A Counter Top Installed, the Kitchen Sink Dropped-In and Plumbed

in #build-it4 years ago (edited)

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I previously assembled kitchen base cabinets with doors and drawers, installed them into place, and sealed the butcher block counter top for them. I've recently installed the counter top, dropped-in the sink, and connected the faucet and drain. This completes all of the plumbing in my house that I've been slowly building over the past couple years, almost there.

Counter Top Install

First up for the counter top install is to cut it where it will meet the second counter top for the corner - I'm awaiting delivery of the additional counter top and one more 9" cabinet, to complete the corner to stove section of the kitchen cabinets. I placed the counter top on top of the cabinets, attached painters tape to where the counter was going to be cut (to prevent the top from chipping), then marked where the counter needed to be cut.

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The counter top was removed from the cabinets, I drew a straight line on the tape for the cut, then cut the counter top with a circular saw. Sunken holes were drilled into the base cabinet top cross pieces - for the counter top mounting screws.

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The counter top was moved into position, the screws were screwed up into the bottom of the counter top, to secure it in place.

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You can see the counter top over hang on the front, I like how it hides the tops of the doors and drawers, and how it will most likely prevent me from bumping into the door and drawer handles after they're added.

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You can see how the counter top was cut for another counter top to be added with the same overhang at the front. Another way to cut and join two counter tops that meet in the corner, is to cut diagonally the counter tops from the front edge corner to the wall corner.

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Now that this beautiful Acacia wood butcher block counter has been installed, it's time to cut a giant hole in it - for the sink ;)

Sink Install

This granite sink i'll be dropping in from the top - drop-in installation. This sink can be under mounted, but the 30" base sink cabinet is not wide enough for an under mount - the cabinet was barely wide enough for the drop-in install.

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The sink came with two install templates, I cut the template for the drop-in install, then used painters tape to tape down the template to where I wanted the sink to be installed.

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After taping into position, I double checked the front to be sure that I wasn't going to cut into the counter's top-front cross support. I used a sawzall for this cut job, a large circular saw would be a better choice, this cut will be hidden by the sink. I removed the counter top for easier cutting, you can see that I had to remove half of the back-top cabinet cross-support - I added a few screws to the sides, and into the neighboring cabinet sides to reinforce the cabinet walls.

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Sink Drop-In

The sink's counter top clamps were removed before the sink drop-in.

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Dropped-in. You can see below, in the third picture, how snug the sink fits to the side of the cabinet - ample room at the back.

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The counter top mounting clips were screwed into the under side.

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Luckily I cut the hole in the right place on the first try, nice. I'll eventually add a line of silicone where the counter top meets the wall, i'm not sure yet if I'll be tiling a back splash or just painting - I'm leaning towards just painting it for now, I feel like it would go better with the butcher block counter top.

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Faucet and Drain Install

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Installing the Sink Drain

Before connecting the water feeds to the faucet, I decided it would be a good idea to first setup the drains (all 1-1/2" drain pipes). The stainless steel drain piece goes in from the top, the white plastic drain piece goes underneath the sink and screws on tightly to the threaded stainless steel drain piece. The stainless steel drain piece did have a gasket glued on, to prevent water leakage, but I added a silicon to prevent debris from getting into the gap. After it dries I rub the excess silicon off of the stainless steel.

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The copper pipes are called drain tailpieces, you can see it's flanged on the top end, there's the white silicon gasket, and the black threaded piece that slides up and tightens onto the threaded bottom of the white plastic drain piece.

No Plumbers tape with this job - When there's a gasket, it's a compression fitting, no plumbers thread tape is needed with compression fittings.

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In the picture above you can see the long black hose - this is for the detachable faucet/sprayer and is eventually attached to another threaded hose fitting at the top of the picture. The large black weight was added to the hose, it helps the pull-out faucet/sprayer easily retract back to it's base position.

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The two drains are joined together with a 90 degree elbow, an 11" strain drain pipe piece, and a Y connector. The 90 degree and Y connectors have threaded compression joiners and gaskets - they slide right onto the copper drain tailpieces and tightened, no drain adhesive. Having these threaded compression drain fittings makes it easier to replace the sink, if ever needed.

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A few short drain pipe pieces were cut to join the various 90 degree elbows down to the P-Trap. The P-trap is that little S curve - water gets trapped in that U shaped pipe at the bottom, this prevents sewer or septic gas from rising out of the drains and into the house. You can see there's a convenient threaded drain plug at the bottom - just in case it becomes clogged with grease or other items that may have gone down the drain. The P-trap connects to the drain pipe that goes off to the septic tank.

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Faucet Connected to Water Supply

First I turned off the cistern pump and opened up the bathroom sink taps until there was no more water pressure. These are 1/2" PEX pipe water supply feeds - color coded, the hot water supply conveniently has red writing on it. I'm using a simple Shark Bite connector with shut off valve to connect from the PEX pipe to the threaded compression fittings on the faucet hot and cold water supply hoses. First I tighten the faucet hoses to the adapters.

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I couldn't figure out how to remove the supply pipe caps, so I cut them off - the PEX pipe end of the adapter just pushes onto the PEX pipe, done. You can see the black hose for the pull-out faucet has been connected and tightened.

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Drain Pipe Adhesive

Happy with how the supply lines and drain pipes were organized, I took apart the drain pipe, then put it back together, adding PVC pipe adhesive to the connections that required it (the ones that were not compression fittings with gaskets).

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The Plumbing Grand Finale

For the sink plumbing grand finale I turned on the hot and cold supply valves, tested the faucet, beauty - I got the hot and cold sides right on the first try, nice. I've already had the plumbing rough-in inspection, now I'm ready for the final plumbing inspection - from what I understand, the inspection basically consists of the inspector checking the hot and cold taps to make sure that they work and are connected to the correct taps.

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Note: I'm not a licensed plumber, but in Ontario and many other places, the home owner can do the plumbing work to code themselves.

Have a great day!

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Soon i´ll be a perfect kitchen! Cheers!