Undermount Sinks

[Mark J Bachler]

Has anyone installed one of these in a laminate counter top? I've put them in solid surface but not laminate. Any ideas will be apreciated.

[Paul Fitzgerald]

I have not, but I did look into it not too long ago. There are a few companies that make products to allow for undermount sink installation on laminate counter tops.

One company uses some sort of special edge banding that has a built in lip to mount the sink to. Another requires the sink to be poured into a mold and essentially bonded to the laminate. Seems like a heck of a lot of trouble to go through to me.

My recommendation would be to save yourself the headache and stay away from those products. If you have your heart set on an undermount sink, go with solid surface counters. If you have your heart set on laminate counter tops, go with a drop in sink.

[Jamie Buxton]

If you do just the obvious thing -- screw an undermount to the underside of a laminate counter -- it will die quickly. Water gets into the particle board, it turns to mush, and the laminate debonds. There are several products on the market to help you. One is a line of sinks from Karran specifically intended to be undermounted in a laminate counter (http://www.karranproducts.com/models.html?filter=type&type=Under+Mount)
Another is a mounting ring, usually made from Corian or the like. The ring protects the particle board. One example is Copunterseal http://www.counter-seal.com/products. There are others.

[Dave Sharpe]

I recently remodeled my kitchen, building all my own cabinets. I wanted granite countertops, but the price was outragous so I ended up deciding on laminate. I had fallen in love with the undermount sinks, what with the nice,even flow of the surface material into the sink. I wanted to avoid having the raised lip around a top-mounted sink, as well as the overhang of the counter found in some undermount sinks. I bought a granite sink at a borg store that was actually designed as a top=mount sink with the flange that fits on the countertop having a fairly vertical edge. I then routed out the substrate of the countertop to the depth of the sink flange (less the thickness of the laminate) which allowed me to set the sink in place with the top edge flush with the laminate surface. There's not much literature on doing this - I did find a couple of sites online, and the orange Borg store did have one handout fon this for one of their sinks. That handout shows mounting the sink in place first, then placing the laminate on the countertop extending over the sink and using a trim router to rout the edges flush with the inside edge of the sink. This could work if your sink style allows - meaning a straight drop-off into the sink itself all the way around. My sink has a ledge on the back for mounting faucet hardware and such, so I couldn't do this. Instead I did it in this order:
1. routed the substrate (plywood) for the sink to fit flush as mentioned above.
2. Installed the laminate onto the substrate and allowed it to dry.
3. Used a trim router to trim the laminate flush with the edges of the sink mounting hole (and of course the counter edges)
4. Installed the sink. The top edge of the sink was now even with the laminate, but there was a bit of a gap all around the edge, as the sin's mounting flange has just a bit of a roundover.
5. Filled the gap between the laminate and the sink edge (about 1/2: including the roundover) with marine epoxy to make a flush, smooth surface) I used a dark laminate and sink, so was able to color-match the epoxy fairly well by using a colorant (carbon powder) added to the epoxy.
6. I used maple and walnut to create a wooden counter-top edge all around to cover the edge of the laminate.

I'm not a pro cabinet builder - this was my first attempt at remodeling a kitchen. Overall I'm pretty happy with the results. Heck, I might as well brag - I'll attach a before and after pic of the kitchen. I don;t have any closeups of the sink, but email me and I can get some if it helps.

Dave




[Mark J Bachler]

If you do just the obvious thing -- screw an undermount to the underside of a laminate counter -- it will die quickly. Water gets into the particle board, it turns to mush, and the laminate debonds. There are several products on the market to help you. One is a line of sinks from Karran specifically intended to be undermounted in a laminate counter (http://www.karranproducts.com/models.html?filter=type&type=Under+Mount)
Another is a mounting ring, usually made from Corian or the like. The ring protects the particle board. One example is Copunterseal http://www.counter-seal.com/products. There are others.


Thanks Jamie just what I was looking for.

[Timothy McDonough]

Hi, I painted the underside of my laminated particle board countertop with three coats of an oil based paint and they have held up for 15 years around the sink area. Also, I have laminate on the walls (glued to the drywall) as a back splash. The laminate on the walls goes past the counter top by about six inches. I have a top mounted sink though. The paint seems to make a big difference, we have had a few little leaks and sink overflows and the countertop has held up.

Hope this helps,

Tim

[Bill McDermott]

Just a homeowner hobbyist, but my sink is a steel undermount. The sink protrudes about a half inch from the edge of the countertop cutout. I also had concerns, but have been very pleasantly surprised.

Our solid surface (Corian) wraps enough that water never gets close to the particleboard. So it's not a direct comparison But I think the real key is using lots of silicone and a careful smoothing.

Put a very generous bead of silicone on the sink to assist in the adhesion. The sink is actually held up by bolts and clips, but that silicone in there gives me much more confidence. It's a big, permanent, custom fitted gasket. It's been about four years and the seal is as good as new.

Really, it's a remarkable improvement over the caulk I have normally used.

By the way, have plenty of paper towels and denatured alcohol handy. Silicon is a great sealer, but it's not nearly as well behaved as latex caulk. It's a mess. I had to take a few tried before I was happy.

[Karl Brogger]

I've seen solid surface sinks used with laminate countertops too. The sink actually drops in from the top, but is flush with the top of the core. Then you can sand it flat and just laminate over the top of it. I'm not sure if it falls into a rabbet cut into the top layer, or if it is a double core to make the rabbet using a larger and smaller opening.

Found a pic, this is a kitchen I did a few years ago that was like that. I didn't do the tops though.

[Larry Prince]

Not too long ago I did this using a sink from Karran. Initially I was quite trepidatious because if it didn't go well the cost was going to seriously escalate. But after digesting the install info and watching the videos, plus a couple of phone calls to Karran (quite helpful people btw) I plunged in. The whole process actually went pretty easy and fast. I wouldn't hesitate to do another one. If you have, or can get, the appropriate solid-surface router bits to trim the laminate back to the inside edge of the sink it will save you a lot of filing time.