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  • Any kitchen fitters – ceramic sinks?
  • Kojaklollipop
    Free Member

    Just a quick question, hope there might be some kitchen fitters on here. Do ceramic sinks come bowed or warped? We have been told that it won’t fit flat on a work surface for this reason, they say it’s just the way it’s manufactured and that’s it – is this so?

    parkesie
    Free Member

    To varying degrees I’d imagine. Cheap stuff wibbly wobbly expensive less wibbly wobbly is my experience looking at bathroom sinks.

    andy4d
    Full Member

    i got one 10 years ago and its fine. never heard about warping before.

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    alanl
    Free Member

    Total balls.
    Yes, generally, they dont come completely flat – however, you fill the edges when you put it in, so the 1 or 2mm gaps do not show.
    I’ve fitted 4 this year on granite worktops, no problems at all.

    Kojaklollipop
    Free Member

    This was an expensive kitchen sink, double bowl with drainer, maybe 1m by 0.5m. To me it looks as though part of the drainer underneath is sitting on the side part of a fitted cupboard – first photo, so I thought it was stopping the sink from fitting flat onto the work surface, I’d have tried to remove some material to see if it fitted better but they just said it’s warped and filled any gaps with silicon – second photo – that gap at the back is about 5mm

    Kojaklollipop
    Free Member

    Oh, we only discoved the silicon tonight as it was done today, doesn’t look great to me, but I’ve emailed the manufactuer of the sink to see what they say but unlikely to hear anything until Monday.

    suburbanreuben
    Free Member

    I’d be wondering about that worktop though; all the joints more or less in a line…

    Kojaklollipop
    Free Member

    Mmm, actually that worktop is like that in a few places along it’s length. How can I get it checked that it’s going to be ok, I don’t know where they got it from and I know they’ll say it’s ok, but how can I get an official opinion? Maybe get another kitchen fitter in?

    alanl
    Free Member

    I was under the impression that someone had told you they couldnt fit one.
    Yours looks like how all of them are..
    Neat silicon around the edges, and it should look good.

    bigphilblackpool
    Free Member

    Depends on what tolerance you allow for. Under the sink may be a dip or a bulge in the floor making the decor panel uneven.

    The lift at the back could be a warped worktop as ideally ment to be left in the room its being fitted in for a few days to acclimatise to where its being fitted (if solid wood) bead of white or coloured sealant would have covered it and tbh all sinks get sealed that I do to prevent warping from water etc.

    sink may be off and again depends what tolerance the manufacturers work to heat can come into play with ceramic sinks can warp them I’ve seen two like this that were slightly off square sent back and new ones sent out within a few weeks foc.

    Try and see if floors level etc and try eliminate all possibilities.

    suburbanreuben
    Free Member

    It may well be strong enough. The joints will have interlocking ziggy zaggy teeth, and with modern glues it should be strong. It just doesn’t look right. The joints should be staggered. I wouldn’t accept it.
    But I am fussy…

    Just wondering, how thick is the worktop?

    Kojaklollipop
    Free Member

    alanl – might be someone else your thinking of, but before they siliconed it it rocked if you lent on the back/left where the gap is, to everyone, apart from the kitchen company, it seemed that it was rocking on the side of the cupboard, I really expected them to remove a bit out of the cupboard where the casting sits to see if it would sit better but this company seems to be trying to do the least amount of work they can get away with. The silicon work isn’t that great, messy and smeared on the work surface, white would have been better in my opinion.

    Floor looks level, it was ply boarded befpre installation and the cupboards are on adjustable legs so should be level.

    Going to phone the sink company this morning as they are open Saturday but might have to wait til Monday for technical information on tolerances etc.

    The rear casting of the sink is resting on the top of the cupboard, we can’t even get a piece of paper under it, the front part we can and the front of the sink is ok it’s the rear that is sticking up.

    Worktop is oak and about 26mm thick.

    To be honest we’ve had a lot of issues with the company, they are turning out to be absolutely useless at dealing with anything. They’ve admitted they don’t read our emails, they don’t do what we ask and do things that we don’t ask for!

    alanl
    Free Member

    Well if the bottom is sitting on top of the unit, and the face on the worktop is high, then it is a fitting problem, it should be a pretty quick job of planing down the unit by a few mm.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    seems to be trying to do the least amount of work they can get away with

    This, I reckon.

    You’ve got a sink that’s rocking, which could be sorted with a bit of fettling and/or judicious use of spacers. It may be that cast sinks don’t come out with perfectly flat top sides (silicon bead would sort that) but those long raised bits underneath should make packing it and/or planing/chiseling simple enough.

    Look, unless you’ve paid up already (hopefully, there’s still a chunk to pay), just tell them you’re not happy and that you’ll pay when you are.

    Blazin-saddles
    Free Member

    I’m a Kitchen fitter, a few of my thoughts if it helps….

    It looks to me as thought the sink is grounding on the cupboards before it finally sits home and could have done with a few mm nipping off the top of the unit to allow it to drop down.

    Sinks are usually designed to fit in 40mm (nominal) thickness worktops and due to the current trend for super thin stone worktops and the like a few improvisations are currently having to be implemented by fitters, this is not uncommon as a lot of our job seems to be making things that don’t quite fit, fit.

    26mm is very thin for Oak worktop, I’d want 40mm myself, that coupled with the inline jointing leads me to think it’s not of amazing quality but functional. I’d not accept it personally mainly due to cosmetics. the big problem being with thin wood tops is they tend to move around more than thicker ones as they expand and contract. It’s not unusual to see joints move apart and step as there’s not much ‘meat’ to get a worktop bolt into and unless glued very well can easily fail.

    I digress though, It’s also not uncommon for Ceramic sinks to be not all that flat and somewhere in the instructions you’ll probably find the line “this adds to the character” or some such and unless really warped I think you’ll find they’ll say it’s fine.

    A super neat silicone joint in white would fix most of your issues here I think as trying to remove 3-5mm off a cupboard top once the worktop has been fitted is a fairly tricky thing to achieve neatly.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    26mm is very thin for Oak worktop

    I thought that too. It does look like it’s too thin and sink is bottoming out elsewhere. Did you or they spec that thin? Sounds like a cost cutting exercise where you really don’t want it.

    hammyuk
    Free Member

    You need to check what you ordered/agreed to first.
    Then IF you didn’t order cheap worktops get them removed and replaced with the correct ones before anything else happens.
    As Blazin said – thats really, really thin for wood. Chip are thicker than that!
    I wouldn’t fit less than 38/40mm on any project I was doing and those joint layups…. 😯
    Cosmetically they are a mess let alone for strength/longevity.

    But even without that – for a fitter not to just put a file or sander across the top edge of that cabinet underneath is shear laziness and incompetence.

    Kojaklollipop
    Free Member

    Well, interesting, I’ve got 2 local kitchen fitters coming to have a look and give an opinion on the work. One of them guessed who it was before we even told them so that’s not good. I went to my local Howdens and mentioned that they said the sink is warped and they laughed, they said no manufacturer would produce work that bad as they’d have so many returns. There was a few people in there that couldn’t believe what I was saying.

    Anyway, we’ve stopped any more work being done and I’m looking into the small claims court now as it’s just getting rediculus. Now nearly 7 weeks without a completed kitchen, it’s 2.5 x 3m, maybe 8 cupboards to fit.

    bigphilblackpool
    Free Member

    This is a battle I face every day but the pure stupidity of nhbc actually worse than our own QC. 2m in natural daylight… If imperfections in any material can’t be spotted at this distance it’s OK…… Thankfully the company I work for don’t follow this rule our director started as a labourer and worked up to md. So not a “iPad tosspot” straight out of uni thinking they can run a company.

    Blazin-saddles
    Free Member

    Unless major works are being done, 8 cupboards with worktops and connections shouldn’t be much more than 3 -4 days work, even allowing for finishing up the Oak.

    russ295
    Free Member

    Kitchen fitter here also. It looks like it’s sitting on the gable of the unit. I personally wouldn’t fill it with silicone, it will look poor after a while. I usual bed ceramic sinks on just enough silicone to seal but not bulge out.
    Having said that the ceramics are never perfectly flat so a little gap has to be lived with.
    As blazin said. 3/4 days at most unless there is other stuff going on.

    project
    Free Member

    Daft question, but is the worktop solid oak or laminate, due to the jointing in the picture, do you have the piece they cut out for sink or picture of the end of worktop just to check also 25 mm is very thin for an oak w/t

    russ295
    Free Member

    The picture from underneath suggests it’s solid wood.
    28mm is available (I’ve fitted it once and it buckled after cutting it to suit a Belfast sink)
    Wouldn’t fit it again unless straight runs.

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