Ideas needed for bathroom cabinet

[zenwood]

The cabinet under the sink has reached a desperate state. There are two problems:


The floor has not been well built, so spilled water tends to pool at the base of the cabinet, rather than go down the drain.
Messy kids often spill water from the basin, so water flows down the front of the cabinet.
These problems have rotted the chipboard base, water has been absorbed by the MDF doors and the bottom drawer. The bottom drawer (of chipboard) has swollen so that it is stuck in position, and the front (attached with two dowels each side) has come off, due the force applied to it when it was starting to stick.

This bathroom frequently get very wet, so whatever I do has to be fairly waterproof. SWMBO want me to 'fix the cabinet'. There are some options:

replace bottom kickboard with a hardwood board coated in marine grade polyurethane and sealed with bathroom sealant. Glue front of stuck drawer back on, and don't use it. Cost: $20 for tin of poly, quick and easy fix)
replace the entire front with hardwood coated in marine grade poly. (more cost, work)
replace entire unit with ???
Any other ideas from the collective wisdom of the forum? Total budget for this is, say, couple of hundred $ (precludes hiring a contractor to fix up the floor drainage problem). Need to be easy and cheap (can be slow 'cos I'll be doing it).

[flea1607]

http://woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=15469&highlight=vanity


http://woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=13590&highlight=vanity


http://woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=12318&highlight=vanity

Regards

[journeyman Mick]

Zenwood,
Build a new vanity and rather than sitting it on a kicker use legs. I bought some pretty nice metal legs in ZAMAC (that's that alloy that they make most knobs and handles from) finished to look like brushed stainless. Less than $10 each and even have little height and angle adjustable feet on them. You can screw a cleat to the wall to sit the back on so you'll only need them for the front. I wouldn't spend any money and very little time to fix what's there as it's pretty much terminal.

Mick

[RufflyRustic]

Hi Zenwood. You are so game showing the contents of a bathroom cupboard.

Anyway, my bathroom vanity is very similar to yours and in a very similar state of falling apart.

I totally agree with JMMick - legs - get it up off the floor. While you are designing your new vanity, take the opportunity to make it a nice height so you don't have to bend 3/4's over to use it.

http://woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=19294&highlight=brodski

This is how I'd like my vanity top to look.
cheers
RufflyRustic

[Daddles]

Seeing no-one else is saying anything ...

Could we move this out of the BOATS section please?
Hmmm???
Zen, I blame you for this :D

Cheers
Richard

[Studley 2436]

Seeing no-one else is saying anything ...

Could we move this out of the BOATS section please?
Hmmm???
Zen, I blame you for this :D

Cheers
Richard
Daddles I think that Zens vanity is a bit of a boat at the moment!

Studley

[zenwood]

Seeing no-one else is saying anything ...

Could we move this out of the BOATS section please?
Hmmm???
Zen, I blame you for this :D

Cheers
Richard
Boats? Why the hell are we here? Apologies to all: I accept total responsibility. Must've been the first "repairing" forum that I saw, and didn't notice the boats bit. Presumably admin can fix?

Then again, maybe a boat would be useful in our bathroom.:D

[zenwood]

Thanks for the replies. I'd like to rip the whole thing out, and put in something simple on legs. But on the weekend I ripped out the kickboard, and discovered there's no tiles under there: bare cement. Would be good to do something that hides the floor.

Am now in the throes of applying marine grade polyurethane to a new kickboard, which I will bog in place with silicone sealer. That will cover up the problem for a few more months, while I think of a more permanent solution.

Ruffly: didn't mean to shock you with the cabinet's contents. Don't know what 90% of that stuff's for.:rolleyes::confused:

[RufflyRustic]

HAHAHA:D
No worries Zenwood. I haven't posted a pic of my bathroom cupboard as it's just about totally full and things fall out when I least expect it or want them to appear. On the other hand, I have had some things fall out that I have been searching for. My cabinet has no shelving so things are piled high. Am definitely going to design something with lots of shelves and drawers.

cheers
RR

[ernknot]

A sinking bathroom should be part of the boat section!

[delamaree]

remove the kicker (as you have done) and cut a cement board (villa board etc) to fit. Use tiling adhesive and whatever to fix it to the cabinet and tile the front. As you're a boaty, use some white Sika on the floor line which will adhere better than silicone anyway. Either grout the joints or white sika them.

Anyone who comments on the fix should probably not be in that position on a bathroom floor in the first place, or at least not care if they are.

[zenwood]

...use some white Sika on the floor line... I am in the process of applying polyurethane to a replacement kicker, which I was planning to fix in place using a couple of treated pine studs behind the kicker extending to the back wall. If Sika works better than silicone, I'll use that, but what is it? Where do you get it? (etc. -- never heard of the stuff)