Saves a lot of cursing later. And yeah, moving the whole vanity an inch or two is often easier than fighting with pipes.
I get the urge to just nudge the vanity over a bit, but sometimes that’s not an option—especially if you’re dealing with old tile or weird wall angles. I’ve actually had better luck using offset drain kits (the rigid kind, not flex) when things are really stubborn. Less demo, less landfill waste, and my back thanks me later. Notching the vanity is fine, but I always cringe a little at cutting into new cabinets... feels wrong somehow.
I hear you on the notching—cutting into a shiny new vanity feels like breaking some kind of home improvement law. But honestly, I’ve had offset kits leak on me before, and then you’re back under the sink with towels and regrets. If the pipes are just a smidge off, I’ll sometimes cheat with a wider escutcheon plate and call it a day... not fancy, but my wallet stays happy.
Yeah, I’ve been burned by those offset kits too—one tiny drip and suddenly you’re pulling everything apart again. I get the urge to just notch the vanity and be done, but man, it always feels wrong hacking into something brand new. I’ve used the wider escutcheon trick a couple times myself. Not the prettiest, but it covers a lot of sins and nobody’s crawling under there with a flashlight anyway.
One thing I’ve tried when the pipes are just a hair off is using flexible supply lines with a little extra slack. Sometimes you can nudge things into place without cutting or buying extra parts. Doesn’t always work, but it’s saved me from making a mess more than once. At the end of the day, if it’s not leaking and it looks decent from above, I call it a win.
I get the “looks good from above” logic, but is it just me or do those flexible supply lines sometimes feel like a ticking time bomb? I’ve had one kink just enough to cause a slow drip months later. Maybe I’m paranoid, but I started double-checking every angle after that. Is there a trick to keeping them from twisting up behind the scenes, or is it just luck? Sometimes I wonder if the old rigid pipes were actually less hassle in the end...
Yeah, I get what you mean about those flexible lines. When I moved in, I thought they’d be easier than the old copper pipes, but after crawling under the sink and seeing one twisted like a pretzel, I started second-guessing things.
- Had a slow leak too—barely noticeable until the cabinet started smelling musty.
- Now I try to hand-tighten everything and make sure there’s a gentle curve, not a sharp bend.
- Still feels like a gamble sometimes. The rigid pipes were annoying to install but at least you knew where they’d stay.
Honestly, I’m not convinced the “flexible” part is always worth it...
