RV Home Improvements

One of the advantages of staying in a fixed location for an extended period of time is it affords me time to do some additional modifications to the trailer which we have wanted to do. Recently I found a YouTube video of a bathroom sink midification I wanted to incorporate in our rig.

The original bathroom sink is 9 inches by 12 inches and is recessed below the countertop. It has never been very usable. It reminded me of the small sink bowl used in the dentist's office to spit into when you rinsed out your mouth after a cleaning. Because the toilet is just behind you, when you stand at the counter you cannot backup enough to get your head down to the sink to wash your face. And when you use it to wash your hands, water ultimately sprayed out over the countertop.

In the video I found, the owners replaced the old sink with a ceramic bowl that sits on top of the counter and they replaced the standard water faucet with a waterfall fixture. The finished installation looked pretty impressive. It was a real upscale look without giving up much counter space. The new ceramic bowl measures 13 inches by 16 inches, a marked size improvement. The bowl being on the top of the counter increase the height of the sink to a more comfortable and usable level. I was sold on the idea and Karen was already dreaming of a new sink like this!.

I was able to purchase everything I needed from Amazon. All of the items arrived over Labor Day weekend, so on Labor Day I labored to install our new sink bowl and plumbing.

Now in the video it took about two hours to complete the project, but I anticipated the project would take me longer.

Removing the old sink fixture and water faucet took about 20 minutes and was relatively straightforward with the video procedures they used. The real challenge is reaching this confined space under the sink counter and moving around. I took off the right cabinet door to make room for my legs while sitting on the floor between the toilet and sink cabinet. It's a real tight fit for someone my size.

Once the existing items were removed I placed the new sink bowl over the original hole in the countertop. This is where it gets interesting. The hole is too small to fit the new bowl fixture so the opening has to be enlarged. In the video they used a router to expand the opening larger and moved the opening slightly towards the front of the countertop. With the bowl on top of the countertop I traced where I needed to remove the countertop material to make the bowl fit properly.

This was the messy part of the job. The routering took the longest because I needed to check the fit a dozen or more times as I removed material. Fine sawdust was everywhere from the process but eventually the opening was the right size and we cleaned up the bathroom for the next step.

The waterfall faucet was test fitted with the bowl. I needed to move the faucet back about a 1/2 inch to clear the back of the bowl. I used the recommended rubber window seal as a liner between the bowl and the inside of the countertop hole. This effectively seated the bowl in the opening and added additional cushioning between the ceramic material and the wooden countertop surface. Once the bowl was seated, I measured around the bowl to level it, added the new drain plug and connected all the pumping fixtures.

Now was the moment of truth. Would it work without any leaks? Well, it worked but I spent the next couple of hours tweeking the pumping in the faucet to address a small leak on one of the hoses. At present it works and I'm still addressing the small leak. The real test will come when we drive the fifth-wheel down the road and submit the entire project to the typical vibration and bouncing associated with traveling from place to place.

Fortunately we have a few more days here on Camano Island to let the caulking dry and the plumbing to seat before the next leg of our journey. As a precaution I will shut off the two water lines under the sink before we leave. I also have a water alarm for under the sink cabinet to alert us if anything changes while we're using the new fixtures.

As you can see, It's a lovely addition to the trailer's bathroom and makes the sink much more usable all the way around. Now I just need a few days for my body to recover from all the unexpected yoga moves I had to do to get the project completed. Thank goodness for Aleve!