bathroom vanity top

Are Your Tenants Damaging Your Bathroom Vanity Tops?

If you’re a landlord, you know how often the countertops in a rental get damaged.

Maybe it starts with one little corner getting dinged. And then the compressed stuff inside the laminate maybe gets a little wet and starts to deteriorate. Then maybe the dog gets a little agitated and starts gnawing at the edge when he’s locked in for an afternoon.

And then you’re replacing the bathroom vanity top again.

Or maybe you’re replacing a vanity for the first time and are wondering what it would cost to get a stone countertop instead of a laminate one.

For little one, like 32″ wide by 22.5″ deep (powder room, or small bathroom), you can get a granite remnant bathroom vanity top with an undermount sink for about $260. Add backsplashes for another $100-ish, depending on how many you need, and how tall. That includes many standard countertop edges (flat-polish, bullnose, waterfall, bevel).

Granite in Rentals

Now think about what that gets you as a landlord in both the long run and the short run:

• A durable, stain-resistant stone top that tenants are less likely to damage
• Maybe a little more monthly rental income because your rental is nicer than the others in the area
• One-stop vanity top replacement if you put in granite backsplashes because you don’t have to shop for tile (or find a tile guy to do a little job – they often have a minimum $$$ for any job, even a small one)

We have several long-time clients that collect rental properties in Austin and Round Rock (and surrounding communities). Here are some of the ways they work with us – maybe one way will work for you, too?

• Some want us to do it all – measure/template, fabricate, install, provide the sink. If the property has a combo box, they don’t even need to meet us there.
• Some want us to measure/template and they meet us at the property to let us in.
• Other brings us templates, and pick up the counters and install them on their own and for the smaller counters this works just fine.

Since these little vanity tops are made out of remnants, from the stacks we have behind our granite shop off of North Lamar in Austin, someone needs to pick which remant to use. Some landlords pick which ones they want from photos we send (not particularly accurate, color-wise, but often good enough to choose one), and others come to the shop and put the ones they like on hold.

Which way will work for you?

If you’re new to this type of work, just give us a call and we’ll answer your questions. You can also read the Getting Ready for Granite series of articles to give you an idea of the things you might want to think about.

The vanity top in the photo is New Venetian Gold granite. The undermount sink is called the “Trench”. It is rectangular at the top, but curved at the bottom.