So, we’re getting ready to tackle the second bathroom, which I badly remodeled some years back. Space constraints are such that we’ll be building our own cabinet, to maximize space use. One module of the cabinet will be full height (well – probably resting on a 2×4 base, probably some kind of crown molding – but almost full height). Cabinet will be painted.
The room has an 8’8″ ceiling, and I don’t plan to use up 8 inches with the base and crown, so I’ll be looking for 9-10 foot plywood. The good local home improvement center gives me conflicting advice: one of the staff says “birch ply, but go to the contractor’s desk to see if you can get longer than 8 feet.” The buyer at the contractor’s desk says, “You can’t use birch ply in a bathroom cabinet.”
Advice?
Replies
Take that buyer on a trip in the store, over to where they sell cabinets. Spend some time with the cabinet sales people, asking what kind of special materials the manufacturers use for carcases, backs, bottoms, and shelves, in all those many bath vanity cabinets they have been selling for years.
Make that buyer listen to what is being said. Then ask him again for his materials recommendations.
View Image
"A stripe is just as real as a dadgummed flower."
Gene Davis 1920-1985
Around here, anything over 96" or 97" is special order...read $$$. I'd be looking at ways to disguise or hide the joint if I had to have it at all. You'd get close with crown and base. Build base @ 4 1/2" build up crown with upside down base mounding and you're there. Could also shorten cabinet and build "soffit" on top of cab, common in old houses.
Does this cab stand alone or ajacent others?
Birch ply would be fine for a paint grade cabinet, usless it's getting soaked somehow.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
8'8" would make many bathrooms feel too tall and narrow. Unless this room is overly large for a bathroom, I would think about dropping th cieling
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
True dat. I've done a lot of work in a client's house that has a powder room with probably 10' ceiling... feels a little odd that the longest dimension is vertical.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
I agree with PeterJ about finding some creative way to avoid having to buy 10' plywood. I'd consider building up to 7'6" or so and leaving the space open for a nick-nack, or whatever. But the sales person doesn't know what he's talking about re. the birch ply.
Yes you can, but not the chinese birch they sell at HD.
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
I'd make that tall cabinet in 2 pieces, the lower section probably about 36" tall, and the upper whatever is left + a little wiggle room.
Then I'd install some kind of waist moulding to cover the joint between the cabinets. Maybe a 1/2 round, or a beaded screen moulding, or something I could dream up and mill myself.
If you are not building it in place figure out ahead of time how you are going to get the cabinet in. Make sure you allow for tilting it up.
I would redesign your cabinet idea so you don't have to special order 9' plywood. For instance, does a countertop come up against the tall unit, could you run a mid molding to cover a joint, make a lower unit and an upper with a shelf/counter area between, use frame and panel on exposed ends, fake a frame and panel, use solid wood instead of sheet material, veneer the ends, build more of a cornice or built up moldings than just a single crown molding (see pics).
I have no idea of the size, placement or function of your particular situation but there are always ways to make it work without longer plywood. A tall straight cabinet with plain sides can be homely looking.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Try to find a plywood supplier in your area. They should have longer sheets. Another source wood be a boat building supplier. Look at your cabinet design also. Can it be split into a lower and upper cabinet with drawers below and doors on top?
Also, birch ply is fine for a bathroom as long as you stay away from the chinese plywood the big boxes are selling nowadays. I would ask too much more of the person that told you not to use birch ply in the bath.
THats a good one.