Last week my Mom asked me to install a new kitchen faucet for her. I picked up my tools and headed over there.
As I was cutting a copper pipe underneath the sink, the back of my hand brushed against the bottom of her stanless steel sink. This action opened several gashes in my knuckles. The bottom of the sink was evenly coated with a very hard, brittle, off-white type substance that was flaking off.
At first I thought this was just mineral desposits. But after close inspection I could see it was a very evenly applied (probably sprayed on) insulation of some sort which no doubt came with the sink.
What is this stuff? Later, I was worried that it might be something containing abestos -- and am now paranoid since my head was under that sink for a few hours while I replaced rusty bolts and soldered in new copper values and pipes. (Her house was built in the 1960s.) Is it typical for stainless steel sinks to have this type of coating underneath? If so, what is it? Forgive my ignorance if this is something commonly known.