Changing An Undermount 33 x 22 Sink To A Top Mount 33 x 22 Sink

The sink in this post is an Americast 33" x 22".  That is a very large sink to undermount but they designed it to be installed either as a top mount or an undermount.  You can see why it is problematic as an undermount if the need arises for you to change the sink without removing the countertops or replacing them entirely.

This is the same scenario for any other sink made from any other material.  The big challenge of this type of sink replacement comes from the 33" x 22" size.

On this one, it has the compounded problem that the sink is 33" wide, but it is installed in a cabinet base that is only 30" so the lip of the sink is resting on the cabinet walls and even when you pry away all of the silicone between the countertop and the sink, the sink does not have the ability to drop down inside the cabinet and be taken out of the bottom of the sink cabinet like you can on other sink replacements.

Having only the option of replacing all of the countertops in the kitchen or getting very determined and creative, the homeowner opted for determined and creative, so I dug in.

                                          Here's the sink to be replaced.

                                         I am cutting the correct sink cutout for the new top
                                         mount sink that will replace this one.  I am doing
                                         it this way to remove as much of the countertop away
                                         from the existing sink.  This will decrease the likelyhood
                                         of cracking the countertop when seperating it from the sink.

                                                       

                                                   Here I am trying to show the cabinet wall
                                                   so you can see where the sink bowl is,
                                                   and the sink lip goes under the countertop
                                                   and rests on the cabinet wall.

                                         More cutting

                                         
                                          This sink is really too large for the cabinet, but they
                                          got it in there.

                                                   I had to disassemble all the drawer slides
                                                   for the cabinets on the right hand side of the
                                                   sink, then cut out the cabinet wall giving
                                                   us an "escape hatch" which allows the sink
                                                   drop down and be removed through the
                                                   bottom of the cabinet.
                                                       

                                 
                                         Here is the proper sink cutout, and the old sink is out.

                                       
                                          This is the sink they chose to replace the old one
                                         

 On a scale of 4, 4 being the most difficult, this one is a high 3.9.

Changing a 33" x 22" undermount sink to a top mount 33" x 22" sink done by Bryan Dix, Complete Solid Surface Refinishing in beautiful Clemmons, NC

Replacing a Corian 850 Sink With An Undermount Stainless Steel in Advance, North Carolina

  This is another retrofit sink replacement.  It is in Advance, North Carolina.  We are replacing a Corian 850 double sink with a single bowl stainless steel undermount sink.

                                         This is the Corian 850 sink

This is the single bowl stainless steel sink.

Corian 850 sink replaced with a single bowl undermount stainless steel sink in beautiful Advance, North Carolina done by Complete Solid Surface Refinishing

Wilsonart Gibraltar Sink Replacement. Winston Salem, NC

Here we have a Wilsonart integral solid surface sink that the homeowner would like to replace with a stainless steel drop in sink.



Like a lot of my customers these days, the homeowner has just decided that she would like a stainless steel sink instead. Usually people decide to do this when there is extensive damage such as a crack or maybe even a hole in the sink that makes it unusable. This time though, they were just tired of this sink and wanted to go stainless steel.





Also, a lot of my customers are going to a large single bowl sink instead of two equal sized double bowl sinks.

FYI, the cabinets do not have to be disassembled in order to replace the sink. They were in the middle of having all of their cabinet doors and drawers refinished.

Wilsonart Gibraltar Sink Replacement. Winston Salem, NC Done by Complete Solid Surface Refinishing in Beautiful North Carolina!

Corian Countertop Retro Fab. Oak Ridge, NC

This is a Corian countertop retro fabrication job. That simply means that someone wants to make some major changes to their kitchen but they want to re use their Corian countertops that are currently installed. While some retro projects are a little costly, they can still save a homeowner hundreds or in some cases even thousands of dollars on the cost of brand new countertops.

The picture below shows the existing tile island and the main peninsula countertop that is made from Corian. The homeowners want do away with the Corian peninsula and just continue the countertop straight along the wall.



In this next pic below, you can see that I have taken the peninsula portion of the countertop off of the existing cabinets and I have cut the remainder of the countertop to accept the new field seam that is required to extend the countertop after the cabinet guys take out the existing cabinets and rework the layout along the wall.



Notice the cast iron drop in sink. They also want to change that to an undermount stainless steel sink. That is an upgrade that I have been doing quite a bit of lately. By the way, that is also called a retrofit sink replacement.




Below is the series of finished pictures. Things to look for, the new granite island replaces the old tile island, the Corian countertop is now all finished in a straight run, and they now have a stainless steel undermount sink instead of their old cast iron drop in sink.










I was in full on countertop repair mode and did not do enough justice in this blog post to the great cabinet work that was done on the island, not to mention the gorgeous granite countertop. That work was done by Cabinet Studio in Winston Salem, NC.

Corian Countertop Retro Fab. Oak Ridge, NC. Done by Complete Solid Surface Refinishing in Beautiful Clemmons, North Carolina!

Retrofit Hi Macs Sink Replacement. Durham, North Carolina

This is a Hi Macs sink that was somehow damaged. Can you tell. I am curious as to how this got to be so severely damaged but nobody offered any explanation and I didn't pry. It definitely needs to be replaced though. And since they didn't want to have the issue again, they decided to go with a retro fit stainless steel sink as a replacement.




Well here it is. After a few hours of getting the Hi Macs sink out of there and then re cutting the sink cutout to fit the retrofitted stainless steel sink, now it is finished.

The only thing left now is to do the plumbing and since this is a retro fit sink replacement and the drain lines will have to be altered, I had the homowner to use their favorite plumber to do the plumbing re work. He will be in in the morning and everything will be back to normal.

Retrofit Hi Macs Sink Replacement. Durham, North Carolina. Done by Complete Solid Surface Refinishing in Beautiful North Carolina!

Retrofit Sink Replacement. Baden Lake North Carolina

Okay. Here is part two of Retrofit Sink Replacement. Baden Lake North Carolina.Unfortunately, some of my pictures were so bad it wasn't worth posting all of them. Anyway, here is a shorter version of events than I had originally hoped to post. I have the old sink out of there now. And I have cut the new sink opening to the proper size. There was not enough room in the cabinets to allow the new sink to go in. I had to cut out the cabinet walls to make room for manipulating the sink into position. Also, the new sink is so large that it extends beyond the walls of the cabinets. And that's it. After I got old sink out and re sized the sink cutout and cut away the cabinet walls, then I had to clamp the sink into position and attach the permanent sink holding system to finish the sink installation. Then of course I had to repair the cabinet walls so it did not look like we did what we did under there. The whole project was a day and a half. I expected to have it done in a day but the cabinet work added a few extra hours to the job. It turned out great though. I wish my pics were better. Retro fit sink replacement by Complete Solid Surface Refinishing in Beautiful North Carolina!

Retrofit Sink Replacement. Baden Lake, NC

Here is a cracked solid surface sink. The homeowner did not want to replace it with another solid surface sink and wanted to go with a stainless steel sink instead. As you can probably guess, changing to an entirely different type of sink does present some unique challenges. Once you cut out the solid surface sink, the hole that is left is certainly not going to be the same dimension or even have the same contour in the corners for that matter. In many instances we have to "shrink" the sink cutout and then recut the hole to fit the new sink. As always, there is no room for error because the whole point of having me to replace the sink is for it to not look like it was an after thought, even though it is a retro fit. It must look like it was there originally. Fortunately in this instance, we are not going to have to shrink the sink cutout, we are going to enlarge it. Uh oh, did I say this was fortunate? Well, from the standpoint of having to alter the countertop, it is fortunate. However, that also opens us up to an entirely different set of unique challenges. In this instance, the new sink (the only model that was large enough to fit the space from front to back) was quite a bit larger than the old, cracked solid surface sink. For this one, we have to make room where there isn't any room under the cabinet. Enough talk, here are some pics for you. 

                                   This is the cracked sink before I rip into it. Here are a couple of pictures after I have completed the sink replacement. This is going to be a lengthy post. To see how I got from where I started with the solid surface sink to where I ended up with the stainless steel sink,  click here for part 2. Retro fit sink replacement by Complete Solid Surface Refinishing in Beautiful North Carolina!

Sink Replacement. From Solid Surface To Granite Composite.

This is the finished product.

Any time you are doing a sink replacement it is a fairly big job. What makes a sink replacement job even bigger, meaning more labor intensive, is when you are changing to a different sink model than the one you started with.

In other words, if you have a sink that needs to be replaced and it is a Corian 850, it is an easier more straight forward job if you replace it with another Corian 850 bowl. Lately I have had several customers that have had one type of sink to start with and then they wanted to change to an entirely different type of sink.

Here is an example of one customer that fits that description and some details about just how tough it is to pull off a job like this one.

First, the customer had a solid surface material that they don't even make any more. It was Etura. That presented a problem in trying to find a replacement sink that was identical to what she already had. Most solid surface sinks are standard sizes of around 30"x16" or maybe even 30"x 18". There are many models and manufacturers and some are a little bigger or smaller than what I just mentioned but most are in that ballpark.

Etura, during their short lifespan, decided to make their sinks be out of the normal spectrum of measurements that are used. I think it was 32"x 18". That means that we would have to shrink the hole to accomodate a new solid surface sink from a different manufacturer.

Normally, I would just jump in there, shrink the hole, install the new sink, enjoy the customers glee for a little while and then hit the road. Of course that could not happen on this one because as I said, they no longer make Etura so getting any material to shrink the hole with was impossible.

There are about 5 gazillion different sinks that would work if we were going to just opt for a drop in sink in it's place. Naturally though, the customer always had an undermount sink and she absolutely did not want a drop in sink, most of my customers think the same. If they have had a drop in sink before they will do everything in their power not to have one again. They just love the undermount sinks for their ease of use and the smooth transition from the countertop down into the sink with no "crumb catching" lip sticking up through the countertop.

We had to search long and hard for an undermount sink that would not only be large enough to take up the oversize hole that would be there after we removed the old sink, but it also had to be able to fit into her sink cabinet base. I spent countless amounts of time searching online and in catalogs looking to find something that would work but always ran into some type of problem. Color, size, material or style. There just always was something that disqualified each type of sink that we came up with.

Finally, I contacted a company you may have heard of called Ferguson inc. I was dealing with the Winston Salem, NC location 336-759-0253. I talked to Latonya Peeples and told her all of the hurdles that we faced in our project. After several rounds of phone tag and emails, Latonya sent me an email with a sink that she thought might just fit the bill. The sink was a Blanco granite composite model 513-441. I got with my customer and she loved the sink style and color, and I was happy because the dimensions were going to make it possible for me to complete this job and give the homeowner exactly what she wanted. I probably would have never found the right sink if it wasn't for Latonya's help. I had looked all over the internet and found several that were similar but just not what we needed. Thanks Latonya.

This is the sink that she needed to replace.

The sink cracked and it was leaking to the point where she could not use it. She had looked around to find someone to repair the sink for her. What you see here is the "repair". Someone showed up to smear some nasty goo on the crack and then called it "fixed". AHHHH! That is not fixed! That's just ugly goo smeared on a crack. Then, they even made her pay for it!



This particular type of sink replacement calls for a lot more job site preparation than many other types do. As you can see, all of the plumbing has been removed from the sink and the cabinets have been cleared out.
Next, I lay out my lines for cutting out the opening of the new sink. In many cases I would just cut out the deck while the old sink is still attached. In this case though, I have to first cut the existing sink free from the countertop and then cut my countertop deck to the correct dimension fo the new sink.


I have to put up a lot of plastic and then get in there with a dust mask and vacuum equipment. Dustless equipment does not collect dust very well for the types of things I will be doing so I have to take every measure possible to contain the dust for my customer.


I have cut the sink free from the countertop here. Now I need to wrestle it out of the cabinet and start working on making the new cutout to accomodate the new undermount sink.






I made a template for this cutout instead of just trying to cut to the lines by hand. It is faster and more accurate with less finish work to do.



This is the finished cutout.



This was a very long work day and after many hours of working I kind of let the whole photo documentary fall by the way so I could get the job done. Some of the things that the pictures did not show you are as follows.

1. Once I got the old sink out of the cabinet, I had to cut out the cabinet wall on the left side of the sink. That was the only way to make room for the new sink to be put into the proper place.

2. I also had to cut out a "scoop" in the cabinet wall on the right side of the sink so the sink could be wiggled into position. I only needed about another 1 1/2" which is good because the dishwasher is there and we only could gain about 2" extra. That was pretty close.

3. I had to make an elaborate support system to hold the new granite composite undermount sink in place.

4. Once the sink was installed and all of the plumbing was reconnected I then had to replace the cabinet wall that I had to cut out on the left.

If you look closely you may notice that the sink is not exactly centered in the cabinet. That is because the original sink was not centered in the cabinet. Since the holes for the plumbing were already drilled into the countertop and there was no material available to allow me to "move" any of the holes, I had to work off of the center hole that was already there. (That note is for you eagle eyed craftsmen out there that would have spotted that in the picture!)

It was a major job and a very long day but that is what makes you feel like you've accompolished something substantial. I was happy with it and most importantly, the homeowner was happy with it and has been more than happy to pass my name around to others interested in having some out of the ordinary things done to their countertops.

This is the finished product.



Another job by Complete Solid Surface Refinishing in beautiful North Carolina.

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Replace Drop in Sink With An Undermount Sink.

Replacing a drop in sink with an undermount stainless steel sink


This is one of those jobs I love to get. Why? Because almost everytime I get a chance to do one of these, the customer has been told by at least one person "in the industry" that this is an impossible task and that no person or company anywhere can possibly pull off such a job with satisfactory results.

That really gets me going. I just love doing things that "can't" be done. Of course they can be done or I wouldn't be doing them. Enough babbling, on with the show!

This customer has an Americast composite sink that is a drop in style. She wanted very badly to have an undermount stainless steel sink.
instead because of the smooth transition into the sink. There is nothing sticking up through the countertop to have to clean around and recaulk and collect foodstuff etc. With just a simple wipe of the countertop, all the crumbs just fall effortlessly down into the sink and are rinsed away.

After I have removed the drop in sink, the first thing I have to do is to cut all four sides of the sink cutout smooth so that I can seam the required Corian to all 4 edges of the sink cutout.

The reason I have to do this is because the hole that is there is considerably larger for the drop in sink than is required for the new undermount stainless steel sink
installation. This is always the case when switching from a drop in sink to an undermount sink.




Here is a shot of the rough sink cutout. You can see how it is not an even and smooth cutout and will have to be recut before I can proceed with the hole shrink. You can see how I cut the sides using straight edges and a router. Because I dont want to give away any top secret information, I am not telling how I make the back section cuts. And you can't make me! (He says smiling gleefully)



Next, I seam the pieces of Corian to the sides to shrink the cutout from left to right. While the seams are curing, I will be preparing the material for the front to back hole shrinking process.

These jobs are very involved with lots of very small steps along the way that I am not documenting with pictures. Not because I did not want to share the pictures with you but I just got all wrapped up in getting the job done and just forgot to take some of the pics.



Okay, you can see here that I have gotten all of the seams done around the sink, then I recut the sink cutout to the proper dimensions and shape to accept the new stainless steel undermount sink. I have also drilled the holes into the countertop for the faucet.



What's left now is to attach the new undermount stainless steel sink to the countertop and then have the plumber come and install the plumbing. You would think that all the hard work was over at this point. Not the case. Installing an undermount stainless steel sink as a retrofit project is a very challenging process. Fighting gravity, positioning the sink correctly in the exact right spot and above all, making sure that all of your attaching efforts are sufficient. The last thing I want is to get a call in the middle of the night about someone's sink crashing to the floor.

Tah Dah! Here is the new undermount stainless steel sink
installed and all ready for a long life of washing dishes.


Well, there you have it. The customer was tickled because she got her retrofit undermount stainless steel sink
and I was happy too because I got to show that a job that could not be done actually could be done and done well.
Another job that just can't be done. Done by Complete Solid Surface Refinishing in beautiful North Carolina.
Nationwide Surface Repair