Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - Blade to cut sink out of cultured marble top

The vanity top I have is in very good shape, except for the sink around the drain which is badly discolored and cracked. I would like to cut out the sink and drop in a new sink. What sort of blade can I use to cut out the template successfully, and what hazards will I encounter please? I have seen postings recommending carbide blades and saying absolutely not to use a carbide blade. I have ssen a hacksaw recommended, but what sort of blade? How tough is this to cut by hand? Tougher than sawing solid wood shelving? Thanks for any help.

The first thing to do is to make sure the drop-in bowl you are planning to use is the right size and shape to completely cover the cutout you plan to make, and that it will fit your counter from front to back while leaving room for the faucet set. This is where this type of surgery usually goes wrong in my experience.

Cultured marble is a very dense material whose main ingredient is crushed limestone. (Some companies even use sand or gravel as a cheap inner filler, but most don't)

It would be a good idea to get a copy of the bowl template and cut the hole BEFORE you actually BUY the bowl - just in case something goes wrong when you are cutting and the deck gets ruined or you find out it has gravel inside and you can't cut it after all. This will give you more options if you have to change your plans.

First drill a pilot hole inside the cutting perimeter with a metal drilling bit that is big enough to fit the width of the jigsaw blade. Keep the drill bit oiled with cutting oil or WD-40 so it won't overheat and go dull.

Note: WD-40 is a lousy lubricant, but it makes a great cutting oil.

At this point you will find out if there is any hidden filler material (like gravel) inside your cultured marble that will make cutting it impossible.

Once you find a bowl that works and get the pilot hole drilled, the cutting will not normally be so bad. The main thing is that you will want to use a good quality variable speed jigsaw with ORBITAL action. Set the orbital action all the way up to the most aggressive setting. Use a course-tooth metal cutting blade - the coursest (fewest/biggest teeth) blade you can find.

Use masking tape on the deck around the outside of the cut line to protect the deck from tool scratches.

Support the bowl from underneath while you are cutting because at the end of the cut, if the bowl is not supported, its weight could make it break off and take an extra chunk out of the deck - spoiling all your hard work.

When cutting, you will want to keep the speed of the saw as low as you need to, to keep from overheating the blade which will soften the blade metal and cause it to get dull more quickly.

If your cultured marble is particularly dense and you are having trouble making progress at slow blade speeds, you could have an assistant keep the blade oiled and use a higher speed.

A final thought before you start -

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Good luck with your project !

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Thanks for your in depth advice. I have had the drop in sink for four years, ever since my friend who was going to do this for me told me which one to buy. Clearly he is not showing up. The vanity top is 90 inches and if I replace it I would put in two sinks, and therefore need to change the plumbing and the vanity . . . Maybe I should just do that. Do people do this? I would not think there would be gravel inside as this place was pretty upscale when it was built, but it's good to know that that is a possibility. Anyhow, thanks again for the advice.

Hi again, hoyland54.

That is a pretty long top you have there - stuff that big tends to be expensive.

If you are replacing the cabinet anyway, you might consider getting two standard 36" cabinets and an 18" to go between them. Get the 18" one a few inches lower than the others. You can use two 37" standard lavatories and an 18" slab on top of the lowered portion.

My company makes them like this all the time - it looks really fancy and expensive, but actually saves lots of money over building one long piece as a custom job, and having a custom cabinet made.

Good luck !