One of the most popular new trends in kitchen design is the undermount sink. Karran sinks are manufactured in both acrylic and stainless steel, and available in various models from a small bar sink to a large double basin. The traditional countertop rim has been replaced with a unique resin matrix designed for seamless integration in laminate countertops.
Undermount sinks are more hygienic and easier to maintain than drop-in sinks. Look around the edges of your drop in sink and you will see how bacteria can collect where the wet edge meets the counter.
Karran sinks are resistant to stains, heat, impact, bacteria, and scratches. All Karran sinks are warranted against material and manufacturing defects for 50 years.
We highly recommend Karran Sinks and can help you with a step by step instructional video for installation.
Our customer Don sent in these photos and reported on his project:
Setting up the template
Finished project
The service from CabinetmakerWarehouse.com was wonderful and after ordering, I got the Karran Edge sink in just a few days. I was the one who installed the sink, but I had never installed an undermount sink and especially never installed an undermount onto a laminate counter before. Everyone I talked to, including the “experts” at the big box home stores told me it could not be done. However, after reviewing YouTube videos and reading instructions, I started the installation. The process is simple in concept, but very labor intensive and in total it took me about 3 hours of routing, chiseling, scraping, and gluing to get the profile into the particle board down to the underside of the laminate. But the result is a beautiful look and 100 times better than a surface mount sink.
Ethan is the resident expert and head honcho of Cabinetmaker Warehouse. He answers this question from a reader:
We are remodeling our kitchen and so far everyone we talked to about undermount sinks with laminate tops say don’t do it. What gives? I see everywhere online that it the latest thing but industry retailers aren’t sold. What’s the guarantee they offer as to how long to expect undermount sinks not to leak and damage the base board?
As with many new things, change is scary to some. In the past there have been some inferior attempts to market acrylic “transition rings” that would act as a go-between the sink and laminate. These were and are plagued with problems as well as being pretty unsightly. As a cabinet and countertop fabrication shop owner in South Florida for 15+ years, I installed undermount sinks in laminate for many years before these newer sinks became available. We would mount solid surface Corian sinks under the laminate using an acrylic epoxy. This is similar to the way they are installed today. The largest difference with the Karran sinks is that they are made of the same core material- acrylic – but are lighter weight and thus require much less bracing to mount under laminate. Also, the Edge series stainless steel sinks are made in a way that the acrylic ring surrounds the perimeter of the sink rather than sitting on top and thus creates a virtually seamless appearance from the sink bowl into the laminate.
