What would you do (re: custom vanity that doesn't fit)?

13 years ago

I'll try to keep this short and to the point. Basically we had a custom vanity and linen cabinet made for our bathroom and it doesn't fit properly. A quick run down of the issues:

1. One leg of the vanity is too short which means we will either have to pad the top or move the tile (which runs in a stripe around the room).

2. The vanity is too large and runs into the window trim (ironically we moved the window to avoid just that).

3. The shelves on the linen cabinet line up right in the middle of a light switch.

4. The toe kick was forgotten about so the heat vent which comes out through the toe kick is clearly visible and rather intrusive.

5. We will have to have the plumber come out and put an elbow on one of the water supply lines in order to fit all the drawers in.

Individually these are minor issues. Together they are a major problem. At first the cabinetmaker (who did his own measurements AFTER plumbing, electrical and tile were installed) offered to fix what he can. Now he wants to charge us for fixes.

The more I think about it, the more I fear I'll always notice the compromises if we have him or another cabinetmaker fix it. At this point I'm seriously considering asking for our deposit back (the general contractor seems to think this is possible) and telling him to take it away and start from scratch. This bathroom is already six weeks behind schedule, a finish date hardly matters anymore.

I'm suffering from renovation fatigue and I've lost a lot of perspective on these things so I might be acting totally irrationally and not even realizing it. So what would you do?

If you want more detail or to see photos you can see my blog post at http://theimpatientgardener.blogspot.com/2011/01/houston-we-have-problem.html , but I'm not posting this to get blog traffic and I think you can get a feel for what's going on without visiting the blog.

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Comments (5)

lazy_gardens
13 years ago
He took the measurements - give him a chance to make the vanity you paid him for. Tell him to take it away, take all new measurements, and bring back a vanity that fits.

Tell him that if he doesn't, you will take him to small claims court to recover the deposit.
ellendi
13 years ago
I agree. The only thing you could maybe over look is the shelf and switch plate line up. I don't think anyone would notice it unless you pointed it out. All else is clearly the cabinet makers fault.
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kaysd
13 years ago
The whole point of paying extra for custom cabinetry vs. stock cabinets is to get a perfect fit and exactly what you want. The cabinet maker took his own measurements and I presume you told him how you wanted everything to fit. I would tell him he needs to make new cabinets that meet your agreed upon specifications. If he cannot or will not do that, he needs to return the money so you can hire someone else. If the GC recommended him, get the GC to intercede if necessary. I would not accept a patch job.
Stacey Collins
13 years ago
oh, sailor, I am soooo sorry to hear this. I can so totally sympathize. We paid a lot for our custom cabinetry in our master bathroom, and we, too, were really dissatisfied. In our case, the issues were not as bad, or more fixable. The vanity itself has sides that are a lighter wood, side drawer slides rather then bottom slides, and the drawer wood isn't well-matched for grain as I'd hoped. However, none of those things is explicitly WRONG (aside from the drawer glides, I'd specified under-mount), just "not as nice as I expected"... so we let those go. The cabinetmaker was a really nice young man with a sweet family and we liked him, so we just decided it was "good enough". The small wall cabinet over the toilet, though, had the shelf holes mis-drilled so that the shelves were crooked. We DID make him take that back are rebuild it for us, at his own expense.

Assuming your cabinetmaker was made clearly aware of things like not running into the window trim, toekick heater, etc before he started, then he should fix them at his own expense. He took his own measurements, he wasn't working solely from your plans. If some of those issues were vague, and you just assumed he knew, but weren't super clear, then he might have reason to resent redo. (On our master vanity, I'd just "assumed" that the cabinetmaker would use matching wood for the sides, and try to match the wood grain on the drawers. It seemed obvious enough that I didn't think to specify. But since I hadn't, I didn't feel I could fault him too badly. Especially since our design was pretty unusual for this area -so spare and modern- and he had only built traditional cabinetry before...)

Anyway, my heart goes out to you. I totally understand the renovation fatigue and depression. You plan and plan for so long... making sure every detail is thought out and carefully designed, and then you just want to give up when these sorts of issues arise. I don't know if you followed our master bathroom reno but it dragged into months and months with all the problems we had. Hang in there, it'll be finished soon, and you'll enjoy it for a long time!
wi-sailorgirl
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the input and the empathy.

I'm pretty much leaving it in the hands of the general contractor right now. One thing I failed to mention in my original post is that at first the cabinetmaker was happy to make the changes and was apologetic. A few days later (the holidays interfered) he was going to "come up with some pricing on making changes. And that's when I got to the point I'm at on it.

I'm having another cabinetmaker (who I've worked with in the past) out to the house tomorrow to talk about another unrelated project, but I think I will take him in the bathroom and see if he has suggestions for what he would do to fix the issues. Perhaps he'll have an idea I haven't thought of.

At this point the situation has become so acrimonious that I think it may be better if we come to an agreement to part ways with this guy. If he is not willing to give us what we specified for the price we agreed upon, better to just end this relationship now and move on. He can either agree to accept the 50% we've paid him and give us a lien waiver for the remaining amount and we'll find someone else to fix it (if that's possible) or he can refund our deposit and take it away.

Oh well ... the glass for the shower came and was cut wrong so that's delayed too now!