Vanity with Inset Legs

Attached the shop drawing for a bath vanity. The thing I'm concerned about are the legs. While the unit (screwed & glued 1/2" pre-finished maple back) will be well screwed to the wall, the front supports are two legs that are not attached at the corners, but rather about 5-1/4" inward (side and front). The bottom is a torsion box (I upsized to top layer to 3/4") and there is solid blocking for attaching the legs. Just wondering if I should be worried about flex in that area? Top is 5/4 Neue Milk Glass. There is a solid apron (not shown) in front of the sinks which adds considerable torsional strength.

Bill-- don't worry

If the parts are all well fastened, you wouldn't need legs at all. Your design is very similar to a "floating vanity" --as in the pic below.

Attachment 354170

I agree that the legs will be adequate but and I would use adjustable feet on the legs. The kind of feet or caps that can be screwed or unscrewed to achieve full contact with the floor. Just a precaution if the floor is not perfectly level or not truly flat, as some floor tiles can be, or if things move over time. Maybe overcautious but worth considering.

I built a vanity cabinet like that a couple months ago. Sorry, no pics. Here's what I did...

The legs are just window dressing. The cabinet fastens to the building with screws along the top back edge. That is, it is just like most kitchen uppers. There's a "nail rail" along the inside top rear, and screws can go through it into as many studs as you can find. The legs are just cosmetic, not structural.

My legs fastened in place after the cabinet was screwed to the wall. They insert from the top. That is, there's a hole in the cabinet bottom for each leg. The leg's mounting plate is on the top face of the bottom. The legs in this case were round cross-section, so I drilled and tapped the leg top, and put a bolt in the mounting plate, and the leg screws up and down to adjust to just touch the floor.

I built a couple of temporary support structures which screw to the underside of the cabinet. They support the cabinet at the correct ride height above the finished floor. During the installation process, the cabinet can be slid around the room while you're scribing the cabinet, cutting plumbing holes in the back, and the like. The temporary supports unscrew and fall away after the cabinet is screwed to the wall.

That is, the installation process was the following. First, cut plumbing holes and scribe the edges. Second, screw the cabinet to the wall. Third, remove the temporary supports. Fourth, install the legs and adjust their height.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jamie Buxton

The legs are just window dressing.

I built a couple of temporary support structures which screw to the underside of the cabinet. They support the cabinet at the correct ride height above the finished floor. During the installation process, the cabinet can be slid around the room while you're scribing the cabinet, cutting plumbing holes in the back, and the like. The temporary supports unscrew and fall away after the cabinet is screwed to the wall.

That is, the installation process was the following. First, cut plumbing holes and scribe the edges. Second, screw the cabinet to the wall. Third, remove the temporary supports. Fourth, install the legs and adjust their height.

---

Very helpful Jamie. I was struggling with trying to find a way to add the legs afterwards and your solution works. Another thought would be to have a small "base" under the leg - with a screw/bolt hole in the middle. That way they could slide in loose until reaching the base - washer type shims could allow levelling at the top (unseen) like Sam suggested. I really like the temp base idea ... may add carpet to the bottom as well.