Sink Installation near you

With a new countertop, the sink is chosen first, not last. The fabricator cuts the opening from the actual sink or its template, and an undermount bowl is usually mounted while the countertop is installed, before the plumber comes back to connect it. Faucet holes are drilled at the same stage, so settle on a single-hole faucet or a widespread set, a separate sprayer, a soap dispenser or a filtered-water tap before the counter is made.

Check the cabinet too. The sink base has to hold the bowl with room left for the drain, a disposal and the supply lines, and a deep or double bowl can leave very little space for the trap or a pull-out bin. When only the sink is changing in an existing counter, the new one has to match or cover the old cut-out; a plumber can tell you whether a different size or style will fit without new counter work.

Every sink drains through a trap, the curved section of pipe that holds a little water to keep sewer gas out of the room. Under a sink this is a P-trap: the bend holds its water seal, and the trap arm runs sideways into the wall, where the drain ties into a vent that lets air in behind the flowing water. Without that air, water rushing down the pipe can pull the seal out of the trap, and you start to hear gurgling or smell the sewer.

Older homes sometimes have an S-trap, where the pipe loops down through the floor with no vent close by. It can siphon itself dry each time the sink empties, and where the plumbing code prohibits it, which is the usual case for new work, a plumber replacing the sink will convert it to a vented P-trap. On an island, or anywhere a wall vent is out of reach, ask the plumber which venting method the local code accepts before the layout is final.

A sink replacement is the right moment to deal with what feeds it. Each supply pipe should end in its own shut-off valve, one for hot and one for cold, so the sink can be isolated without turning off the whole house. Stiff or corroded multi-turn valves are worth replacing with quarter-turn valves while the cabinet is empty, and new braided supply lines should reach the faucet without stretching or kinking.

Kitchen sinks often feed more than the faucet: a dishwasher, a refrigerator water line or a filtered-water tap. A valve with a second outlet gives each appliance its own shut-off. In a laundry room, the sink usually sits beside the washer's valves, and a water alarm on the floor beneath them is a simple safeguard against an overflow or a burst hose.

A garbage disposal mounts to the sink's drain opening and grinds scraps before they go down the pipe, so it needs cabinet space, a drain layout that sends its discharge into the vented trap, and an electrical connection that an electrician should install. On a septic system, think twice: Quebec's good-practice guide for septic owners warns that a food waste disposer adds load to the tank and can mean more frequent pumping, and suggests composting scraps or putting them in the garbage instead.

On municipal sewers, a disposal still isn't a route for fats, oils and grease. The City of Toronto explains that grease poured down a sink cools, hardens and sticks to the inside of sewer pipes; it recommends letting grease harden and scraping it into the organics bin, and using a strainer in the sink to catch food scraps.

Replacing a sink in the same place, on the same drain and supply, is generally treated as a fixture replacement. Moving a sink, adding one in an island, a bar or a basement, or running new drain and vent piping changes the plumbing system, and many municipalities require a permit and an inspection for that; check with yours before the walls or floor are closed up.

Quebec reserves plumbing work for holders of the plumbing licence issued by the Régie du bâtiment du Québec, which contractors obtain through the CMMTQ. In other provinces, the provincial licensing body and the municipality set the rules. The wiring for a disposal, an instant hot-water tap or under-cabinet lighting is electrical work for a licensed electrician.