Chris wrote:

I have an almost 90 year old house and am trying to replace an old
vanity with a small american standard (colony) pedastal sink.
Mounting the sink to a board spanned between two studs is not an
option because 1) there are no studs (only thin strips of wood (lath)
and ~1/2" of plaster, and 2) tearing out the wall would make a HUGE
mess.

Any recommendations. On a separate thread one person suggested
caulking the back of the sink to the wall, and essentially allowing it
to rest on the pedastal. This sounds sketchy but might have to do.

Thanks!

Chris


Using screws to hold a piece of plywood to the lath will work. You're
not going to be climbing on, or yanking on the sink, are you?
When my house was built back in '84, we had a pedestal sink installed in
the master bathroom. Behind the sink, the wall was studded with 2x6s and
the gap between studs in that area was 2' because of the vent stack,
drain, and plumbing. Since we couldn't screw into a stud in the
location, the plywood was held to the sheetrock wall with a number of
screw anchors (4 or 6. I forgot). The sink stayed up for about 10 years,
until we redid the bathroom and replaced it with a small vanity sink.
It was my wife's idea to have a pedestal sink originally, but it wasn't
too long for her to find out she made a mistake. She soon learned that
there was not enough space on the sink to put things down, like a soap
dish or dispenser, toothpaste tube, etc., when using the sink. We had to
lay those things down on the toilet tank top next to the sink. You also
lose the storage space under the sink for towels, wash cloths, extra
soap, toilet cleaning tools, plunger, etc.