Average labor only cost for kitchen sink install

[Richard Murdock]

What is the average labor only cost to Install and remove kitchen sink? I’m purchasing all materials.

Hawthorne, CA

[Jim K.]

Originally posted by @Richard Murdock:

Well guess what, $300 to install my new sink. Not bad considering he originally wanted 5.  

Plumber starts job and finds out previous contractors glued the sink to the granite. Easy right just get a puddy knife under the sink and try and scrap the glue, Right!! This guy decides to bang the sink loose and crack my granite in multiple places. What a numb nut!! 

 Hey Richard,

There are three kinds of sink mounts: top mount/drop in (the usual for stainless steel sinks on laminate countertops), undermount (more usual as a luxury installation for natural and manufactured stone), and flush mount (least common, used for some luxury installations with extra-large apron sinks).

Clearly, this is an undermount installation on granite. 

What's supposed to happen is that the sink is held in place by little clips on the underside of the countertop and sealed to the granite with silicone caulk. To remove the sink, you remove the clips and cut through the silicone. That's the industry-standard way of doing this.

Instead, I suspect that what's happened to you is something that happens quite a bit. Originally, the guy who put in the sink epoxied the sink to the underside of the counter and skimped on the clamps. This was done to save money.

Your plumber had no way of knowing that the original sink installation was rigged with epoxy. The guy you originally paid to put in the counter and the original sink is probably who you should be blaming.