jesus, whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. i feel your pain. i haven't tiled yet, but the backerboard went up when i noticed that the plumbing was clearly not centered. (he had the architect's plan, he had the specs from duravit, go figure). my contractor, however, is wonderful (for so many reasons, believe me). and i do have a vanity console to possibly cover part of it, but not all, since there are drawers in the console that can't be bumping into plumbing. but he's assured me that there is no problem with moving the plumbing again. i will check with him to see what he means exactly by that. but it sounded like it wasn't a major deal. for your sake, i hope that means it can be done externally and balanced visually.

i'm sorry that i can't help you more. i just wanted to let you know that you're not alone with your remodeling frustrations. after katrina, i was totally robbed with an 80K "renovation." "mr. green's" slow and uses only one assistant., but has old-school integrity. he's already realigned other plumbing for me (new bathtub was three inches wider than the original) and doesn't fuss about or "stick it to me" for the "extra and unexpected." good luck. and if i find something out, i;ll let you know.

Is this a wood medicine cabinet? If so, consider having them make larger (wider at least, and if needed for proportion, taller as well) door.

The cabinet can be recessed "as is" in the wall in it's non-centered position, the wider door can them be set centered on the wall where it should be, but offset on the medicine cabinet. The hinging would not be a problem, especially if the hole in the wall is offset to the hinge side of the cabinet.

Or they can build you a new one from scratch.

A metal medicine cabinet, yeah, you'd need a mulligan for that one.

Mongo

Yup, metal medicine cabinet. It's just above the tile line on the half-height tile wall. Would they have to take down the whole wall again (and redo the tile), or could they just take the cabinet out, cut a hole in the greenboard, reframe the cabinet, and patch up the greenboard? Would that be a bad thing to do and I should insist on their completely redoing it?

(And they made fun of me for buying so much extra tile...)

I'd have to see a few photos to see the style of cabinet you have and the end look you want before telling you what specific work needs to be done.

However, you wrote "Can they still center the sink under the medicine cabinet and do something to fudge the position of the p-trap?"

With a wall-mounted sink, even though they are only shifting the sink +/- an inch, they should have installed sufficient blocking so even after moving the sink they'll still hit the blocking in the walls.

That will mean that your supply lines will be coming out of the wall slightly offset from centerline. Not a big deal.

The P-trap? Easy. P-traps are designed to rotate, so yes, you can use the exiting drain line location in the wall and just shift the trap. It'll be at a slight angle, so it depends on the style of sink and how important the angled P-trap is to you.

Without a doubt, shifting the sink over a bit would be the easiest solution.

Mongo

Here's a photo showing the bathroom in general.

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And here's a closeup of the plumbing under the medicine cabinet:

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The medicine cabinet is Kohler K-CB-CLC2026FS frameless beveled edge, it's 20x26 inches with was put in with the hinge on the left (in case that has any relevance).

The sink will be a Porcher Sapho wall-mount sink with an exposed decorative Kohler P-Trap. The bathroom will be very contemporary in style.

My old sink was about 21" or 22" in width; the new one is 25-3/4" (excluding the attached towel bars at the side). That's why the plumbing had to be moved over a little. (It's an old apartment building so it was cast iron plumbing - it was expensive to move.)

But now it's all moved and the wall is closed up and tiled. Is the solution to just rotate the p-trap? Would that be very obvious looking at it? Am I panicking over nothing, or do I have to have a major fight with them now to redo everything???

Thanks, Mongo - I appreciate your expert advice!!!

Mid-day update: They confirmed that the centering is off 3/4" - they say the plumber messed up. They're going to reframe the medicine cabinet to match up with the plumbing. I hope this leaves the right amount of room for the sink - it's a tight wall - but I guess I'll see the result tonight. The plumber was there to put in all the plumbing fixtures. I think it might actually be a bathroom tonight.

I will say that they have been very responsive to my panicked phone calls - this isn't one of those contractors who disappears for days (or weeks) at a time and doesn't return calls.

That said, I'll let you know tonight if it really does all line up...

Seeing that the upper wall is greenboard and not tiled, moving the medicine cabinet shouldn't be a huge task.

Question though...is that an electrical junction box I see over the mirror? What is that centered off of? Is it centered off the mirror where it is now, or where it will be after the mirror is moved?

Or does it not matter due to the type of light fixture you plan on installing?

Glad to hear you're getting this resolved.

Mongo

Ouch! Good catch, Mongo!! That is indeed an electrical junction box, and it does indeed matter that the light fixture be centered over the cabinet. Hopefully the guy who's reframing the medicine cabinet will have caught that (since he also framed where that junction box went) - but I'll be sure to measure tonight.

Thanks for your help, Mongo!