when the disposal fails, what will you replace it with, if the current model is larger?

@John Liu point well taken.

I guess we would go to this page and hope they have something that works for us: https://www.insinkerator.com/en-gb/food-waste-disposers/food-waste-disposer-replacement-guide

I will say that the old new stock model that they will be installing tomorrow has a longer warranty (8 years) than the newer model, so parts should be available a bit longer than the replacement styles.

Any thoughts?

As a practical matter, disposals are replaced, not repaired. Even under warranty. And they won’t keep inventory of the old model around, they’ll offer a current model.

I wouldn’t pack things so tightly that replacing the disposal, a leaking valve, or other under-sink work becomes a problem.

Drawers, even U shaped, under the sink are so much better than a jumble of stuff behind doors. You can see and organize things, and therefore don’t need as much space - you can spare an inch or two for the plumbing!

I built the U shaped drawers under my sinks, and my only complaint is that particularly large or tall jugs - Costco sized stuff - wants to be decanted into smaller containers.

@John Liu Do you happen to have a post on the Houzz Discussion Boards you could link here to show how you fit the plumbing items in and still had a reasonable amount of storage space for your U-shaped drawers? If not, could you take a quick cell phone shot or three and attach here as a guide?

My plumbers are coming in 10 hours and I don’t want them spreading out the plumbing so much that I end up with U-shaped drawers too skimpy to provide functionality. I need to store kitchen cleaning products in them.

I don’t mind decanting. All my laundry products are decanted and it’s such a nice relaxing look. Thank you for your posts!

I like your suggestion to place plumbing along the back wall in the center space to allow the U-shaped drawers to fit around them. I’m unclear how I can have a U-shaped drawer area on the right side though since the drain is there. Must the disposal be directly under the drain to operate properly or could it be shifted a bit more toward the rear center wall using some curved pipes to allow it to be more toward the center to open space on the right side for the U-shaped drawer bases?

Good luck on that mini-split install. We are now officially in hurricane season here in South Florida. Stay safe and cool. 😎

My sink is weirdly shaped (only 20” wide) so my photos won’t help much. But you can see that the bottom drawer isn’t not a U shape, and the top drawer would hold more if the sink were a normal width.

I assume the drain is in the center of your sink? The disposal will be wherever the drain is. The water filter assembly will be mounted to the wall, probably on one side of the disposal where you can reach it to change the filter(s). I guess I’d ask them to have all the lines run fairly close to the wall, not unnecessarily taking up room in the sink cabinet. That should leave as much room as possible for your U drawers. Then have the U sized to allow the larger disposal in future, and the drawer depth so that it doesn’t hit the filters and lines along the wall.

Sorry for the embarassing mess, my kitchen is still in progress, and I HAVE to get my minisplits installed before it gets hot, so finishing the kitchen is on the back burner now.

By the way, the reason my sink cabinet has big cutouts on the sides is because it is only 20” wide, so I knew getting in there to replace or fix anything will be horrible - I’d need child labor. But I can roll away the adjoining cabinet or dishwasher - everything is freestanding on casters, this is a weirdo unfitted kitchen - and then have easy access to the undersink from the sides. And if necessary I can unbolt the sink from the base and lift it off, the wall-mount faucet is mounted to the sink so everything comes off. The metal on the bottom of the sink cabinet is a drip tray, and one of these days I’ll install a drain fitting and hose leading to the basement laundry sink, so that no matter how big a leak, nothing ever gets flooded.

Very clever, @John Liu!

My workstation sink is 35 3/4”W x 9 1/2”D x 19 1/2” front to back with the drain offset in the back right corner 6” from the rear wall and 6 1/2” from the right wall.

It is a custom sink by Dino Rachiele, who holds numerous patents on the features of his various innovative sink components.

It has a flat surgical stainless steel apron front that is only 3/4” across the top of the apron and it is a drop-in with 3/4” flanges on the back and sides.

Handcrafted, heirloom quality, it was an investment for my health as my spine is fragile and damaged from having sustained two hard hits in my cars, a few years apart, both time by trucks.

On the island elevation view, you can see the exterior of the 2-drawer bank below the apron front. Since the drain is offset, the disposal likely will not be centered. The EWS filter cartridge is compact and will be attached to hang on the back wall of the base cabinet.

Looking at the drain position, I’m not sure how there will be U-shape drawers, but that is what the plans specify. My desire is to have adequate space in those drawers for storing cleaning products used in my kitchen.

The Extended Reach Waterstone 9350 faucet swivels 360 degrees and will be centered on the width of the sink. The elevation plan shows a shorter faucet in line with the drain, but that is not accurate; that piece is actually an air switch for the garbage disposal. No separate faucet dispenser is needed as the EWS hooks up to the Waterstone 9350 faucet’s cold line so all cold water dispensed from the faucet is already filtered.

@John Liu, is your disposal in the back center of the photo showing the bottom drawer open, perhaps located further back where I cannot quite see it (to the left of the empty EcoLab bottle and the green brush along the right side of your open base drawer?)

Your setup reminds me of a commercial kitchen where I spent countless hours :)

Yes, last photo shows the disposal. It is centered side-to-side in the sink.

Commercial kitchen was exactly the inspiration. It is not a large kitchen and I wanted maximum counterspace and multiple prep stations. The sinks (there are two) were custom made to this weird dimension to minimize how much counter width they take up. They are not pretty (they look like a mop sink, if I’m honest) but 14 ga stainless steel so they’ll last forever.

I was wrong about the drain placement in your sink. Since you said U shaped drawers, I thought center drain. The notch in the drawer to clear the disposal will have to be at the right rear corner. Hopefully there won’t have to be a second notch in the rear center to clear the faucet.

Your waterfall counter is beautifully done!

I’m sorry about your back - that sounds hard. Ergonomics are especially important for you!

Back health considerations are why my counters are high (tall), very so. I haven’t built the island yet, but it will use the frame and mechanism from a standing desk, so the island countertop height can adjust from low to high. Low for short people and dough kneading, high for our household‘s general use.

You are going to have to play favorites. That will not all physically fit where you want it. You can do the disposal, and that's it. All the rest need to be towards the back of the sink, so they connect to where the faucet is. Say goodbye to your top drawer as a fake front. Only the bottom drawer can hold anything. You should have done the math eons ago, and seen this, and not even ordered a U shaped drawer cabinet for that. There simply is not enough room for what you want to happen.

You didnt draw all of this out to scale, prior to ordering it all? Good luck with 25 lbs in a 8” sack. Because it cannot all fit.

The math doesn't math.

How did a custom sink, and custom cabinets, get designed around a wish and a prayer that the cabinet could hold all that junk? You are lucky there is a room for a disposal. Even the ”compact” models are 9x12. You aren’t fitting anything else into that ”notch”. That’s 23” high by the time you fasten it to the sink. The bottom drawer will interfere with that. Much less the top drawer. And if the drain is in the corner, the disposal may not fit against the side wall of the cabinet. There certainly won’t be a way to attach a drawer glide to the cabinet side there.

This is why you hire a kitchen designer on the front end. Someone has to do the math and understand cabinet construction.

@Minardi No worries. No one has ordered any u-shaped drawers. The cabinetry is custom and the kitchen design firm has a carpenter who will custom build the 2 U-shaped drawers (or maybe another alphabet letter!) on-site once the plumbing items are placed. They say they do this often because they never know exactly where the available space will be until install day. They’ve been doing this for 2 generations so I trust them. the water lines are centered along the back wall and cut a bit short.

That said, they did not provide a drawing for the interior of the sink base cabinets so it will happen on the fly, the best they can get it. I was hoping to do some brainstorming here on the forum before they begin to be able to contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way.

@Delta Systems thanks for the chuckle! I hope I’m still in a good place at the end of the day!

Keep in mind there are 2 36”W drawers under the apron front level as seen on the island elevation drawing, so while it may not be elegant on the inside, the 8 “drawers” plus sink apron front on the island elevation should look evenly aligned as 9 horizonal compartments from the elevation with the appearance of strongly connected horizontal lines that all lines up straight across

To the right is the DW with a scored panel cabinetey front (will have to be redone to align with bottom edge of sink apron). To the left is a 2-high drawer head, also scored with a double-height pull-out for trash/recycling bins. Those 2 pieces may need to be redone also to align correctly.

@Green Designs, we did hire a kitchen designer on the front end (during the pandemic) plus an architect and a GC and plans are permitted and stamped by the city. It will need to be creatively thought out for sure, but I have faith in them. The counters are 36” from the floor.

Faith doesn’t rank higher than front end math and planning. You can give up on anything having a top drawer there. The bottom drawer can function as a shallow 6” roll out tray. And that is it.

Beautiful island and sink! I'm struggling to see how a bridge drawer would work for this configuration. Will you have room for bottom mounts? If so, could you do something like the example below instead of a bridge drawer? These pictures are from an old postthat I remembered because I liked the look and functionality.

@ Green Designs The disposal is 12.125”H x 8” x 8”

You might want to account for clearances and cabinet side wall thicknesses. The interior of a 36” wide cabinet is only 35”. Do the math.

@Green Designs, per drawing the drain center is 6" from the interior wall of the sink, thus over 6" from the interior cabinet side, so the disposal diameter/radius can be up to 11.0"/5.5".

The sink company knows how large disposals are.

@John Liu the EWS filter is changed annually. Already on my calendar.

Today, the plumbing task list in the OP was accomplished :)

My DH actually set out the newer InSinkerator Evolution 0.75 HP to install, unintentionally.

We had purchased one of each because the GC, plumber and sink designer all waxed eloquently about the advantage of the ”slightly smaller” discontinued version. All of them agreed they would do whatever possible to source “old new stock” as it would be to our advantage to have a slightly smaller unit to provide a smidge more carpentry options. We were told this newer model (part # 80021-ISE; released in Aug 2023) was a bit bigger than the original beloved Evolution Compact (part # 79329-ISE; discontinued Oct 2023).

Ironically, when I phoned and spoke with Insinkerator, the specs I was given stated the newer model is 12 1/4”H x 8 1/4“ x 8 1/4” InSinkerator stated the older model is the same height (12 1/4”) but slightly wider (8 3/4” x 8 3/4”).

That is opposite the info I was given by the GC, Plumber and Sink Maker. I will do more research. If we installed the wider one in error, I would be willing to pay to have them swapped out.

@chicagoans How kind of you to post those unique drawers. What a great example of what can happen when creativity meets ingenuity.

I think mine may end up as an L-shaped drawer inside. It’s important to me to maintain the strong horizontal lines shown on the elevation drawing of the island, The panel on the Miele DW on the right side is deeply scored to look like drawers as is the scored trash pullout on the left side. Those left and right drawer heads will be remade because they missed the horizontal match with the bottom edge of the sink apron. It will be interesting how the center storage interior configuration turns out.

Thank you to everyone who commented. Please feel free to share any other possibilities that come to mind.

Please post your progress pictures and especially your final solution! We all love seeing functional and beautiful solutions. :)

Regarding maintaining the horizontal lines of the drawers - I completely understand. In my coffee / water / wine bar I have one tall cabinet (to accommodate my stand mixer) where the door is made to look like the drawers on the other side. (The right side in the picture below is one shallow drawer with a tall cabinet below; the left side is 3 drawers.)

You could consider something similar with a pullout if an L shaped drawer doesn't pan out. If you don't want the vertical split (two pullouts would look like 4 drawers) you could consider one big pullout if that works. The example below is from Home Depot. The front could be made to look like drawers. In the example below the little holders don't look very handy; I'd skip the middle ones to access the lower more easily. But I'm sure your cabinet maker could come up with something good! Just thought I'd share another example.

Honestly, I wish I had gone through a similar planning process for my sink cabinet. I dislike digging for stuff in the black cavern under my sink and would prefer pullouts or bridge drawers.

@chicagoans I am reposting the elevation view of the working side of the island from further up the thread. The kitchen designer drew this plan to have strong horizontal lines, which I embraced despite the additional cost of all that customization.

It is somewhat like the lovely photo you posted of your piece, but as you said, I am not open to a ”vertical split”.

Ours reminds me of a spreadsheet with the sink apron heading up the ”center column.” That apron is a fixed element so all the horizontal lines must follow based upon that cell of the ”spreadsheet.” The drawer heads will be remade to correct any misalignments.

I certainly will post finished photos :)

The kitchen designer’s lead carpenter hasn’t yet been out since the plumber hooked everything up. I’m looking forward to hearing his proposal for my interior storage drawer configurations. The exterior elevation will still match up with the posted plan.

Thank you for your ideas! Keep them coming!

P.S. What is a bridge drawer?

"What is a bridge drawer?" Same thing as a U shaped drawer, unless my understanding is incorrect. In other words, same thing you're planning to use (like picture below.)

I like your cabinet plan!