Bathroom Gut and a Hand-Built Vanity

My wife and I had been having trouble with the bathroom for a while. Leaks, plumbing problems, that kind of thing. We found the leak on June 26, 2024 and decided to redo it.

Then the walls came open and we found asbestos in them, so the plumbing fix turned into a full gut.

Getting it out meant suiting up first. Full coverall, respirator, and a rigged-up negative air pressure setup before any of it could come down. Pretty much I sealed off all the air and blew everything out the window. Never again. The removal itself is oddly procedural. Everything went into special thick poly bags, double-bagged, gooseneck-sealed and taped, then driven to the right disposal site. I did it all in one day, June 30. It was hard, and I was gross and sweaty by the end of it. Once the last of it was bagged, I stayed sealed in the room until the dust had settled and the air had been pushed outside, filtered, and vacuumed. Then I opened the door.

Once the walls were open and clear, we brought in a plumber for the new tub and supply lines. That's when we found out how bad the old pipes were. They were black iron, and once they were cut out we could see they'd rusted from the inside until water basically couldn't get through anymore. I took on the vanity myself.

The vanity

I designed it in Fusion 360 and worked out every cut myself. It's built from 3/4" plywood, which is heavier than it needed to be, but I wanted the extra rigidity. The joinery is pocket-hole. I finished it with a spray gun to get an even, consistent sheen, and it hangs on the wall on a French cleat instead of sitting on legs.

The demolition was just work. The parts I actually enjoyed were the things I'd never done before and had to learn:

• Building a crosscut sled
• Getting pocket-hole joints square and tight
• Spraying plywood without runs or a blotchy finish

This was a slow project:

• June 26, 2024: leak discovered
• June 30: asbestos out
• July 5: tub installed
• July 28: insulation
• July 31: drywall
• November 16: paint
• November 25: flooring
• October 2025: vanity

The vanity is hung and in daily use. It has no drawers yet. The rest is on hold at the moment. It's still missing the finish carpentry and the drawers.

What I learned

• Sealing off a room and blowing the air out a window is a rough way to do negative pressure. I did it once. Never again.
• You don't know how bad old pipes are until they're cut out. Ours were black iron, rusted from the inside until water could barely get through.
• 3/4" plywood is heavier than a vanity needs. I used it anyway for the rigidity.
• Plan for slow. A leak in June 2024 became a hung vanity in October 2025, and it still isn't finished.

Photos and videos exist from the whole project (demo, asbestos removal, framing, and the vanity build). I'll add them later.