Turning a Surface Mount Sink into an Undermount sink

This is how you can turn an old surface mount stainless sink into a nice looking undermount sink for not a lot of money. Total I spent was $120 for tile and mortar, $220 for the faucet, and $180 for a new disposer.

To do this you need to check the lip on the surface mount sink - below is the one I worked with. Mine measured a 1/4" rise which will work perfectly. So here's a list of tools I used.

For Demolition:

Hammer and Pry Bar for the tiled backsplash, Cordless Drill for the outlets, Pliers to remove various nails. Crescent Wrench to remove Hoses and Faucet, Locking Pliers for Removing Faucet.

For Concrete Backer Work:

Angle Grinder with either Diamond or Abrasive Disc, Circular Saw with Diamond Blade, Drill, Concrete backer screws and Drill bit for predrilling, Tape Measure

Stone and Tile Work:

Angle Grinder with at least a 1/4" thick Abrasive Disc, Tile Saw, Mixing Paddle for Mortar and Grout, Corded 1/2" Drill for Mixing Paddle, 1/4" Trowel for Mortar, 1/8" Trowel for Small Tile, Caulking Gun, Regular Epoxy, Silicon Caulk, Stone and Masonry adhesive, 1 3/8" Diamond Hole drill bit, Compass, Tape Measure, Self-Leveling Laser to check tile alignment, 1/16" cardboard spacers used for drywall - but I use for spacing tiles too. Various sandpaper grits for polishing stone, steel polishing drill bit that i used for stone, Aluminum tile edging.

So here's the countertop... notice the lip is pretty small.

 This is after pulling the wall tile off - they were mortared to the old formica backsplash... at least it made demo easy. Had to fix the electrical boxes for the masonry since they pulled out with the tile.

Below is the pic showing the concrete backer going over the sink. This is where you use the circular saw and grinder. The concrete backer is going to stop where the lip stops on the sink. So you need to create a dado on the concrete backer board to fit over that lip. To create the dado, mark all your cuts from your sink on your concrete backer board, set the circ saw to 1/4". Dado as much as needed, but not more than is needed to go over the lip and create a new level surface.

When applying and screwing down backerboard, predrill and run a bead of glue in the dado to strengthen the cuts. I also screwed the cement backer into the sink and made sure that there were no cement backer board breaks over the longest span of the sink.

The back of my sink didn't have any backing to support the sink so I also ran a bead of glue along the back to secure the backerboard so that the sink would be more sturdy.

Next, I bought 12x12 marble tile because I could get it right then at Home Depot, but 18x18 would be MUCH bettter. 12x12 caused weird joints around the sink, so if you're doing it, go for 18x18.

To do the inside corners, I traced the curve with a compass, cut out small pieces to get the general shape of the curve, then used the angle grinder with a 1/4" abrasive disc to get the curve right. I laid out all the tiles and precut everything, then for the bottom curved pieces, I took leftover small pieces and glued them together to give the look of one piece of stone (I used a "recommended glue" - it was terrible, just use epoxy)

I had to use three pieces to create the curves because the pieces were kind of small, then to fill any gaps, I mixed marble dust with epoxy and let it harden in the joint before grinding it down.

After the sink stone had the right curves, i used the steel polishing drill bit and sanded the stone down. Then used 200 and 400 grit wet sand paper to polish the stone.

Use 1/16" gaps at most, I did 1/8" and wish I hadn't. Also, run the stone tile right up to the bowl, unlike what I did, so the lower glued pieces are larger and not as brittle. Makes working the glued joint easier. I did mine the way I did just because of how the tile joints lined up...

Also make sure to drill your faucet holes too. Make sure when drilling that you find a way to keep the drill bit wet - it makes it a lot easier. I submerged my tile in a radio flyer wagon that was filled with water. I just put a piece of plywood below and it worked like a charm.

With a 1/4" Trowel I mortared in the stone tile, I also laid a bed of mortar over the CMU. When laying the countertop, there's this tool that's hooked that you can pull tile back up pretty easily. Getting the tile perfectly level is primo importante, so you're probably going to pull a tile or two and redo them.

For the edge pieces, while I was laying the tile I also put fiberglass tape down for the edge pieces. The tape hung over the edge almost entirely. Then I used an Aluminum edging piece for tile to support the tile and screwed it in to the countertop edge to pull the fiberglass tape tight. That way the tile mortar had something to grab onto and the tile had something to support it.

Another angle

I did a 3x6 glass subway tile for the backsplash. Warning - if you work with glass tile, get heavy duty latex gloves and make sure to wear eye protection! This job was pretty small and I didn't have some gloves on hand. Light-duty latex just gets torn to shreads in no time with glass. Let me put it this way, I had so many cuts on my fingers, my thumbprint reader on my phone didn't work for days!

Also, here is where I use the cardboard 1/16" drywall spacers. I like the cardboard strips because you can tear it and the taper formed by the tear can help w fixing an out of level tile row.

Grouted both at the same time.

Cleaned up the grout a little.

Cleaned even more, Caulked around the sink and also the backsplash/countertop joint. ready for the new faucet and for the electrical covers to go back.

 Finished...

My $100 Home Theater

I built this over a year ago, but just haven't gotten around to posting this. So I'll just come out and say that I'm fibbing a bit. I already had a lot of the material to do the job including; wiring, a little drywall, a projector, computer, sound system, and screen material. The room already had drywall and carpet, but it was just one big unfinished room with a fluorescent light in the middle. What I did was fish a lot of new wires, Changed the lighting design, brought new power in to effectively triple the amount of power capacity available. Route cat 6 ethernet throughout. I also milled my own base, made my own shelving and desk. Mixed my own paint color and glaze. I also repaired all the drywall cuts I had to make, textured the walls, painted, stained, and lacquered all finish work. Cut and seamed the carpet where needed. I also made my own doors (I think the small inline one is especially cool).

So what did I have to buy from the store? Pretty much only the drywall mud, lacquer, and hardware for the doors. Again, I did already have a lot of stuff, but even that you can still get pretty cheap off sites like craigslist. I also did my fair share of asking people if they had anything they weren't going to use. It became a challenge to complete the project for as little money as possible. 

The room is pretty small and was long and narrow. When designing, I also didn't want to sacrifice storage, just maximize it. I basically figured out where the projector had to be and then built the new wall there to accommodate the throw of the projector. So I took one room and split it into three. One room for the theater/office, one for floor to ceiling storage with a small refrigerator and a microwave, and one small storage room under the stairs where we store bean bags, blankets and books.

Below is a picture of the storage shelving built on the theater side. The door goes to our full-height storage room, and I have the desk set up so I can work. This is where I spend most my days.

  

Below you should clearly see the outline of the small inline door.

Below, the doors are open 

Below I've removed the add on desk space to maximize space.

Here's the theater screen. I made the small table, the stand for the center channel and the screen frame. The screen itself I made from fabric from a screen I made years ago.

With the desk removed, a couch can then be pushed back farther to accommodate more bean bags up front. Eventually, I want to get a more compact couch without arms.

Below are a couple pics of the projector in use. Pictures looks better in person and even more so with the lights out, but this gives an idea.

Things I Wish I Had Done Different

This is a list of things I wish I could go back and make sure to get right the first time.

The first one kills me, it bugs me nearly every week and is the only problem so unique that I likely will never ever run into it ever again. The air ducts in the home are out of concrete masonry under the floor. This one is so bad it would have pushed me into not buying the home or tearing it down. The problem is turbulence and cleanliness. Too much of the first, too little of the second. I was able to get a camera down there and it just gives me the ewehha!!!

INSULATION- I had the walls ready for insulation to be sprayed over the existing walls and I let the stupid insulation installer talk me out of it. General rule #1- If you've done your research and know what your talking about, don't let some idiot talk you out of it. Hardly any more money and would have made the walls a lot more bearable. Give me the "stupid hat."

Matte paint. This one is hard to admit, but if you want matte paint, you need to figure touch-up every year, not cool. I like the look, but I hate every freaking time anything rubs against it, a noticeable mark is created.

Conduit. This is another told-you-so moment. I thought I had figured out exactly how to future-proof my home when I was wiring, or at least future-proof it for the next ten years. I was wrong. Run conduit.

Prototype if you're going to try something new. I wanted no baseboard or case in the home and to have the hall doors flush with the hall regardless of swing. I was so close to getting it all right. Mistakes with the baseboard- I still like the idea on the in-line base and case, but for the base, it needed to be cut with a recess for the tape and mud and also painted so the mud wouldn't cause any expansion when applied. The case on the  other hand needed to have a purely mechanical joint instead of trying to use mud at all- though juries out because I'd have to prototype. However, now a days, I wouldn't try to make the base disappear, I'd throw stained and sprayed base inline still with a metal groove between it and the drywall - that looks sweet. I did protype a door in our home theater that I wanted to match the wall texture without the texture possibly breaking off and that turned out awesome!

Learn how to braze. I installed a line-set for the HVAC and from what I understood at the time, sweating the pipes was the way to go, but it just isn't. The problem is, I'm locked into using R-22 (the old stuff) or have to redo the line-set. Nifty-spiffy. Although, I still like the look of sweated copper pipes over brazed for plumbing, I never would have liked the manifold if it were brazed so for plumbing I thinking brazing is a bit of overkill.

Lacquer- I'll admit, for whatever reason lacquer intimated me. I thought I'd use it, but was kind of looking for reasons not to, I think I had bad memories from high-school shop or something. With all the maple in the home, I was terrified that if I sprayed lacquer, it would all turn a horrible shade of yellow eventually. A couple articles I read mentioned a water based acrylic as the answer. I used it everywhere, even sprayed it. Let me tell you, the maple is still yellowing and the finish just doesn't look as good as if I had used a clear lacquer. I think the best advice is just to stay away from all clear finishes you can buy from HD or Lowes... They're just crap.

If you've got a good thing going, keep going. I liked the way I did the closets in two of the rooms and inexplicably changed the closet in the other room... it just doesn't work, and I feel like I'm eventually going to have to change it to match.

Buy an eight foot level and get the walls perfectly flat. It's very easy to use cardboard strips to even out the hills and valleys before drywall, not so much with mud after. Also when mudding, I found the smoothest joints come from taping, then one heavy coat with something straight and inflexible and then one finish coat. Hey maybe I don't have some magical drywall skill, but for me it works and is way faster than trying to fill the areas with regular trowels for everything.  

Carpet is a dirty business. Talk to an interior designer, they can help you get the quality you want. It's just one of those things, you screw up, you're stuck with for a long time.

  

The Shower Fixture

Both baths stood out negatively when we bought the home. Both had work done on them recently, but each shared a certain degree of shoddiness in craftsmanship, but in totally different ways. Since the work was recent and functioned for the the most part, they were pretty far down on my list of things for a full makeover. In the master, all I added was a wall heater, thermostat, new switches and covers for the electrical - mostly because I plan to tear it off and build a more complete bath sometime. In the hall bath, I raised the ceiling, changed return duct work, all new electrical, changed the lighting, new floor tile, new vent, new water lines, new sewer waste and vent (come to think about it, why didn't I just tear everything out?). I left the cabinets, tub, fixtures, and also the cheapo tile around the sink and bath/shower alone.

As much as I've wanted to leave them alone, both baths have been slowly working their way up my priority list, until this last week when one shot to the top. Since day one, the hall shower/bath fixture has bothered me. The fixture holes were poorly cut... at least for the current fixture. The fixture itself was not secured to anything but the plumbing pipes and then sandwiched against the wall with the little decorative bits around the handles and the tub spout- so it felt loosey goosey. Also, the cold water valve had a small leak from day one- drip, drip.

This week, my kids told me that the water was no longer working properly. As it turned out the diverter valve that you use to send water to either the shower or tub was leaking badly.

I opened the valve to do a quick check and see the damage. The valve had a boot gasket inside that was shredded.

I first had to find the make of the fixture. I had noticed that the brand was not plastered in large letters on the handles or really anywhere like you almost always see. The only thing I could find were the letters ccf on the valve itself. I thought this was a model or something, but no, it's a company called Chung Cheng Fixtures. That was the first sign of things to come.

I did some calling around and after describing the gasket, I got nothing. I took the gasket to the plumbing desks at a couple plumbing stores and none had ever seen the like. By this time I had realized that even if I could find the parts, it wouldn't just be the gasket and would probably cost half as much as the total fixture did. Also, if I was going to spend the money and get a new fixture, I didn't want to replace the fixture with another three handle fixture... I'm not a fan.

My personal favorite for shower fixtures are single handle ball valves with tilt on/off. The most surprising thing to me is that the only company I could find that made that type of valve was American Standard. All the rest are valves that you rotate to turn on and control temp or you have to pull out to turn on and then rotate.

This repair was not to be a full remodel, just a patch for the time being. Someday, I'll complete the remodel, but not now. So I wasn't looking to get some sleek, modern, $300 valve and trim kit. Luckily, HD had just what I wanted at a price that was good enough for me. I got the American Standard Cadet series tub/shower valve and trim - $79. Then I started making a mess.  

Here's where the old fixture was. The holes were not entirely covered by the fixture, especially the bottom tub one

I cut out eight tiles as can be seen to raise the fixture up so that is easier to grasp when showering. To do this required cutting through the tile cement board and concrete block. Also here's a do as I say and not as I do- put plywood over your tub so you don't bung it up. I can't say I really cared enough to cut plywood for the cover, but if you do, now you know.

I decided since I was going through the work with the shower valve, I should add a couple things to help with keeping the bathroom tidy. One is this cut out for a soap holder.

Two, is this cut for a shower shelf.

Here is the opening all framed up, Held in place with masonry screws and then blocking is installed to reinforce the valve body and the tub spigot. I did end up getting some threaded/pex 90 elbows  since I was working in limited space.

Here's the hole with the cement board that has been shimmed to match the existing wall.

This is the concrete board used to form the soap holder. This was kind of difficult reinforcing due to the size of the opening and the fact that I had to work around the concrete block. I ended up both gluing and screwing in wood to provide backing for the concrete board pieces and then used a wire mesh for the sides with pvc wrapped around to keep it water tight.

The shelf rough opening was more straight forward. New blocking around the perimeter, concrete board, PVC, wire mesh, then again concrete board.

The tiles have been set in mortar here. I ran into a bit of a problem. I thought I had 1/4" spacers for the tile, but I did not. So I had to quickly cut a bunch of them after I had already started mortaring the tile. I made the spacers out of wood. To do this you take a miter saw and place a block of wood 1/4" from the saw blade as a stop and clamp in place. Then cut as many as needed, the stop will ensure that every cut will be the same.

Mortared soap thingy

Mortared Shelf

Grout around shower valve and tub spigot.

Grouted soap thingy

Grouted shower shelf

Little project complete

This project took about 4 days intermittently working on it from diagnosis to final clean. The plumbing manifold I made is a life saver for projects like this since you can cut water for just this one fixture. Has already been useful several times. On a project like this it allows you to take your time without having to constantly turn on and off the water at the main and worrying about disrupting wash cycles or anything.

The real lesson though is to not buy cheapo no-name fixtures unless you're positive you can get the parts easy. Although everything's nice and secure and what not, if I could have gotten a cheap part to do a quick fix, would I have just fixed it? You bet.

Project Parts and Costs:

Valve and trim - $79
Tile - $8
Mortar and Grout - Had some leftover
Threaded/ pex 90s - $10
Copper 90 with anchor - $4
Threaded copper ends and copper pipe - had some leftover
Teflon tape - had some leftover
40 mil PVC sheet - had some leftover
Wire mesh - had some leftover
Cement backer - had some leftover
Masonry anchors - had some leftover
2x4 wood for framing - had some leftover
Screws - had some leftover
Clear silicon caulk - had some leftover

Laundry Room... Take Two

Last week, both my Asko w600 washer and t700 dryer failed badly. The washer had been leaking for a while, then the belt snapped on the dryer. When I took them out, the damage was worse than I had hoped. 

The worst of the damage was caused by the leaking washer because when I built the drain pan, I imagined catching a catastrophic leak, not a little dribble. It turns out the "bellows" on the washer got a tear and had been leaking for some time. This saturated the grout, then went under and saturated the underlayment of my hardwood floors The underlayment got so wet, it penetrated the "moisture barrier" and soaked the wood floors, causing discoloration and mold. 

I ordered the parts and then evaluated the damage in the laundry room.

Here I have both appliances taken apart. The dryer is on the left, and the washer is on the right. To pin point the leak on the washer, I had to power it up. Since it's 220v, I used a regular 110v receptacle with the two hots of 220v hooked up to the regular hot and neutral and since the washer didn't need a neutral, the ground stayed the same. I then used a regular extension cord with a few "go between" wires taped to the 220 head coming off the washer. A garden hose supplied the water, then the waste into a 5 gallon bucket.

This is the damage. You can see the discoloration of the wood. I might have been able to simply let the wood dry out, but the finish was cracking in several places, so it had to come out. The tile had given me problems for a while. I hadn't provided good backing for the tile, and pieces would pop off in the corner. The water caused all the pieces on the wall to pop off as well.

I removed the hardwood floor, which is easier than I thought it would be. Just set the circular saw to just short of the depth of the wood so you don't end up cutting the underlayment and then cut outside of where the tongue and groove are located. It is now easy to chip the remainder out with a chisel or screw driver and leave a clean tongue or groove for the new flooring. 

I poured a new concrete base around the drain and sloped it to the drain. Make sure when you are pouring a small pan like this to use a sand/cement mix, too big of aggregate will make this more difficult.

 

With the base cured, it's time to put down the real barrier that's going to keep everything dry.  This is a PVC sheet that you can get cut to your needs from Lowes. You fit it around the pan area going up the sides and a around the lip, I then tucked the corners and stapled them. When you cut around the hole for the drain, if you're doing a shower, you want to cement it to the drain, and then use the top screw in part of the drain to sandwich the pvc. I didn't have a drain like that, so I ran a 2 inch bead of silicon caulk under the sheet and around the drain to get it nice and water tight. Let the caulk cure.

 

 

For this project I wanted some extra reinforcement for both the tile and concrete. I took some mesh that I also bought from Lowes, I think it was 1/2"x1/2" and placed it over the PVC and stapled it in place as well. The mesh will provide strong backing for the morter to grab onto on the outside of the lip - no more tiles popping off. I then placed cement backer board over everything on the wall and secured with galvanized screws.

 

the top layer of concrete, again sloped towards the drain. Also, again I'd recommend mixing your own concrete with sand and cement. large aggregate makes this a pain unless you're making the pan super thick. For this layer, I ran out of cement, so I used a bag a premix I had in my shed. It would have turned out better if I had just gone on bought more cement.

I knew it would be a lot easier to put the wood flooring back in before the tile. So this is the new maple, it is a different color now but will yellow with time and match the existing. 

One thing I am still considering is running silicon caulk in the v-grooves around the laundry to help make it more water tight. I did this around the kitchen sink even though the glue I use is water tight- just for an extra layer of protection. You can get it so it's not even noticeable and if water is a concern for you, I'd recommend it. You simply apply a thin bead, use your finger to push it into the groove, then wipe off with a damp sponge until all that's left is what is in the groove.

 

I was able to use the same glass tile I used before since I had quite a bit left over in the box. This time was so much quicker. I didn't want to borrow a tile saw so I thought I'd try my grinder out. Couldn't have been easier. All I had to do to cut the tile was score the back of the tile with the grinder and I'd get a clean break. 

Usually for tile, you'd cut it all first and have it layed out before you mix your mortar, but for this project, the grinding method was so quick, it didn't matter. All said from start to finish, it took three hours to get all the tile cut and mortared.

 

Then you grout... easy enough, Slop it on with a rubber trowel, sponge it off. 

 

While the grout was setting, I decided to redo the paneling next to the door. One had fallen off, got soaked and was ruined. They also weren't deep enough to be covered by our stacked washer/ dryer. I had orginally planned to buy a whirlpool duet which is significantly larger and would have completely covered the space. My mistake. 

I had one 2x4 panel left and cut it into thirds, stained it up and then covered with varnish. The previous method I used for applying the panels was horrid. Previously I had asked some finish guys I know about the panels and they had told me they always use contact cement for bonding. They must have some freaking amazing contact cement, because my experience was not so great (corners came off, also as noted that one complete panel fell off). 

This time around, I decided to use gorilla glue after having some great success with it on the car interior panels of our Benz (the plastic clips had broken away when I removed the door panel). Gorilla glue is great, super strong hold, only two hours to set... Earns my recommendation.You also may notice, that I use sanding polls to hold the panels in place.

  

Panel Two

 

Panel Three

 

Panel Four

 

After the grout was set I sealed the tile and then ran silicon caulk around all corners and edges.

The belt finally arrived by this time and I was able to replace both the bellows in the washer and the dryer belt.

This is the old bellows and you can clearly see the leak origin.

  Here is the new bellows installed. A note to anybody doing this themselves, be careful with the clamps or buy some when you get the replacement bellows, they are narrow clamps that you can't just run to your local hardware store for. I was careful on two and was able to reuse and was lucky the third was in a location I could use a larger clamp (it's on the end next to the drain pump).

Here's the replacement dryer belt installed.

Another problem that I had once was the drain trap dried up and we were getting some funky odors in the house... not cool. This time I took some irrigation hose, jammed it up the drain hose of the washer and zip tied it both to the hose and the floor drain as seen below, This way the trap gets a little water with each wash.

 

Here is the washer and dryer reinstalled. I had a little bit of trouble getting them level due to the location of the drain, I also realized the washer was leaking out the door gasket. To remedy this I removed the door of the washer and took it apart, rotated the gasket 180 degrees and reassembled.

 

Since I went through all this work, I thought I should take care of the cable problem in this corner as well. I have all the telephone, internet, distributed audio and video, surveillance, and control wires coming in here, and it was a mess with just a small table to hold everything. I bought a small used cabinet for $10 that was close to what I wanted, took it apart, cut it up, sanded and painted it, then reassembled. Now everything is contained nice and clean. 

The drawer slides out for a desk for the kids to use.

Some people have wondered why go through all the effort for the paneling and such when it's just a laundry room, but here's the view from our back yard. In my opinion, it's worth it.

 

Below is a reminder of what this space originally looked like.

 

My son, wasted no time, having fun at the new computer area.