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I have a customer that wants his drop in sink taken out of her SS top and she is interested in an undermount sink. When I went and measured the drop in sink and it turned out to be a 33 x 22. Anybody knows of a kitchen sink that I could mount in that big of a hole? The sinks I deal with are not that big and I never had anybody asked me for a job like this. Any ideas? Is there an oversize sink outthere for this type of situation????….
I had a similar situation last week on a vanity bowl for a builder. The old “Ooops! forgot to send you the change order. We had already cut and plumber had installed drop in’s but the customer wanted undermounted china. we looked every where we could think of and found nothing that would fit, so we are remaking the tops right now and getting greif fromteh builder because they want to close on the home yesterday.
So, I’d like to know if one of the sink manu’s have thought about this issue and come out with specialty sinks for this app as well.
RealWorldIdeaMan wrote
I had a similar situation last week on a vanity bowl for a builder. The old “Ooops! forgot to send you the change order. We had already cut and plumber had installed drop in’s but the customer wanted undermounted china. we looked every where we could think of and found nothing that would fit, so we are remaking the tops right now and getting greif fromteh builder because they want to close on the home yesterday.
So, I’d like to know if one of the sink manu’s have thought about this issue and come out with specialty sinks for this app as well.
Wow..that was bad typing even after a 15 hour day…sorry!
A 33″ sink is pretty close to 32 3/8″ x 21 1/4″ cut out.
To change to an undermount, you will automatically eliminate standard (and common) 33″ cabinets. If there is a 36 ” cabinet, you might have a shot, but because of the faucet ledge, it is doubtfull. Consider an inlay piece as a collar.
Much easier is an undermount to seam mount, and less so an undermount to seam mount.
My .02
Tom
Hey Tom,
Can you explain what you mean by “Much easier is an undermount to seam mount, and less so an undermount to seam mount”?
I am pretty new at this side of the business and you got my head spinning trying to figure out what you mean.
Thanks,
Fred
Hmmm…
Head spinning.
That usually happens when I don’t make sense.
Meaning often.
Let me try this-
Looking at it from the outside in, your biggest cuts are drop ins. They will be the outline of the sink, with a small offset for the rim. It’s easier to make a hole larger than smaller, so the easiest direction would be from seam or traditional undermount changed to a drop in.
The rest is a bit complicated, as the different offerings in both undermount and seam mounted sinks are vast, but I would say that, at least the way we undermount a sink (opening smaller than the bowl), that a seam mount would be larger, given the same size/shape between bowls. Faucet ledges, usually not needed in undermount sinks, make this even more so. If you fabricate like a surprising number here, who cut a reveal on a traditional undermount sink – so as to show the top flange of the sink – this would switch the order.
The trouble is, there are few similarities in size between a standard undermount stainless steel sink and the impossible to standardize solid surface sinks.
Complcates things a bit, but usually for the worse. Fortunately there are a myriad ways to repair solid suface. Not too many are cheap, though, and that is important.
Tom
Indeed Andy, the sink hole is 31×21. Is there a sink outthere (any brand) that fit these dimentions…. Anyone…. thanks
This sink should work CLICK HERE It is the Kohler Executive Chef. Now you won’t be able to use the temp it comes with but if you cut the hole to 32 x 21 with 1 1/2″ radius corners, the sink should fit.
Good Luck
Im sorry, I was not specific enough. I meant an undermount seemed solid surface type sink. Let me know…
Mayolg,
I have had to do exactly what you are asking. You probably won’t find a sink that will take up the entire existing opening and so you will need to do the following. Build a deck on the flange of what ever sink that you choose. Build it large enough to fill the cutout left by the old sink. If the customer has patch material it is probably not large enough to fill the hole. I did the following. Cut the patch material into 2″ to 3″ strips and build the new deck only as a perimiter on the new sink. This used minimal material. Then create a template for making a beveled plug so that you can bevel mount the new sink and deck into the existing counter top. If the customer has enough material you should have a good color match. If not you might have to use material that is the same color as the sink and sell the bevel mounted rim as an accent detail. I would think that 4 to 5 hours labor should take care of it, not including removing the old sink and plumbing.
Johnny C.
We do this all of the time, its not a EZ job, the worst can be removing something like a 32″ undermount cast iron sink in a 30″ cabinet with out removing the large 3-4 sheet counter top. Removing Solid Surface sinking and installing all other sink types of undermont and top mount sinks, OR removing all other sink types and installing Solid Surface sinks……. seams to be a request we get often enuf as plumbers will not touch these jobs with out removing the tops. I can walk you thur the finer points if you like, just email me your phone number.
Thanks Karl,
Im familiar with the process but as far as finding a Solid Surface sink to fit this specific hole that’s where the problem begins. I did a job a little while ago where they had a single drop in sink where the Solid Surface sink was bigger than the whole and I had no problems installing it. The case here is that the hole is too big and none of the sinks I have used in the past fit there. Maybe there is a company outhere who thought of this and came up with a sink for this type situation. Maybe a big sink that even faucets are installed on the same sink. Anyway thanks for your advice, if you know of something that fits there let me know, thanks again.
By the way my email is: solidsurfaceunlimited@yahoo.com
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