Securing laundry cabinet

Learned colleagues

I have a new laundry tub and cabinet to install. The tube is pressed stainless steel and the cabinet Permacoat steel. In other words, a tradiitional laundry tub.

I need to secure the tub in its place before the splashback tiles are laid on the walls and the plumber comes in to do his bit. The floor is already tiled and the walls are villaboard-sheeted. The cabinet will be located in a corner.

I was not able to see how the old cabinet was secured before it was stripped out because the original walling was asbestos-based and the removalists naturally did not want me in the room during the strip out. However after the tub had been removed and cleaned, I noticed that the wall edge of the tub has a upturned lip and that this lip had a nail hole. It indicated that the lip has nailed to a wall stud.

I am not sure of the best method to fix the cabinet in place. Do I need to nail/screw the bowl lip to the wall so that movement does not dislodge the splashback? Do I secure the cabinet sides to the walls?

I'd really appreciate any advice.

Gooseman

The back of the cabinet itself should bare save for one bar half way up and another up the top. Level off your cabinet and screw to the wall through these. sit the tub on and screw through the upturned 'lip' then your tiler will tile over this.

Hi gooseman, the tub is generally just screwed to the wall with a couple of small screws through those holes. The waste pipe also serves to hold the sink in place. Once the splashback is tiled down over that lip and the walls are tiled, the cabinet is siliconed to the wall and around the base, which holds it all quite soundly. It doesn't really matter if there's nothing behind the villaboard where the screw holes are, just nip them up gently and that will be sound enough until all the other measures are in place.

Cheers
Michael

Hi Gooseman,

I was concerned about 70kg of water and what it would do/ where it would end up.

... (our trough was a 70 litre monster to hold the water out of the wash cycle from the old washing machine - subs save --- the new machine only uses 60 per cycle so the tub gets used to hold the water on its way to the garden .. but I digress)

our tub was mounted in the corner under a window with about 6 inches from the top lip of the tub to the bottom of the window frame.

a) I added adjustable feet to the trough frame (The floor has a waste on the centre and so slopes to the waste hence the frame did not sit neatly on the floor) For me, I welded 2 5/16 nuts to a strip of steel, painted the lot and fixed it to the underside of the front of frame. I believe a "levelling kit" can be purchased. our trough frame sits on the floor on the back corner, all other corners are supported.

b) I found where the studs were and provided a noggin (correct term?) or two prior to putting up the cladding ....and secured the frame to both corner walls being careful not to pull the frame out of square (use packing between the trough frame and the wall). I was able to use the frame piece in the back and I simply drilled a couple of holes in the side in the the right place. Make sure there is a gap to the side wall so the tub can drop into the frame! :) (don't ask why) :-

c) I put a generous bead of silicon around the top of the frame and dropped the tub in. (the trough we took out used to move in the frame and it not only annoyed me but also caused leaks at the waste connection.)

d) on the turned up lip I put a couple of screws in so it would not move under the tiles .. nothing worse than tiles falling off.

e) down the side without a turned up lip I filled the gap between the tub and the wall with generous amount of silicon and then put a strip of aluminium angle to guide water into the tub (probably overkill)

f) tile over the aluminium and turned up edge on tub leaving a quarter inch gap to the tub.

g) filled gap between tiles and tub with more silicon

h) filled vertical gaps between frame and wall with silicon. Careful to leave opening at bottom for any leakage to sneak out.

So far (2 years) it is stable and working well


Hope that helps

Gentlemen

Thank you very much for your advice - it is exactly what I need to complete the job successfully

Thanks again

Gooseman