) dia. waste water pipe from the basin(s) and then pumps the waste through a 3/4"(22) pipe which can rise up into the loft space, for instance, and cross over a building to discharge into the existing waste water drains.

The down side to a macerator is that it has a noisy pump (everyone in the house will know you have been to the loo!) and it is mechanical so can go wrong. Not a pleasent job to dismantle and fix!

However, the luxury of your own vanity unit in your bedroom is worth almost any sacrifice.