After years of me (Gabriella) installing faucets in all of our construction/remodel projects, Andrew finally saw me putting one in and wondered why on earth I was under the sink and why hadn’t I installed it BEFORE setting the sink itself?? Trust me, save yourself the sore neck, do it Andrew’s way, and use the sane person’s guide to installing tiny house faucets!
It’s super easy (especially compared to how I was doing it before). Take your faucet body and attach it to your sink before you actually connect your sink to your counters. This is especially pertinent if you want to install a unit with several fixtures like we have in our new set up (faucet, purified water spigot, soap dispenser).
Our new sink: Elkay 43″ x 22″ Kitchen Sink
Each fixture has a different method for attachment to a sink so follow the manufacturer’s instructions for a solid fit. Apply a bit of plumber’s putty at the bottom of each fixture where it connects with the sink so that no water seeps down below. Tighten everything down pretty well while taking care to not overdo it.
Our original sink in hOMe was fine but a bit on the small side. Since we cook so much, we have some large pots and pans which we could barely get to fit in the sink during dish time. The other frustration was that the sink itself didn’t come with perforated holes for our faucet and water purifier. Instead, we bore holes into the countertop material and because it’s made of compressed wood, we would find ourselves needing to retighten our fixtures every few months. And though we caulked each fixture base to the countertop, we were still seeing a little bit of water penetration.
Our new hOMe sink is much more practical because we have plenty of room for our larger pots and pans now.
Our new sink feels so much more spacious even though it’s actually not that much larger than our original. It looks great and we love that our fixtures are on there solidly. The sink even has room for a soap dispenser pump, making our counters look neat and tidy.
We’re super happy with it and though it was by far the most expensive sink we’ve ever bought (over $750 on sale!!), it definitely feels like a worthwhile investment. Since installing it, we have been feeling like millionaires when doing our dishes…sometimes the little things can have a dramatic and positive effect!
I know that (now) about installing the faucet before setting the sink. I had to wait to install my own faucet until after the sink since we had an installer install the composite sink under the granite counter tops installed at the same time many years ago. But then I had to be the contortionist to install the faucet. Needless to say I also had to reset the faucet a few years later. Last fall I installed another new sink for my son and his wife and installed the faucet first, then set the sink. MUCH easier and a better install!