Ok need some advice/help. I mounted a medicine cabinet in the bathroom but did a flush mount. I would love to recess it, but I don't know if there is a water pipe or electrical behind. I'm more concerned with water pipes. Any suggestion on how to easily find out if there is a water pipe behind the wall without making holes? Thanks for any help in advance.
A good stud sensor will detect metal pipes and electrical. Unless there is need for plumbing on the floor directly above the location, it's unlikely water pipes would be that high up on a wall. If there is plumbing above you, the pipes are likely to run in a straight line directly below to the location on the floor below.
There will likely be a vent pipe running up inside the wall to your roof. This pipe won't necessarily be in the wall behind your sink but could be off center somewhere so you might be okay.
That's what I was afraid of because there is a bathroom directly above this bathoom. Well dang. Thanks for the info.
A decent stud sensor, per nscomnac's recommendation, is a good inexpensive way to see behind through a wall without turning it into swiss cheese. Odds are you'll find venting/plumbing between the studs. When modifying plumbing walls, your choices for flush-insertion are limited without doing some major modifications. To flush mount a large mirrored cabinet in our master bath, I had to build a complete false wall to accommodate the unit, plus rerun a new plumbing line. A bit extreme, yes, but effective.
You don't have a link to a picture of your handy work do you? Though what you say is a bit out of my league of doing so looks like mounted to the wall is what I might have to stick with.
Here's the thread where I mounted a flush-type recessed cabinet. On this particular wall ,there was no plumbing so I merely had to remove a stud, re-route some electrical, and frame out a box for the cabinet. See here: Med. Cab install The bigger job was building out a false wall over the old plumbing wall to accommodate a new drain line, hot & cold leads, 3 new light boxes and a recessed medicine cabinet. The old wall backs up to another bathroom so there was no way any of this would have worked using the plumbing wall. I lost six inches of width in the room by adding the wall, but we're happy with the results.
