We have to re-tile our bathroom floor. I'm having a disagreement with my husband on how much tile to order. I believe that you have to lay tile under the sink cabinet, because you (or another owner) might want to swap out the cabinet for a different type or size. He says that it's not necessary.

What is standard practice?

Anybody else is going to use the cutting tools to tile around the cabinet. It could be more trouble to do under it, than around it. So, I hate to agree with your husband, but I think it is unnecessary to do under it, just as long as it pleases you!

It is not necessary to tile under the cabinet and if you do there will be some additional plumbing work to do. When I do a bath or kitchen tile job I make sure to leave about a half case of spare tile when I finish.

I agree with you husband. When I do tile jobs we only tile up to the kitchen & bathroom vanity. It has never been a problem for us.
I do see your point in wanting to plan for the future, but in all honesty how many houses have you lived in that you just swapped out the vanity. It isn't something that many people just swap out for the heck of it.
And as someone else already pointed out, always keep extra tile so it can be used for that instance when/if the vanity or cabinet needs to be changed out to a different size.

Hope that helps.

N

I'm going to agree with you. For one thing I want to be on the winning side.

I don't like the idea of the vanity sitting in a "hole" of the tile for the same reasons as you. If I were tiling your floor, whether I removed the vanity and tile under it (or put a wood filler under) would depend on how difficult I thought it would be to temporarily remove the vanity. Generally this is very simple and take less time than tiling around it. The amount of additional tile required to put it under the vanity doesn't make it worth arguing about.

We are having our master bathroom completely remodeled, which of course has lead into a discussion about replacing the vanity in the main bathroom. The contractor has laid the tile all the way under the cabinet in the master bathroom, which thrills me - in the main bathroom, I am now searching for tile to match a product laid 2o years ago; very tough to find. My advice: spend the money to tile and apply baseboards under the vanity, or at least purchase the extra tile and keep for the next owners.

I have always asked the customer which way they wanted it done. Nine out of ten wanted tile under vanity.

I, personally, prefer is way. Takes less time and, in may opinion looks better.

In a kitchen if u don't do under cabinet, u could have problem getting dishwasher in.

Chuck

9 times out of 10 the new owners probably won't like the tile anyway and will replace it along with the vanity. If you aren't replacing the vanity and don't plan to then don't tile under it. I like the suggestion of leaving extra tiles though... just in case!

Guys, this post started 2 years ago, somebody just tagged onto it.