When to Install a Stainless Steel Sink Video

How is an overmount stainless steel sink held in place in a countertop? A comparison between two nearly identical sinks will help illustrate the mounting. In this example, the sink can be readily lifted out of the countertop. Yours at home does not lift that easily. On the under side of the sink, there are channels on each side of the sink. The sink will come with small clamps that fit into the channels. Using a screwdriver, you tighten the clamp and it pulls the sink tight to the countertop.

Sounds easy, no problem tightening the clamps. Well, there could be a problem. Most sinks are about 22 inches from front to back. That is pretty standard for most kitchen sinks. But the problem can come from the distance from the front vertical face of the sink tub to the backside of the cabinet front. In this case, there is only about a spacing of one inch! Not much room to get your hand up there with a screwdriver to tighten that clamp. It just will not go.

The other sink in this project only measures 19 inches front to back. This means an extra 1-1/2 inches on the front and back sides to get to those clamps. This makes it easy to install the clamps on the smaller sink.

On the larger or standard sink, you have to install the sink in the countertop before you put the countertop onto the base cabinets. If you forget, you will be ripping the countertop out and starting over.