Built-in kitchen sink

A sink for the kitchen is a nec­es­sary item that is avail­able in every kitchen. When choos­ing it, it is impor­tant to focus not only on the fact that it har­mo­nious­ly fits into the design of the room, but also on how com­fort­able and durable it is.

Selection Tips

The coun­ter­top sink is made of stain­less steel. It is an all-met­al or weld­ed con­struc­tion. Installing the over­lay mod­el does not take much time — it is sim­ply installed on top of the coun­ter­top. In some designs, a coun­ter­top sink replaces the coun­ter­top or serves as its con­tin­u­a­tion.

The advan­tages of a sur­face sink are its low price and ease of instal­la­tion. How­ev­er, there are also sig­nif­i­cant draw­backs. First of all, this is a stan­dard, ordi­nary design. If you want your kitchen to be equipped accord­ing to the lat­est design stan­dards, then it is bet­ter to refuse such a mod­el. In addi­tion, you will need to work hard to secure­ly seal the curb edge.

The dif­fer­ence between a mor­tise sink and an over­head sink is that it is mount­ed in a kitchen fur­ni­ture or coun­ter­top that has already been fit­ted to it. Now more and more peo­ple are inter­est­ed in mor­tise sinks. It may take more time to pre­pare and install this mod­el, but the kind of kitchen in which you spend a lot of time will only ben­e­fit from this. Mor­tise sinks in the coun­ter­top can have dif­fer­ent shapes and sizes. Their pecu­liar­i­ty lies in the fact that with their upper edge they are tight­ly pressed against the sur­face of the coun­ter­top.

The sup­port rim of the inset sink is extreme­ly thin, cre­at­ing a sophis­ti­cat­ed, cohe­sive kitchen design.

If you want to have a beau­ti­ful kitchen design, then a recessed sink is the best option.

Advantages and disadvantages

Mor­tise kitchen sinks have their undoubt­ed advan­tages:

• thanks to its design, it pre­vents the pen­e­tra­tion of water under the sink;
• you do not need a lot of mon­ey to seal the joints;
• mor­tise sinks for coun­ter­tops are strong and durable;
• the pos­si­bil­i­ty of plac­ing even in the cor­ner of the kitchen;
• due to their com­pact­ness, they can be mount­ed in var­i­ous coun­ter­tops;
• the mor­tise sink looks more impres­sive and har­mo­nious­ly fits into any kitchen ensem­ble.

How­ev­er, there are also dis­ad­van­tages:

• high­er cost (com­pared to over­head mod­els);
• the need for indi­vid­ual selec­tion of kitchen fur­ni­ture for wash­ing;
• com­plete dis­man­tling of the coun­ter­top dur­ing plumb­ing work in the kitchen.

Shape and dimensions

In spe­cial­ized stores a large selec­tion of dif­fer­ent mod­els is pre­sent­ed. There are sev­er­al rules that should be fol­lowed when choos­ing a shape and size:

1. A small round mod­el will look good with a small kitchen area and a small coun­ter­top. If there is a need to wash a large num­ber of dish­es, then choose a deep sink mod­el.
2. Round and oval mod­els are suit­able if the kitchen design uses smooth lines and beveled cor­ners. If the whole inte­ri­or is made in a more strict style, then it is bet­ter to choose a rec­tan­gu­lar mod­el.
3. Dou­ble mor­tise mod­els are good for spa­cious kitchens and rooms in which many peo­ple live.
4. The shape should be in har­mo­ny with the shape of the plate and plumb­ing fix­tures.
5. The sizes of sinks for the kitchen are also select­ed tak­ing into account the mate­ri­als from which the cab­i­net and coun­ter­top are made. A deep or wide sink holds a large amount of water, so you should cal­cu­late whether the fur­ni­ture can with­stand such a load.
6. To wash dish­es in a deep sink, tall peo­ple have to bend over, so this should be tak­en into account when choos­ing a mod­el.
7. Round ones are more capa­cious, the saved space can be used to place deter­gents.
8. The dou­ble mod­el will be con­ve­nient for those who often defrost food. This mod­el also makes it pos­si­ble to soak heav­i­ly soiled dish­es.

Types of materials

A coun­ter­top kitchen sink can be made from a vari­ety of mate­ri­als. The most com­mon­ly used mate­ri­als in the pro­duc­tion of kitchen sinks are stain­less steel, arti­fi­cial stone, ceram­ics and com­pos­ite. When choos­ing, it should be remem­bered that the mor­tise sink must be made of a mate­r­i­al that will be in har­mo­ny pri­mar­i­ly with the floor­ing and coun­ter­top.

Stainless steel

Mor­tise sinks made of stain­less steel have an afford­able price, they are resis­tant to mechan­i­cal dam­age. A stain­less steel recessed sink will fit well into the inte­ri­or if the appli­ances in the kitchen have a metal­lic tint. Such designs are easy to main­tain and prac­ti­cal — the plaque formed on the sur­face can be eas­i­ly removed with any abra­sive deter­gent. Mor­tise sinks of this type have a long ser­vice life.

The dis­ad­van­tages of this mor­tise mod­el include:

• the need for ground­ing;
• the occur­rence of high noise of the water jet when it hits the sur­face (espe­cial­ly if the mix­er is too high);
• fre­quent appear­ance of lime­stone deposits and traces of dried water drops.

Fake diamond

Arti­fi­cial stone con­sists of a com­pos­ite, which includes a filler and bind­ing ele­ments. A nat­ur­al min­er­al can serve as a filler, and binder poly­mers (resins) are used for join­ing. The advan­tages of mor­tise sinks for coun­ter­tops made of arti­fi­cial stone include:

• thanks to a spe­cial pro­tec­tive coat­ing and pro­duc­tion tech­nol­o­gy, easy sur­face care is pro­vid­ed;
• low noise lev­el when a jet of water hits the sur­face;
• beau­ty and nat­u­ral­ness, small dirt on the sur­face is almost invis­i­ble;
• a wide range of shapes and col­ors;
• resis­tance to high tem­per­a­tures;
• hygiene and envi­ron­men­tal safe­ty;
• the view does not dete­ri­o­rate dur­ing long-term oper­a­tion;
• the pos­si­bil­i­ty of grind­ing when scratch­es appear;
• fit per­fect­ly into any inte­ri­or.

Dis­ad­van­tages of mor­tise sinks made of arti­fi­cial stone:

• high cost of qual­i­ty mod­els;
• heavy weight, instal­la­tion is best done with the help of a spe­cial­ist;
• sur­face clean­ing only with a rag / sponge and gen­tle deter­gents;
• the need for quick clean­ing in case of con­tact with tea, cof­fee or oth­er col­or­ing sub­stances.

Ceramics

Ben­e­fits of ceram­ic mor­tise sinks:

• envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness: no spe­cif­ic smell;
• resis­tance to tem­per­a­ture extremes and scratch­es;
• the pos­si­bil­i­ty of using var­i­ous chem­i­cals for clean­ing;
• the sur­face has a dirt-repel­lent prop­er­ty, so it is easy to clean;
• no noise when water gets in;
• col­or fast­ness;
• dec­o­ra­tive look.

Dis­ad­van­tages:

• heavy weight of the struc­ture, instal­la­tion will require sev­er­al peo­ple;
• high price;
• the pos­si­bil­i­ty of chip­ping the mor­tise shell as a result of being hit by a heavy object.

Composite

Mor­tise sinks made of com­pos­ite mate­ri­als have the fol­low­ing advan­tages:

• impact resis­tance, dents will not appear on the sur­face, even if a heavy object falls on the sink;
• resis­tance to high tem­per­a­tures;
• wear resis­tance — the appear­ance does not dete­ri­o­rate over time;
• no noise when water gets in;
• ease of main­te­nance.

Dis­ad­van­tages of a mor­tise sink made of com­pos­ite mate­ri­als:

• high price;
• the pos­si­bil­i­ty of dam­age by abra­sive agents;
• defor­ma­tion upon con­tact with hot dish­es.

Inset sink installation

Installing a recessed sink does not take much time. For instal­la­tion, you will need the fol­low­ing tools and mate­ri­als:

• a pen­cil (it is not rec­om­mend­ed to use a mark­er, because traces of it are dif­fi­cult to remove from the sur­face of the coun­ter­top);
• roulette;
• ruler;
• drill;
• elec­tric jig­saw;
• screw­driv­er;
• wrench;
• spe­cial knife for mount­ing;
• sealant.

Pri­or to instal­la­tion, you must have a faucet avail­able. Remem­ber an impor­tant rule: the dis­tance between the sink and stove, and between the refrig­er­a­tor and the sink must be at least 40 cm.

Hav­ing cho­sen a suit­able place, apply all dimen­sions. For mark­ing it is nec­es­sary to turn the sink upside down and lev­el it. Out­line the out­line. Bed­side tables or a cab­i­net for a flush sink must be installed in advance.

Be sure to mea­sure the width of the side of the mor­tise sink and, in accor­dance with the val­ue obtained, draw an inter­nal con­tour along which the cut line will run.

To facil­i­tate the cut­ting process, you need to make tech­no­log­i­cal holes. Holes are made with a drill at the cor­ners of the inter­nal mark­ings. It is nec­es­sary to cor­rect­ly cut the required hole, for this you must adhere to the fol­low­ing rules:

1. The max­i­mum play should not be more than 3 mm.
2. To pre­vent chip­ping, it is bet­ter to use a file with the reverse direc­tion of the teeth.
3. In order not to dam­age the front sur­face of the coun­ter­top, you should glue the places along the cut line with mask­ing tape.
4. To pre­vent the cut part from falling ahead of time (this can dam­age the cut line), insert self-tap­ping screws into the cut line every 10–15 cm.

After you remove the cut out part, the sur­face should be thor­ough­ly cleaned of dust and saw­dust. The saw cut is cov­ered with a sealant (most often sil­i­cone is used for this pur­pose). This pro­ce­dure will pro­tect the mate­r­i­al from water ingress and pre­vent defor­ma­tion of the coun­ter­top. The mor­tise sink always comes with a foamed poly­eth­yl­ene sealant, it must be glued to the inner side of the sink so that it does not go beyond the edges. The pro­trud­ing part of the seal is cut off with a mount­ing knife.

The attach­ment point must be degreased in advance with gaso­line or ace­tone. Only after that you can pro­ceed with the instal­la­tion of the mor­tise sink. Mounts to the sink are includ­ed, with their help, fix­a­tion to the base is made. To pre­vent dam­age to the mor­tise sink, experts rec­om­mend using a screw­driv­er, not a screw­driv­er, dur­ing instal­la­tion.

Fas­ten­ers under the coun­ter­top are tight­ened alter­nate­ly cross­wise. After all fas­ten­ers are tight­ened, check to see if the clamp sealant is pro­trud­ing. If the sealant comes out, it must be removed imme­di­ate­ly with a soft cloth or sponge. You can use the mor­tise sink only after the sealant has com­plete­ly dried.