A: Before you make an important decision about an important piece of equipment, you really need to take all of your due care. You asked the right questions about apron sinks, sometimes referred to as country sinks.
Over the years I’ve installed my fair share of these sinks. They’re not that difficult to install, and it helps to have a good knowledge of carpentry so that the installation goes perfectly. I happen to have an apron sink in my own kitchen! I also recently installed two of them in my daughter’s new customs house, one in her kitchen and the second in her scullery.
I’ve always loved doing plumbing, and an apron sink connects to your household sink just like a regular kitchen sink. You may not think further about the water and food debris leaving your sink, but it does travel through a network of pipes that need to be properly sized and properly vented. When it comes to vents, make sure your plumber installs a traditional loop vent if your sink is on an island. Mechanical vents can fail and let dirty sewage gas into your beautiful new kitchen.
In my opinion, there are a lot more pros than cons when it comes to apron sinks. Let’s talk about looks first and then functionality. There are many different designs when it comes to these sinks. The sink almost always protrudes over the front of the kitchen sink base unit. This added relief will help focus your gaze on the sink, especially if the sink is a different color from the cabinets.
One of the positive aspects of a sink is that if you let water drip off the front of the sink, it won’t damage the sink. With a normal sink, the water can flow onto the wooden cabinet underneath. Some apron sinks have beautiful designs that are part of the front of the sink. This gives the kitchen character and beauty. Remember that you can get both single and double bowl sinks. My own sink is a double bowl with one bowl that is much larger than the smaller vegetable sink on the right side of my sink.
The only negative I can think of is that it isn’t always easy to swap out an apron tub when necessary. Your worktop protrudes over the top edge of the sink. That is, if you need to remove the sink it has to slide out of the opening. This is not easy to achieve. In addition, the cutout in the base cabinet is very precise; You’ll need to replace the old sink with one of exactly the same dimensions.
For example, let’s say you opt for a traditional over-the-counter sink. These are pretty easy to replace. A talented handyman may be able to take out an existing sink and replace it with a new one in a matter of hours if everything goes according to plan. Most of these sinks are all roughly the same size, so the cutout in the countertop will work for many sinks.
Apron sinks need a platform on which they can sit in the base cabinet. In my daughter’s case, she had custom cabinets made and the carpenter was able to create the perfect platform within the cabinet and make the required cutout on the front of the cabinet based on the dimensions given by the sink manufacturer. Your sink fit perfectly in the closet. I just had to cut a simple circle in the platform for the drain hole.
Standard kitchen sink vanity units can be used with skirted sinks, and all you need to do is build your own platform. A simple piece of 3/4 inch thick AC pine plywood provides plenty of support, and a 1 by 2 cleat bolted to each side of the case supports the platform. Just make sure the top of the sink is ⅛ in. Below the top of the cabinets so you can put a sealing bead between the countertop and the top of the sink.
Remember that the platform for the sink does not extend to the back of the cabinet. Keep it about 5 inches from the back of the cabinet so you can access the underside of the countertop. You will need this to install the sink faucet.
Be prepared to underlay the underside of the kitchen sink, especially if it is a cast iron one. The sinks are not always perfectly cast, and when they sit on the platform they can rock back and forth a little. You need to put under the sink to keep it from moving.
I have a couple of videos showing how apron sinks are installed and some dramatic photos of the support platform for my daughter’s sink on my AsktheBuilder website. If you are thinking of having one of those wonderful sinks in your kitchen, I urge you to take a look at the photos and videos. Just type “apron sink photos” into my search engine and you will find everything you are looking for.
Comments are closed.