Vessel sink issue

[NMPastor]

I'm trying to mount a vessel sink on 1 1/4" silestone. The sink has an overflow.

Because the Silestone is 1/2 inch thicker than standard, the drain that came with the valve set (Hansgrohe) isn't long enough to allow the treads to get far enough down to hold the sink down to the countertop. I purchased a really nice Decolav pushbutton drain with a long enough threaded portion to do the job.

Unfortunately, the very bottom of the drain hole on the porcelain vessel sink (Kingston Brass - I now know why it was at Overstock.com) has a slight imperfection; the drain hole is slightly out of round. The drain body won't quite fit.

Am I going to cause a problem if I take a rasp to the drain hole in the sink and remove the imperfection...open it in one place just a little more to allow the drain body to fit?? Is breaching the glazing there going to give me problems over the years with this thing? Could I seal that back over with epoxy to keep the water out of the porcelain? Do I need to keep the water out of the porcelain?

Alternatively, if I use the Hansgrohe drain, but attach it only to the vessel sink, what type of adhesive would I use to bond the vessel to the countertop? Silicone? Some other form of industrial-strength adhesive?

Thanks.

 

[hj]

You could use the drain locknut to secure the sink to the countertop, IF IT DID NOT HAVE AN OVERFLOW. With an overflow, you would have to seal th sink to the countertop first.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[NMPastor]

You could use the drain locknut to secure the sink to the countertop, IF IT DID NOT HAVE AN OVERFLOW. With an overflow, you would have to seal th sink to the countertop first.

Thanks. I'm sorry. I don't think I was clear.

That is actually what I want to be able to do. The Hansgrohe drain body isn't long enough to do that. If I have to use that, then the drain body will have to seal to the bottom of the vessel. Then I'll have to bond the sink to the countertop with some sort of adhesive. One of my questions was what type of adhesive is used for that.

What I want to do is use the Decolav drain, which is long enough to have the locknut secure the sink to the countertop. If I do that, I know that I have to seal the sink drain to the countertop. Would a ring of silicone be sufficient for that?

And, again, if I use a burr of some type to open up the sink drain hole enough to get the Decolav drain body through it, will I cause a problem because I have breached the glazing in that drain hole?

 

[CountryBumkin]

I doubt you can use a hand tool (rasp) to file away any of the porcelain. I think you will end up breaking/cracking the sink. A high speed dremel tool with a ceramic grinder wheel would probably be the way to go. Also, I don't think you need to worry about sealing or reglazing the bowl where you grind it. The rubber gasket the drain comes with would be enough.
A bead a silicone by itself is pretty strong, but the contact area between the bowl and sink is very small in a vessel sink. I would not want to rely on the silicone alone.

These are my opinions. I'm not a pro and I haven't done this job before (although I have installed the vessel sink bowls in my house and had the same issue requiring me to get a different drain).

 

[NMPastor]

I doubt you can use a hand tool (rasp) to file away any of the porcelain. I think you will end up breaking/cracking the sink. A high speed dremel tool with a ceramic grinder wheel would probably be the way to go. Also, I don't think you need to worry about sealing or reglazing the bowl where you grind it. The rubber gasket the drain comes with would be enough.
A bead a silicone by itself is pretty strong, but the contact area between the bowl and sink is very small in a vessel sink. I would not want to rely on the silicone alone.

These are my opinions. I'm not a pro and I haven't done this job before (although I have installed the vessel sink bowls in my house and had the same issue requiring me to get a different drain).

I purchased a diamond dremel bit for doing the job, which ought to handle easing the hole in the sink.

I have also purchased a 2 1/2" diamond hole saw, that will allow me to set the larger drain body and have it 'sink-only. If I can get another locknut, I will have enough threaded drain below the countertop to secure it with that.

This sink has about 28 square inches of contact area, so the silicone should do it, if that is necessary.