[Arbee]

The left of two front doors of this bathroom vanity use to open by pulling the door down from near its top.

It was hinged at its bottom.

At one point, while the door was open, some idiot, who shall remain nameless lost his footing and stepped on the open door, while it was lying near the bathroom floor.

His actions/body weight ripped the bottom hinge off the door and vanity, both made of MDF it would seem, taking some of that MDF with the broken hinge from both the bottom lip of the left door and the bottom left of the vanity floor.

He...I mean I then, as a kluge, hinged the door at its left side as shown, but it doesn't look very nice.

Ok--remaking the door itself might not be that hard, but I don't want to replace the vanity if avoidable to put everything back the way it was before the accident.

Can I maybe epoxy the bottom of the vanity's floor that cantilevers out where the bottom hinge use to be attached to the vanity to give me some "meat" on that vanity floor to reattach a hinge on to? Maybe I can do same on the bottom inside of the left door?

TIA

 

[Steve Neul]

Depending on what tools you have available there is a couple different fixes. You could cut some of that bottom shelf off and glue and screw a piece of solid wood to the shelf where it could be hinged at the bottom again. The only problem with the way it is currently hinged is either the door isn't square with the cabinet or it was just hung crooked. It should be an easy fix if you haven't put all the screws in the hinge. You could just take it loose at the cabinet and move it down about 3/16". Guessing at the dimension, measure the distance the left door is above the right door. If all of the screws were put in you could drive a wooden match stick in the hole with a little glue. Another option would be to take the door to a cabinet shop and have them drill the back side of the door for European hinges. Then get a pair of Blum 38N hinges. It would give you some adjustment after the door was mounted.

 

[woodnthings]

How are your plumbing skills?
To remove the vanity you may need a special off set wrench, pretty cheap at any hardware store.
But the reason I'm suggesting doing that is, vanities are a standard width, easy to find at Habitat type places or even Marketplace?
If you can remove it, repairing it will be 100X easier. That one looks like it about outlived it's useful life.
All things considered, a new/used one will save you the repair time, but will add the removal and install time, possibly a wash?

 

[Arbee]

Depending on what tools you have available there is a couple different fixes. You could cut some of that bottom shelf off and glue and screw a piece of solid wood to the shelf where it could be hinged at the bottom again. The only problem with the way it is currently hinged is either the door isn't square with the cabinet or it was just hung crooked. It should be an easy fix if you haven't put all the screws in the hinge. You could just take it loose at the cabinet and move it down about 3/16". Guessing at the dimension, measure the distance the left door is above the right door. If all of the screws were put in you could drive a wooden match stick in the hole with a little glue. Another option would be to take the door to a cabinet shop and have them drill the back side of the door for European hinges. Then get a pair of Blum 38N hinges. It would give you some adjustment after the door was mounted.

I like your idea Steve. I can cut off the portion of the vanity's left side floor that is cantilevered, put a piece of wood on top of the vanity's existing left side floor whose depth is that of the left vanity floor before my cut, a then glue/screw a small piece of wood to the bottom of the piece of wood I just installed, that's doubles its thickness, for just the cantilevered portion, to give me an attachment height at the bottom of the left side of the cabinet that is the same height as the original height of attachment of the left door at the bottom. Thanks.

I'm not looking to make the existing left side kluge hinge point look more aligned but rather reinstate the original bottom attachment point. Not shown in the pictures, the vanity is such that when the left door is fully closed, even if the alignment looking face on was made perfect, a crow's eye view from above would find the left side of the door jutting out more than the right (when closed) given the nature of the cabinet box's design and how a left side hinge just doesn't work here. A right side hinge does work here and is how the right side door is attached because there is no wall (unlike the left side) getting in the way on the right side of the cabinet.

Thanks.

 

[DrRobert]

Ok, after you saying it’s MDF, and looking at that drawer and piano hinge, you want to jury rig it, or fix it right?

Jury rig - glue in solid wood.

‘Fix right = rip the POJ out and buy or built a decent cabinet.

Sorry, the truth hurts sometimes/////😉

‘And what is a “kluge hinge” a piano hinge?

 

[woodnthings]

‘Fix right = rip the POJ out and buy or build a decent cabinet.

We have the same opinion on the existing cabinet, BUT I doubt he's willing to do this. We would, but he won't.
Let's see if I'm right ......

 

[Arbee]

@woodnthings @DrRobert

guity as charged: fix not replace. did it today.

I screwed in a rectangle of 1/2" wood that resides below the bottom draw into the floor of the vanity (the draw slides out and is about 3/4" elevated from the vanity floor). That 1/2" wood comes out of the vanity about 2", as did the original piece. And this 2" cantilever has below it a 3/4" piece of wood to create the same height or the original hinge's attachment point from below. It replaces the ripped up MDF that get destroyed when I stepped on the shelf---that MDF cut out with a oscillating tool.

The fix, and original and the kluge all used a piano hinge. The kluge was attaching the hinge on the left after I broke off the original one on the bottom of the left side of the cabinet but accidently stepping on the open left door, resting on floor.

Sure---replacing the vanity would be best. I'll leave that to the next homeowner, when, if history is any indication, given my home's age, location, and relatively small size to property for the area, will likely be torn down by the next developer owner, to put a mini-mansion in its place.

The door "took a hit" when its MDF was ripped near the bottom during the accidently. Bondo came to the rescue to rebuild the bottom of that door, whose from facia wasn't damaged.

I'm getting too old to pull vanities!

 

[_Ogre]

other than the difficulty of drilling a 35mm hole for the hinge, a standard inset door hinge would have worked
Blum CLIP Series 35 mm Spring Closing Inset for Frameless Cabinet Hinge (2-Pack) BP71M27521180S - The Home Depot

 

[Arbee]

other than the difficulty of drilling a 35mm hole for the hinge, a standard inset door hinge would have worked
Blum CLIP Series 35 mm Spring Closing Inset for Frameless Cabinet Hinge (2-Pack) BP71M27521180S - The Home Depot

View attachment 444869

I appreciate your help @_Ogre but I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree.

I wish it were as simple as your hardware suggests.

Sadly, there is no place to grab on to on the left side, given the fact that the vanity abuts a wall there; so I can't install such hardware there and have the left door align.

Indeed, such hardware is on the right door where it looks like your picture.

In the first two pictures of my original post you may be able to see that such a hinge on the left has limited space, and even with my use of a small piano hinge, on the second picture, the left side of left door, when closed, juts out and is proud of the right from a crow's eye view.

I suspect that's why the original installer went with the bottom hinge point that I have recreated.

Thanks.