Drop a sink in THIS.

I was thinking of doing the same.

Forget plywood. Your biggest issue is how many cycles of water exposure you have before delamination.

For a two inch thick top, why not think of a nice piece of live edge wood mounted on metal legs. Lots of Google images for inspiration. Butcher block would be fine as well. Realize you can ship around for different species/colour. So maple to mahogany to walnut to cherry.

For durability and water resistance I would do an epoxy pour. I use Art Resins. Really easy to work with. Expect at least two days. First coat needs 24 hours to seal and hard cute. Next day you can build multiple coats every two hours. Best self levelling of any epoxy.

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements

Please do not use plywood - that would just be a huge waste of time and effort and will need replacing as water seeps in some where.

I am a big fan of live edge mahogany - and even used some blue beetle killed wood in CO to make a cabinet - Epoxy will give you the best protection as well as marine varnish underneath..

Have fun

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Graham Wilson
USAT Level III Elite Coach
http://www.thewilsongroup.biz

Fyi, marine varnish and epoxy did not play well together. Too high am oil content causes lack of adherence with epoxy. I have had to repair and refinish a few of these.

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements

Thanks Jim - good point - I was only referring to the underside of the top - just in case any water seeped and ran around the live edge - would that be ok? Not on the top or edges?

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Graham Wilson
USAT Level III Elite Coach
http://www.thewilsongroup.biz

Personally I would do an epoxy pour both sides. If you finish wood two different ways on different surfaces you change the movement of the wood between two surfaces because of differing responses to humidity. In the case of a slab surface you would look at cupping and twisting issues over time. Not recommended.

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements

Ok good to know that - I have not epoxied both sides of any piece I have made -but I can see the sense in doing so. Tks - love learning. :-)

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Graham Wilson
USAT Level III Elite Coach
http://www.thewilsongroup.biz

Have you considered concrete? I think that could work really well with wood and metal on the cabinet end. You could build the form figure out the dyes and integrate metal inlays.

I have not played with it, but a vanity will be my first foray. I don’t like wood in wet spaces/surfaces.

Jim pretty much nailed my thoughts.

Personally, I'd avoid wood entirely as an option if possible, unless it's for a powder room or guest bath that doesn't see a ton of use and moisture.

Also, like someone else said, try concrete. It's super inexpensive, and labour intensive, but pretty straight forward. There are tons of how-to videos out there.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

the sink will be concrete. we like the mix of concrete and wood here.
this is a different wood than i asked about, i think. i know it's not plywood. ;-)
do any of you guys know what the wood in this pic is?

i never would have thought about treating the bottom of the wood, thanks so much for that. in retirement, which is a few years away yet, but it seems to be approaching quicker than
expected, i'd like to make furniture and item out of concrete, wood and metal. treating the bottom is good intel. thanks.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed

If I am seeing that correctly it essentially is plywood. It looks like part of an LVL (laminated veneer lumber I think?) Structural framing beams. I made a few large benches out of a similar product (PSL, looks like a beam made out of wood chips) for the lobby of a hot yoga studio once. They seemed to hold up alright, but if you ever get a sliver from one of those in the back side it would be a doosey.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

holy cow, i thought that wasn't plywood.
i'm going to do some looking for the woods you guys have suggested.

i was thinking i'd only need to do a resin pour/cover if i went the plywood route. i'm not going there, so thanks much for this suggestion.
is there a wood i could/should use that wouldn't require a resin or epoxy covering? just a stain of some sort.

what about a piece of teak?

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed

Looks more like glulam (glued laminated timber) to me. The difference to LVL is that it's not produced from very thin layers but from larger pieces of timber glued together. You still get the benefit of different grain directions which gives some degree of protection against (excessive) warping, but a look that is closer to solid timber (and it's cheaper than solid timber, of course).
Hard to say which kind of wood was used in the picture, it was probably stained to achieve that color.

Looks like LVL but it is hard to tell from the picture.

Interesting look, what with the concrete and wood and cast iron pipe.

I'm not sure that the optimal location for toilet paper, though.

Looks like walnut to me. Front piece is a little light. Looks like they used three 8/4 boards and joined them.

This is an almost finished set of lockers I put in my mud room, the bench was made from rough 8/4 walnut.

did you make that from scratch?
those are professional looking, looks great. very clean.
i like the rustic look, that way my errors and lack of skill doesnt stand out as much.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed

Yeah, the painted portions are poplar and the bench top is walnut. It looks a bit darker in that picture, and walnut gets more honey tones with age. The material pre and post planning is in the two first pics along with a bench for the same room. I like shaker/mission styles (which are sort of pre-cursors to the modernist look). They require a whole lot less talent than the stuff that Jim makes.

Look again. It ain't walnut, unless some hardwood supplier has taken to stamping "Microlam" in their fine 8/4.

Zoom in on the pic and you can see the printing on the top.


ETA: Now (on 3rd 4th 5th look) I'm not so sure it says "Microlam". But it sure looks like stained LVL.

Any naturally oily wood could have a simple oil sealing finish put on, but there are two drawbacks. One, the stalkrer finish should be reapplied every few months. Second, they are an absolute bitch to glue up, and many will just eat your tool edges.

Here is an article that gives you some advice on gluing and a lousy of oily hardwoods

https://www.wood-database.com/...-tropical-hardwoods/

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements