Baths
Bathroom vanity tops: what changes when the slab is small.
A vanity top is the smallest piece of stone most people buy from us. It is also the one people most often shop for the wrong way. They treat it like a small kitchen counter. It is not. A vanity sits at a different height, takes a different set of holes and lives with a different set of chemicals. Here is what changes when the slab gets small. Here is also what to settle before we come out to measure.
A small top opens up the whole yard
Most vanities are small enough to come out of one piece of stone. That does two things for you.
First, the finished top usually has no seam at all. There is no joint to catch water and nothing to reseal along a line.
Second, you often do not need a full slab. When a kitchen is cut, the stone left over is called a remnant. A remnant of something you would never put on a whole kitchen will often cover a vanity. It is the one place in the house where a rare marble or a loud quartzite fits without taking over the room.
Remnants come and go as jobs are cut, so what is on hand changes from week to week. Ask when you come by and we will show you what is there.
A long double vanity is the exception. It can run past the length of a slab. When it does, we put the seam where it reads least, usually at a sink or behind a faucet. We tell you where it will be before we cut.
Height is the number people forget to check
Vanity cabinets come in two common heights. Older vanities are usually 30 to 32 inches to the counter. Comfort height vanities run 34 to 36 inches. One cabinet maker, Lily Ann, builds its vanity boxes 34 1/2 inches high and 21 inches deep before the top goes on.
The stone adds to that. A 3 cm top is about 1 3/16 inches thick, so a 34 1/2 inch box with a 3 cm top finishes at about 35 3/4 inches. A 2 cm top finishes a little lower. You feel that difference every morning at the sink, so choose the thickness with the height in mind.
If anyone in the house uses a wheelchair, or you are planning a bath to age in, there is a published reference worth knowing. The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design are written for public and commercial buildings, not homes. They cap the rim or counter surface of a lavatory at 34 inches above the floor. They also call for knee clearance underneath at least 27 inches high. A comfort height cabinet with a stone top ends up above that 34 inch line. Meeting those numbers means choosing the cabinet, the top and the sink together, before anything is ordered. Tell us early and we will cut to it.
The sink decides the cutout
Undermount. The bowl mounts under the stone. We cut and polish the opening so there is no rim sitting on the surface to catch water. The counter wipes straight into the sink. On porcelain an undermount sink needs real support underneath, because thin porcelain will not carry a heavy sink on adhesive alone. Our porcelain piece covers that.
Vessel. The bowl sits on top of the counter. The stone only needs a drain hole and a hole for the faucet. The rim of the bowl ends up above the counter by the height of the bowl, so a vessel on a comfort height cabinet can end up high. A vessel usually wants a lower cabinet and a taller faucet that clears the rim.
Either way, the sink has to be on site before we template. Cutouts are made to the actual fixture. Models vary more than their spec sheets suggest. We explain why in what happens between picking your slab and installing it.
Faucet holes are drilled once
Stone does not forgive a change of mind about the faucet. Once a hole is drilled, it is there for good. Moen's own guide sorts bathroom faucets by how the sink or counter is drilled:
- Single hole. One hole, for any faucet made for a single hole mount.
- 4 inch centerset. Three holes, 4 inches from the center of the hot handle to the center of the cold handle.
- Widespread. Three holes, anywhere from 8 to 16 inches from the center of the hot handle to the center of the cold handle.
Moen is blunt about the trap: a widespread faucet cannot fit a 4 inch centerset hole pattern. Going the other way, a single hole faucet on a top drilled for three leaves two extra holes, which means a deck plate to hide them. A wall mounted faucet needs no holes in the stone at all, but it needs plumbing in the wall, so that decision belongs to your plumber long before the top is made.
The fix is simple. Pick the faucet before we template. Have it or its spec sheet on hand.
Splashes finish the joint at the wall
Most vanities sit against at least one wall. Plenty sit between two. Where the top meets the back wall, a splash cut from the same stone covers the joint and keeps water off the wall. Where it meets a side wall, a side splash does the same job. Both come out of the same remnant or slab as the top, so they match it.
If you would rather tile the wall or run stone up it, decide that first. Backsplash height is one of the things to settle before templating, along with the edge profile and the overhang.
A bathroom is harder on stone than it looks
A kitchen counter gets lemon and wine. A vanity gets a different list. It keeps it for years. Use Natural Stone, the Natural Stone Institute's consumer campaign, warns that perfumes, hair products and dental products may contain acids or bases that can damage marble. Here is how each material we cut for baths handles that.
- Marble. Calcium carbonate, which reacts with acid and etches. A sealer slows stains. It does nothing about etching. A honed finish hides etching far better than a polish. A tray under the bottles does a lot of the work. We wrote about etching and patina at length.
- Engineered quartz. Non-porous, no sealing and the color matches the sample. It is a strong choice when the vanity has to match a tub deck or a second bath.
- Quartzite. A rock made almost entirely of quartz, hard and resistant to acid. Some slabs sold as quartzite are dolomitic marble and will etch, so know which one you are looking at.
- Granite. A siliceous stone, which the Natural Stone Institute describes as generally resistant to most acids. Usually wants sealing.
- Porcelain. Dense, non-porous and indifferent to acid. Needs a careful fabricator at the sink cutout.
Cleaning matters as much as the stone. The Natural Stone Institute says scouring powders and creams can scratch some stones, that acids can etch calcareous stone like marble, and that soap scum should come off with a non-acidic soap scum remover. It also says never to mix ammonia and bleach.
If you cannot decide between materials, our five question chooser works for a bathroom too.
Templating waits for the cabinet
We template once the cabinet is set. That means the vanity is in place and level, the sink is on site, and the faucet is chosen. Then we cut, edge and polish the top in our own Hartford shop. Our own installers set it. We seal every natural stone before installation. How often it needs resealing after that depends on the stone, so ask about the specific slab.
Bring three things to the yard
The cabinet size, the sink and the faucet. With those three we can show you remnants that fit, tell you whether the top needs a seam and mark where the holes go. You can see finished bathrooms in our vanity tops, showers and tubs gallery, and if the shower is next, read about porcelain shower surrounds.
Come to Airport Road, or tell us about the bathroom and we will tell you what is on hand before you drive out.