A lavet is a deep stone basin at hip height, either built up in masonry or cast in one piece, sitting somewhere between a sink and a bath. In Dutch housing of the 1950s and 1960s it was standard equipment in the kitchen or scullery, used for soaking laundry, washing children, and rinsing vegetables or buckets.
The lavet is therefore a typical product of the post-war reconstruction years: in dwellings without a bathroom, a single fitting had to cover as many tasks as possible.
Material and form
The classic lavet is made of ocriet, a cast stone based on cement and crushed rock, usually yellowish in colour and sometimes grey. The ocriet of the bowl often continues into a moulded draining surface beside it. Characteristic features are:
- Considerable depth compared with an ordinary sink, so a bucket or a washtub fits inside.
- Mounting at hip or waist height, so it can be worked over while standing.
- Heavy, solid construction — an ocriet lavet weighs tens of kilos and usually stands on masonry legs or a masonry base.
- A timber cover board in many houses, so the basin could be closed and used as a worktop.
Its successor: the utility sink
Once dwellings came with a bathroom and a washing machine as standard, the lavet disappeared from the building programme. What replaced it is the utility or Belfast-type sink: a deep bowl, usually in enamelled steel, ceramic or stainless steel, with a tall tap. You now find these in utility rooms, garages, plant rooms and workshops, for filling buckets, rinsing mops and cleaning tools.
When fitting out a utility room or workshop, such a sink remains one of the most useful things you can include — and retrofitting is expensive, because it needs its own waste and water supply.
During alteration and renovation
- Recognising it during strip-out. If you meet a heavy stone basin on legs in a post-war house, it is probably the original lavet. In a listed or otherwise protected reconstruction-era building such a feature may be covered by the protection — check with the authority before removing it.
- Disposal. Ocriet is cement-bound stone and goes with the rubble, but the basin is too heavy to lift unaided. Break it out in controlled sections or bring in help.
- Reuse. A complete lavet works well outdoors as a planter, or as a wash basin in a workshop, provided the waste is sorted out.
- Replacement. In the same position, a utility sink is the natural choice; the existing waste is usually already at the right height.
Related terms
- Lavabo
- Utility room
- Post-war reconstruction
- Sanitaryware
- Concrete block
- Cast stone
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