When you’ve been doing something for a long time, and the marketplace has verified that you’re pretty good at it, along comes a job that puts you back in your place. I guess I should be glad to have had everything go wrong on the same job instead of dragging it out over several.
I was called to enlarge the sink opening in this Corian Bone top that had been covered with a spray-on epoxy coating. I gave the homeowner’s a price for that, along with a proposal to undermount their sink instead of dropping it in like their old one. Of course, this would require building the sink cut-out smaller, removal of the epoxy, and refinishing the tops and backsplashes. The thought of a sink lip caulked in and catching crud was more objectionable than the higher cost of undermounting, so they authorized the work.
I’ve got horrible color match adhesive and terrible fit. I haven’t taken the time to machine the opening and get factory color match. This is embarrassing and I’ll have to have a do-over with inserts to cover it. The brushes in my belt sander have decided to die today too; it makes a horrible grinding sound. I’m dead without it on this job. Mail order brushes are a week away, so I rented a belt sander for a week at nearly half the cost of a new one.
I can’t install the sink until the cutout is complete and the rear splash is refinished and re-installed. The edge and top of the bar must be done before the faucet goes in as well as the caulking between the splash and deck. The masking tape keeps the fresh caulk dust-free while I continue to work.
Of course, this Silegranit behemoth isn’t going in without removing the cabinet front. I had to trim the back of the sink flange to accommodate the countertop underlayment, but my Festool saw with a diamond blade made that a quick, dust-free job.
For the insert repairs, I added some catalyst to my older factory Bone adhesive just to be safe. No new catalyst and the adhesive may not set up; too much new catalyst and it will set up in the bag before you get the pieces set. Despite the added catalyst, the adhesive didn’t quite kick, knocking the color match off a tad, but the seams went from “embarrassing” to “acceptable.” The rear reveal is a bit heavier than the front and sides, but I play the cards I’m dealt and I was dealt a 3” high splash for repairs and it just wasn’t quite wide enough.
My biggest mistake was underestimating how difficult removing the epoxy would be. This isn’t do-it-yourselfer countertop in a can from Home Depot. This is professionally sprayed epoxy, just like the stuff they put on your garage floor. An 80-grit paper on grind mode will make short work of the nastiest scratches in solid surface. 80-grit just tickled this stuff; I swear I could hear it laughing at me. I had to put a 36-grit on my rented belt sander just to cut through the top layer followed with a 36-grit pad on my Festool which looks like a mini pizza. It would only cut through on edge, which destroyed my pad by wearing out the hook and loop that grips the paper. And this stuff stinks all the while. Only after all the epoxy was abraded was I able to begin an 80-grit protocol. (36, 80, 150, 240, 400 and 500 Abralon)
Despite this job taking nearly three times longer than I had anticipated, I would not compromise on the final look and am proud to have my name on it. My customers are delighted.
