Kitchen question — how low can you sink?
THE essential vessel for every kitchen, a sink takes a generous swathe of 800mm-1100mm from a kitchen worktop. A great sink will be beautiful, easy to clean, and above all a perfect host for gathering and dumping water and staging the myriad of culinary activities demanded of a modern family kitchen.
The deeper you set a sink into the counter (Belfast sinks are notoriously greedy in vertical measurements), the less room you have for storage beneath the housing. Back up on deck, every centimetre of sink and drainer eats into available counter space.
Your sink unit earns its place with good detailing, with the ratio of bowl sizes, pop-up wastes, sliding chopping boards, half sinks for dumping your tea bags and a place to set an extra chrome basket.
If you have the room, two sinks set side by side or separated by function are worth consideration.
Among the market leaders for innovation and good looks, Franke of Switzerland and Blanco, and Smeg of Germany offer some startling products for compact counter space and tight corners.
To place most sinks, bar dedicated compact models, you will need at least a 600mm cabinet below for the bowls.
Some sinks with an integrated drainer are reversible. You simply plug up one hole with a supplied fitting, while others are designed with the half bowl and drainer to the left or right. Check the orientation before purchase.
The most typical form of mount, the sink or a sink and drainer sit into a cutout in the counter supported by an overhand at its edges. A series of clips on the underside of the counter hold the sink tightly in place.
Insets are useful in that the sink, well installed, seals the edges of the counter cutout, a vital area for the survival of laminate.
The cutout must be accurate and straight and jigs are available to lay out the cut before penetrating the counter. If you like the look of a flush-mounted sink but are buying an inset, look for a low, less abrupt or almost flat edge. Sink designers are obsessive about the shaping of corners and 1mm edges.
An under-mounted sink presents the sink as a receiving bowl beneath the counter surface with the counter material acting as an edge and often the draining element.
Water and kitchen spills can be swept in directly from the counter with no interrupting speed-bump. It’s a sophisticated look that celebrates lengths of worktop and is ideal for materials with a self-sealing edge such as glass, Corian, concrete and oiled hardwoods.
Granite looks wonderful with an under-mounted sink, the stone drilled out into a draining board. As laminate is set over a pressed wood core, an under-mounted sink will not suit. Prices from €150.
A rarer bird, flush- mounted sinks sit level with the counter rather than underneath it, but have little visible rim above the counter.
There may be a sink, or a sink and drainer. The engineering and setting in of the sink edge is the vital element ensuring that no muck accumulates at the bridge between the worktop and sink. It’s an exacting job.
Laminate edges must be tightly sealed to prevent water ingress and swelling.
If the sink if formed from the counter itself, for example in concrete, glass or resin, it’s an integral sink.
Reserved for the high end of the kitchen market, integral sinks flow with the kitchen in one luscious glide. In budget buys stainless steel, zinc, copper and aluminium counters are available in short free-standing units where the sink, drainer, and a length of worktop are as one over a couple of cabinets.
Without seams, integral sinks are low maintenance in terms of hygiene. Deep chiselled corners may look fabulous, but it’s much harder to get stains and accumulated dirt out of a sharp corner than a slightly smoothed edge.
With their front face left to glorious show, original or reproduction ceramic sinks in classic shapes were free-standing originally.
In a standard boxy Belfast type, the counter can be run over the edges of the sink, or the sink itself can even be placed on-top or raised slightly out of a low counter.
Large ceramic sinks are extremely heavy and will need independent framing and bracketing to the wall. French and Italian sinks are popular alternatives, as they have a less plunging profile, a smooth finish, and lack any fiddly antique overflow. Butler sinks are rectangular and generally without an overflow.
Check if your taps will be counter- or wall-mounted as not all traditional sinks are drilled for taps. Franke’s Kindred range offers farmhouse shapes in steel. www.franke.com in bow fronts and you can find copper versions at Sinks.co.uk.
¦ Stainless Steel: 18/10 Stainless steel with its high chrome content is durable, heat resistant and offers a high level of hygiene.
The over-mounted stainless steel sink is an established kitchen classic that marries with all types and colours of counter, throwing back light from the area.
The array of quality good gauge stainless steel models at every DIY outlet, builder’s providers and kitchen retailer, has kept prices keen.
Although a polished mirror shine might grab you on the showroom floor, a satin finish will disguise scuffs and cuts in the metal. Prices in store start at €100 for a single 450mm inset bowl and drainer (900mm) and you may do better at online suppliers including www.kitchenfittingsdirect.ie.
¦ Granite Composites: Composite and synthetic sinks have a variety of textures from a light somewhat plastic finish to a hard, near-stone sensation.
Lightweight resin sinks (polyester acrylic), a mixture of stone particles (80% or more) and resins baked to a high temperature, deliver a tough, colour-fast surface with the appearance of mica-flecked stone.
Granite, rather than quartz-based sinks, with their dense silky surface are highly durable and include an anti-bacterial and microbial ingredient making them superbly hygienic.
Modern materials such as Franke’s Fragranite are scratch-proof, impact-proof and heat-resistant (280C). Set with a flash of stainless steel in traps, taps and heat bars, black is popular but light devouring. Single inset bowls and drainers from €200. Brands include Rangemaster, Astracast, Franke, Blanco and Cooke & Lewis.
¦ Ceramic: Ceramic sinks have an honest, country house appeal. Their hard-fired surface is tough and will shatter dropped flatware, so a plastic bowl or rubber mat is standard.
You don’t have to go with white ceramic as soft putty colours and even black is available and chunky continentals with raised sides and sunken draining boards add presence. Try Luisina models at Kitchen Koncepts (www.kitchenconcepts.ie).
B&Q’s line of Cooke & Lewis Passo ceramic sinks are contemporary. Around €300 for a sink and a half in a modern ceramic and at least €200 for an authentic Belfast beauty in good order.
How to Clean a Sink
Everyday stains will move with a wash down with hot soapy water and a non-abrasive cloth or pad (soft nylon).
Add a dash of vinegar for shine and disinfection. For tea stains and other grime, try a few centimetres of warm water with a shake of baking soda left to soak for an hour, or mix together baking soda (1/2 part) hot water (1 part) and vinegar (1 part) to make a non-abrasive creamy scrub.
Work in circular motions to penetrate dings and scratches and rinse thoroughly.
Cream cleaners such as Cif will lift more problematic spots without the use of bleach.
Astonish paste, which is completely biodegradable, is also safe for ceramic, and once rinsed you can polish it up with a microfiber, lint-free cloth.
Carron Phoenix recommends a solution consisting of one part vinegar to three parts water in order to loosen limescale.
Regular rinsing will keep your ceramic clean for the greater part.
There are dedicated composite sink cleaners available to deal with granite or quartz based composite sinks.
They can scratch if very roughly treated, but on the whole will weather everything bar heavy chemistry.
The baking soda/ vinegar cream for steel will shift horrible mung, just remember to rinse your sink down thoroughly afterward and avoid getting vinegar or lemon juice mixtures on plated taps.
Hazy black composite can be shone up with mineral oil, even Baby Oil works.
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