What we do
Sinks
Your sink choice is a countertop decision. The mount type changes how we cut the top, the bowl size changes where a seam can go, and an apron front sink has to be sitting in the cabinet before we template. This page covers what each sink material does well, how each one actually fails, and what each one changes about our end of the job.
Looking for what sink gauge means?
Short version: gauge is the thickness of the steel a stainless sink is pressed from, and the scale runs backwards, so a lower number is thicker metal. 16 gauge stainless is 0.0625 of an inch (1.59 mm). 18 gauge is 0.0500 of an inch (1.27 mm). It only applies to metal sinks.
The full gauge answer, with the thickness chart and which gauge to pick →
What we do with your sink, and where we stop
We cut and fit the countertop for the sink and we set the bowl to the stone. We never reconnect plumbing, electrical or gas. The supply lines, the drain and the disposal are your plumber's work, so plan on booking them for after our install day rather than the same morning.
Which sinks we have on hand changes with what our suppliers are shipping, so that one is a phone call or a showroom question rather than something worth publishing and letting go stale.
Sink materials at a glance
Three columns, and the third one is the reason a fabricator writes this page differently than a plumbing retailer would.
| Material | How it holds up | How it fails | What it changes for the countertop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stainless steel | Will not chip or crack. Takes heat. A dropped pan dents it at worst. | Scratches, dents at thin gauges, and pitting if bleach, salt or steel wool residue is left on it. | The straightforward cutout. Works undermount or drop-in, and it is light enough that support is not the problem it is with heavier bowls. |
| Granite composite | Hard matte surface. The color goes through the body, so a scuff doesn't expose a different color underneath. | Can chip at the rim on a hard impact. Light colors can pick up staining. Heat is a real limit, not a myth. | Heavy. An undermount composite bowl wants proper support underneath it, and that is worth settling before install day rather than on it. |
| Porcelain, vitreous china and fireclay | A fired glaze. Acids do not touch it, coffee and wine do not stain it, and it wipes clean with nothing special. | The glaze is glass. It chips, and a heavy pan dropped in the bottom of the bowl can crack the body outright. | Heavy, and often apron front, which changes the whole job. Ceramic tolerances vary more than steel, so the top gets cut to the actual sink. |
| Enamelled cast iron | Very heavy and very rigid. No flex, no drumming, and the enamel is a hard glossy surface. | Chip the enamel and the iron underneath is exposed, which then rusts. Gloss shows scratches more than a matte or brushed finish. | The heaviest common option. Support is the first conversation, not the last one. |
| Copper | A living finish. Copper darkens with use and small marks blend back into the patina over time. | It changes, which is either the point or the problem. Acids leave bright marks, some cleaners strip the patina, and thin copper dents easily. | The cutout is the same as stainless. The decision is aesthetic rather than structural. |
| Glass vessel | Non-porous and completely unbothered by anything a bathroom can put in it. | Shows every water spot and fingerprint. Splashes more than a recessed bowl. The ring where it meets the counter is a cleaning job. | The biggest difference on this page. A vessel sink usually needs a drain hole rather than a bowl cutout, and the faucet has to be tall enough to clear the rim, so faucet hole placement changes too. |
Stainless steel
Stainless is the default kitchen sink for a reason that has nothing to do with looks. It doesn't chip, it doesn't crack, it doesn't care about a hot pan, and when something does go wrong it is almost always cosmetic rather than terminal. A brushed or satin finish hides day to day scratching well enough that most people stop noticing after a month.
It's also the sink material with the most confusing spec sheet, because everybody talks about gauge and almost nobody explains it. Gauge is the thickness of the steel and the numbers run backwards, so a 16 gauge bowl is thicker than an 18 gauge one. That's the whole idea, and the rest of the detail matters more than most buyers are told.
Granite composite
Composite sinks are crushed stone held together in a resin binder, which is the same basic idea as an engineered quartz countertop. That gets you a hard, matte, color-through surface that hides water spots much better than a polished one, and a bowl that sounds dull rather than tinny when you drop a spoon in it.
It also gets you the same limitation engineered quartz has. The binder is a resin, so a pan straight off the burner set down in the bowl is a genuine risk rather than a precaution. Treat the heat rule the way you would treat it on a quartz countertop and a composite sink is an easy material to live with.
The other thing to know is weight. A composite bowl is heavier than a steel one of the same size, which makes how it gets supported a bigger question than which color you picked.
Porcelain, vitreous china and fireclay
These three names get used as if they describe three clearly different products. They describe overlapping ceramic bodies with a vitrified glaze on top, and the line between them in a plumbing aisle is a good deal less crisp than the labels suggest. It's the same naming problem as the slab yard, where the same stone shows up under four names depending on who is selling it.
What actually matters is the glaze and the mass. A good thick glaze on a heavy body gives you a surface nothing in a kitchen can stain and acids can't etch, which is a real advantage over almost everything else on this page. The tradeoff is brittleness: it's glass over clay, so it chips at an edge and it can crack from an impact, and neither of those is repairable the way a scratch in stainless is.
Most of the ceramic bowls people are choosing between are apron front, which is the part that changes our end of the job rather than yours.
Enamelled cast iron
Cast iron with a fired enamel coating is the old-school heavy sink, and the weight is genuinely part of the appeal: nothing flexes, nothing rings, and the surface is glossy in a way stainless never is.
The failure mode is specific and worth knowing before you buy. The enamel is the whole defense. While it is intact you have a hard, stain-resistant surface. Chip it in the bottom of the bowl and you have bare iron, and bare iron in a wet sink does what bare iron does. Repair kits exist and none of them look like the original.
Copper
Copper is the one sink material where the surface is designed to keep changing. A new copper bowl and the same bowl three years later are noticeably different objects, and the darkening is uneven because it follows how you use it.
People who love copper love exactly that. People who expected the finish to stay put read the same change as damage, and that's where the trouble starts. A lemon half left in the bowl leaves a bright spot that eventually blends back in. A cleaner with any real chemistry in it can strip a patina back to bright metal in one pass.
None of that is a knock on copper. It's a real choice with a real look, and the people who pick it usually pick it on purpose. It just asks you to accept a surface that won't hold still, and nobody can promise you the finished look of something designed to keep changing.
Glass vessel
A vessel sink sits on top of the counter rather than in it, which makes it the one sink type that genuinely simplifies our cut and complicates yours. Instead of a bowl cutout we are usually drilling a drain hole and setting the faucet holes for a taller faucet.
Living with one has real tradeoffs. Water falls further before it hits the bottom of the bowl, so it splashes more, and the joint where the base of the vessel meets the countertop collects the things joints collect. Glass in particular shows every drop that dries on it.
This is a bathroom decision far more than a kitchen one, which is why it belongs next to the vanity conversation.
Undermount, drop-in, or apron front
Mount type is more of a countertop decision than a sink decision, because it decides how the opening gets cut and finished. Three options in practice.
- Undermount
- The bowl hangs under the stone and the countertop edge is finished all the way around the opening. Nothing sits proud of the surface, so crumbs go straight into the bowl. How much stone shows over the rim is a decision made at the shop with a router, and most customers do not know it's a decision at all until we ask.
- Drop-in, or top mount
- The sink drops into the hole from above and its rim sits on the countertop. The rim covers the cut edge, which makes the tolerance more forgiving. The rim is also a lip you wipe up to rather than over, and that's the whole argument against it.
- Apron front, or farmhouse
- An apron front sink has to be installed and in its final position before we template, because the top gets cut to the actual sink rather than to a spec sheet. Three sides of that opening are exposed once it is done, so there's nowhere for a variance to hide. If the sink arrives late or arrives the wrong size, the schedule moves.
More on the template appointment and what has to be ready for it is on our template and install FAQ, and the care side of a sink joint, the caulk and the seams, is on our care page.
Common sink questions
- Does "you install the sink" include hooking up the plumbing?
- No, and this is the one to be clear about. We cut and fit the countertop for your sink and we set the bowl to the stone. We do not reconnect plumbing, electrical or gas, ever. Your plumber handles the disconnect before we start and the final connections after we set the tops. Book them for a different day than our install and nobody stands around waiting.
- Does the sink need to be onsite before you template?
- Sinks, faucets, cooktops and anything else that changes the countertop layout should be onsite before we template. An apron front sink goes further than that: it has to be installed and sitting in its final position, because the top is cut to the actual sink rather than to a published dimension.
- Can you put an undermount sink in granite or quartz?
- Yes. Both take an undermount bowl, and it's the most common way we set a kitchen sink. The bowl is carried from underneath rather than by the stone, which is also why an undermount sink is not a shelf. Do not stand in it and do not load an oversized bowl up with weight.
- What does sink gauge mean?
- Gauge is the thickness of the sheet steel the sink is pressed from, and the scale runs backwards, so a lower number means thicker metal. In stainless, 16 gauge is 0.0625 of an inch (1.59 mm) and 18 gauge is 0.0500 of an inch (1.27 mm). It only applies to metal sinks. A composite or ceramic bowl is not sheet metal, so it has no gauge at all.
- Which sink material asks the least of you?
- Brushed stainless and a matte composite are the two that hide daily life best, for opposite reasons: stainless because the brushed grain disguises scratches, composite because the color runs through the body and the matte surface doesn't show water spots. Both have a real limit. Do not leave bleach standing in stainless, and do not put a hot pan down in a composite bowl.
Cayce, South Carolina
If you're local, come look at one
We are a countertop shop on Charleston Highway in Cayce, and the sink conversation usually happens sitting in front of a slab rather than on a web page. If you're already planning countertops in the Midlands, bring the sink question to that appointment. It's easier to answer with the actual stone in front of you.