Underside of stainless steel sink STINKS HORRIBLY!

[Owl1]

Hello all -

I hope somebody can help! My wife and I have a Kindred stainless steel double sink. The underside sound-deadening coating stinks very badly.

We had the sink installed about 12 years ago. It was installed when we had granite counters put it -- so the sink is installed sandwiched between the plywood countertop and the granite countertop that sits on top of the sink's mounting edges or flanges.

The underside of the sink is coated with a thick layer of sound-deadening sprayed on material. That coating is white with a tough non-porous pebble-like rough surface.

The coating began to STINK horribly in the past year, for no reason other than age (nothing else has changed). And the stink IS coming from the sink's sound-deadening coating: If you put your nose against it, you think you'd pass out from the sweet, stale, chemical odor that gives us headaches.

We have to keep the cabinet doors below the sink closed, and have used Arm & Hammer's Moisture and Odor Eliminator, which doesn't help.

There's no mold, garbage, sink back-up, drain, sewer, or other problems. It's _definitely _the underside of the sink.

The coating that stinks is hard and can't be scraped off. And the sides and back of the underside of the sink can't be reached anyway since they are nearly in contact with the walls of the cabinet.

I've phoned Kindred (located in Canada, I live in the U.S.). They claim that since the sink is about 12 years old, no one is there now from that long ago who can tell me anything about the coating that they used at that time. They recommended trying to paint the underside with an odor-blocking paint. I asked them about Zinsser B.I.N. shellac-based stain and odor-blocking primer. They said that sounded like the best thing to try.

So I've now applied multiple coats of Zinsser B.I.N. (waiting for each coat to dry thoroughly for several days). I can only paint the bottoms of the double sink, and only a few small areas where there is space enough for a small roller or brush.

And the odor is still incredibly bad.

We can't remove and replace the sink because the granite countertop would have to be removed and probably have to be replaced in the process. The granite is custom-cut and custom-fitted to other sections of granite which are epoxied together.

We feel that the manufacturer needs to be responsible, but how to accomplish that when they are a Canadian company and we're in the U.S....

Any recommendations to solve the overpowering smell problem would be appreciated!!!

[Ed P]

Can you spray something in the areas you cannot reach?

I don't see any simple legal action. Are you going to take to sink to the courtroom? How else can you prove it is the sink and not something the installer used?

If nothing else, I'd try a bottle of Pooph, the odor eliminator that has been recently advertised.

[micky]

This sounds like a company where ambitious people can get ahead. If you get hired here, you can plan on being promoted quickly, since everyone else is leaving.

That said, I won't make fun of your problem anymore.

12 years is not much. Maybe plumbers or kitchen remodelers in your area have experience with this, even if not the ones you had hired 12 years ago. Maybe some had even handled complaints about smell, or how to remove coating. It wouldn't take that long to call 20 or 30 of them until you find one. A v. good time to call is an hour before closing. Often their work is done for the day by then amd they have plenty of time to talk.

A good idea. First I thought you meant paint, and I thought it was a good idea. But on top of the paint, what about the aerosol insulation meant to fill the space inside walls. I have two different cans, maybe from yard sales, but I've never used them and don't know how hard it would be to spray upwards or sideways and not have it fall off before it dried. I'm thinking a layer an inch thick or more over the whole thing. Maybe a cardboard mold to hold it in place. Maybe take things oout and a series of boxes on top of each other until you get 1" from below t he bottom of the sink, and then a sheet of cardboard. I can imagine this working OR making a big mess.

What people do is hire an expert to come to their house, look at it, and testify about it in court. You're right, not simple, not cheap, and approaching what it would cost to rip out the whole granite counter and the sink and start over.

Yes, sometimes advertising is actually for something good. As an exmple, my friend bought a house that had a patio that was sinking. He had seen ads for expanding liquid styrofoam, and for $1800, the patio was lifted back up. The choice was to start all over.

[Owl1]

Micky - Thanks for the ideas. I've thought about using spray foam, but all the kinds I've used don't spray up vertically. Also the spray foam I've used seems pretty porous, so I don't know if it would contain this strong chemical odor.

[Owl1]

EdP - The space between the sides and back of the sink and the wood cabinet walls is only about 1/2 inch, so the space is too narrow to be able to get spray up inside (the sides and back of the sink are deep, about 12 inches).

From what I've read about it Pooph works for pet odors, but I'll research this more. But again there's no way to get the spay all the way up inside between the sink and the cabinet walls.

[Ed P]

Flat stick, like a paint stirrer. Staple on some cloth, saturate the cloth, wipe. Wont be perfect but can help.

[Dean Hoffman]

Would thin paint brushes work? I'm thinking of those used to paint model trains, cars, etc.

[Ken]

I don't have a solution to your problem, but I do have a question: I had a Silestone counter and stainless sink installed in my kitchen several years ago. The old plywood covering the cabinets was removed before putting down the Quartz. Is the way they installed your counter top common?? Had it been done like mine, the sink could have been removed from the underside. I wonder if you are not dealing with water trapped between the granite and wood producing mold?

[micky]

If foam wont' stick, odor blocking paint seems like the best idea.

I don't know if zinzer is best or not.

can spray it on, find a separate sprayer that sprays up, or at least

45^. I guess you have to thin most paints to use in a sprayer.

Maybe you can brush it on, thick, on many of the sides. If you mess up the cabinet, no one looks inside cabinets and it will be a memento to the bad but probably vanished smell.

FWIW, here's the first one they list.

[micky]

Sounds good.

[micky]

Good question. Don't want to go to all this trouble to cover the sink if the problem is elsewhere. But the OP said he could smell it on the covering layer.

Maybe send in some little kid who can fit more places and do more detailed smelling. I'm serious.

[micky]

Even if you dont' buy from Amazon, it might have more customer ratings than other sites do, and sometimes reviews can be sorted by key words, which are listed at the top of the list of reviews. Although I sort of doubt "odor" or a synonym will be common enough to get highlighted.

[Bob F]

Personally, I would probably try a paintable epoxy resin to try to encapsulate the offending material.

[invalid unparseable]

The coating has to be removed to get rid of the foul odour. You can try to use a hammer & chisel to dig into the coating. Once you have gained an opening in the hard coating, the rest could easily be pried off with the chisel without using the hammer. I think it is worth a try, because the sink has to be replaced to get rid of the odour anyway if you cannot chisel away the coating.

[Owl1]

Thanks for the idea, which I also had. I tried to do that by making a long thin flat foam-coveref swab glued to a looped wire, kind of like a fly swatter but smaller in surface area. I made the material out of a porous foam and sewed it to the wire loop. This held a small amount of the Zinsser sealer (the rest of course dripped down on my face abd chest). But there were lots of areas I couldn't get to even this way.

The discouraging part is that after multiple coats of the Zinsser primer, which is supposed to be one of the best odor blockers, the smell is just as bad.

[Owl1]

Yes, the installers of the granite countertop removed the old counter plywood and replaced it with new plywood. They then cut out the plywood to make a hole for the sink and set the new sink on top of the plywood fixing the sink in place, then lowered the granite slab on top of the sink flanges. So there's no way I can imagine getting the sink out from down below.

The seams of the granite are tight and very well done, so I don't think there's any leakage. There is no mold smell at all, just the very harsh sweet chemical order I tried to describe.

[Owl1]

This may be a usable idea. I don't own a sprayer but maybe a one of the newer airless sprayers might be able to shoot a stream of the Zinsser sealer up into the spaces that I can't reach. I'll keep this idea in mind and appreciate it!

[Owl1]

It's very clear that the odor is coming from the sink covering. All you have to do is put your nose up against it and then you'll pass out from the smell! Also you can place your palm against the underside of the sink, hold it there for a minute, and then take your hand out and smell your palm. It is then coated with the smell.

[Owl1]

I did this with Amazon sinks, but never found a relevant review. Thanks for the idea.

[Owl1]

Thanks, another idea I'll remember. The main problem again is that the sink is installed so close to the walls of the cabinet that I can't get paint in there to cover enough of the sides, and the front and back sides to make a difference. Even the little swab that I made and used to apply sealer left large areas unpainted because I couldn't reach them.