Sink in wood shop?

[Eric D Matson]

I am in the process of rearranging/organizing my wood shop. I am thinking about adding a sink. I actually have two in my garage to choose from. One is a single bowl normal utility tub and the other is a 2 bowl cast iron sink I removed from my kitchen when I remodeled it. Does anyone have a sink in their shop? Do you use it? Do you wish you didn't have it? Do you not have one and wish you did? Do you have one bowl or two and wish for the other? Just looking for real life experiences.

Thanks

Eric

[Jamie Buxton]

yes, a sink in a wood shop is a good thing. I use mine to clean brushes and spray equipment when I apply water-based finish. I also use mine to make coffee, an essential part of my shop. I don't use water stones, but those who do want a sink. A small, single-bowl, sink is sufficient. A big double-bowl cast iron sink is overkill. It will consume more space than you need, and space is usually a big issue in a shop.

[Mike Cutler]

Eric

I can't see many downsides to having a sink in the shop.
If I could do it, I would definitely have one in there. My shop is used for wood working, car repair, tractor maintenance, etc. A sink would be very welcome, especially if it had hot and cold water.
I'd use the two side CI sink myself.

[Darcy Warner]

I have a full bathroom in my shop. Utility sink, toilet and full size tub/shower.

[Dick Mahany]

Definitely worth it. I had a laundry tub. Great for wetting sponges and towels during glue ups, rinsing brushes and very handy to have when one slips with a sharp chisel :o

[Stan Calow]

Yes, a big deep laundry sink. Comes in handy for lots of things. If the plumbing and drain are there, its worth it.

[Dave Cav]

My new shop has plumbing roughed in for a half bath, and it'll have a laundry/tub/deep sink.

[Bruce Volden]

Yep! sink here too. Also a toilet.
Now if I just had hot water:mad:

Bruce

[John K Jordan]

I don't have a sink in my shop but would really like one. My shop expansion plans include a small kitchen room with a two-bowl stainless sink, plus shower, etc. with a second small hand-washing sink PLUS a utility tub sink. I already have the sinks so all I have to do is build the wing. :)

To me, a sink in the shop would only be a problem if the shop had no heat and the climate was cold.

JKJ

[Brian Holcombe]

I think about adding a sink regularly, mostly for ease of flattening water stones.

[Jim Finn]

In my workshop,I have a kitchen cabinet with a single bason of stainless steel. 2 gallon water heater inside this cabinet and a toilet in a small room. I really appreciate the toilet. I use the sink to wash my hands mostly.

[Rick Moyer]

My sink is an old laundry detergent bottle with a dispenser nozzle!

[Ken Parris]

When we moved to our current home, it had no place for a woodshop or garage. We added the shop and a two car garage. Because of the configuration of the house and lot I had to rotate the addition. This left me with a connector between the addition and the house. On one side of it I put a walk in closet off the master bedroom and a half bath accessible from the shop and the closet. The half bath has a laundry sink with hot/cold water. Wouldn't want to be without the convenience of the sink and the commode. You will love having a sink available.

Ken

[Kurt Kintner]

A sink here, too ..... No hot water, yet ....

[Eric D Matson]

Thanks everyone. I am planning on installing the sink shortly. I think it will be used more than I think. My shop is in my basement so there is no concern of anything freezing. I do think it would be very handy. I will eventually have a bathroom at the other end of the basement so the toilet won't be a far journey.

Eric

[Pete Staehling]

I get by with a few bottles of water, a spray bottle, and a 5 gallon bucket instead of a drain. It isn't that bad, but I agree that a sink would be really nice. Since my house and shop are all on a slab it is a bigger project to put in a sink or I would have already done so. I may yet do so, but the drain will probably just be on to the ground outside if I do. Then again my kitchen sink is 20' or so away and an outside faucet maybe 50' so I have a hard time getting motivated to install anything.

[Rick Pinzon]

This is my custom built cabinet with a deep farm sink kitchen sink and a goose neck. Also installed a custom concrete countertop. I built it tall so there is not much leaning over when using it. Plenty of room for all sorts of clean ups, such as paint supplies and grill grates. It also includes a drawer down below. Its very functional.

352166

[David Sloan]

I have had several workshops over the years (both basement and garage). We recently moved to a new house with a 2.5 garage with 12' ceilings. I had the plumbing roughed in while the house was being built and then installed a cheap laundry tub from Lowes but with a 9" pedestal to raise it up. Every day I think how great it is. No more bringing paint brushes and waterstones into the powder room. No more coming into the house with grimy hands and making a mess of the bathroom hand towels . I do wish I had built the garage bigger and installed a commode!

[John Sanford]

Don't have one, wish I did, a 2 bowl.

[Rick Pinzon]

Don't have one, wish I did, a 2 bowl.

the down side with a 2 bowl sink is you automatically have 1/2 the space for any single item. If you want to soak or separate something, then you can use always use a bucket and drain when you are done. A single bowl gives you much more space. Just my opinion of course since I'm not sure what you would use 2 bowl for.

[Ben Rivel]

Plans to put a sink in mine. Just going to do a single shop sink though, nothing fancy.

[Jim Becker]

I had a cheap utility sink in my shop for a short period of time, but had to discontinue using it when the old water line I was tied into went bad and would have been "thankless" to try and dig up to rectify for several reasons. I would have a sink available in a heartbeat if I ever designed another shop. (and the rest of a bathroom, too)

[roger wiegand]

I don't have a sink or inside water, but wish I did. (Made life much easier with the zoning board, without water/sewer they were much more comfortable that I wasn't converting my barn into living space). Water is a freeze proof hydrant outside the door and a 20 liter carboy up on a high shelf inside above the sharpening area. Getting a drain to the septic field would have been a major engineering project and big bucks, so the drain is a 5 gal bucket that gets dumped periodically. For really washing stuff I walk back to the house.

[john snowdon]

I installed a deep laundry sink immediately outside my basement shop door. This way it is convenient for me to use, takes up no space in the shop and keeps everyone else out of my shop when they need it.:D

[Dick Thomas]

My sink is a standard laundry sink. It's located on an inside wall, back-to-back with my wife's laundry room, so I have hot & cold water available. Two things to watch out for, based on local codes: 1. If your faucets have built in hose bibs, you may require anit-backflow devices. 2. Since mine is also my garage (3 car) I was prohibited from connecting the drain to the sewer (I'm on a septic system, but probably would apply to city sewer too) My drain connects to garage floor drains, then into the foundation perimiter drains, which daylite downhill from the house.

[Len Rosenberg]

Have a deep laundry sink at one end of my shop with hot and cold water. It is indispensable. From washing hands, to cleaning spray equipment, to rinsing water stones, and many other uses. Highly recommended.

[Dave Zellers]

It's a no brainer if it's possible. When we built our house 28 years ago I designed it around a walk-out, drive-up basement workshop and included a deep 'set tub' or 'laundry tub'. I use it all the time and now even more as I embrace sharpening with water stones. My assembly table is right next to the sink and it has just been natural to sharpen on the corner three feet from the sink.

Just being able to wash your hands at the end of the day is great.

[Brian W Smith]

Yup,definitely ranks up there at the top of shop,must haves.We have a beautiful 2 pce "powder rm" that stays very clean(I just #1 outside..doh).Reason for post is about the other sink.It's an old 1930's highback ,wallhung.Whatever sink you get,do yourself a favor and run a pce of easy to clean material up the back about a foot.

Just sayin,if you stand back and look at our "shop" sink,the backsplash probably needs cleaning,haha.Skip the dbl bowl for most applications where they're hardplumbed.If running a remote sink,a dbl bowl starts to make more sense.Dbl bowls can also work for dedicated spraygun cleaning stations.One side waterbourn,the other as a sealed chemical wash.

[Charles Lent]

My shop is detached and small 14 X 26' so space is tight in it, but I have an old bathroom cast iron sink for washing my hands and for cleaning glue-up tools, etc. I have hot water, but it's from a small 120 volt under sink water heater, so it's only really hot for a couple of cups worth of water and then just warm after that, but it will recover in about 10 minutes. I usually don't need really hot water for very much, so this has been adequate for my needs so far, although not ideal. The shop heat is from a window style heat pump mounted highand thru the North wall of my shop. It is always ON, but set to 45 deg when I'm not working out there, which is high enough to keep the latex paints, batteries, etc. from freezing. Winter temperatures here are usually above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. Only once in the past 34 years has it gone down to 0 deg F. I wish I had a toilet in my shop, but I don't have room for it and I would have a long farm sink if I had the room for one. My long sink needs are presently handled by a galvanized oval laundry tub placed outside the shop on saw horses, when I need it.

Charley