In my case, my fabricator told me my contractor was responsible. My contractor, of course, didn't understand why my fabricator didn't do them! ;)

Actually it's not the fabricator's responsibility, but it's so easy to drill them, takes only couple minutes, I do it if customer wants me to do it.

My stone fabricator cut the sink hole, but when it came time to drill the faucet holes, he only cut the stone, not the wood, saying that the wood would be "the plumbers job" and that he did not have a hole saw for wood! I did not think much of that other than "well, silly not to carry a DRILL and HOLE BITS in your truck", but I did not mention this to my plumber......and he did not have a hole saw with him either..... :)

These sorts of things seem a bit more likely when you are your own GC, but my plumber was VERY nice about it, and came back the next day.

WE are our own GC, and so DH did it. Granite guy expected it to be done. But to be fair, he came and spent hours measuring and he marked on the cabinet where it had to be cut away to make sink fit. Now, that I think about it, maybe that's what DH did was the cut away- maybe granite guy did do the faucet hole... ummm. Guess DH wouldn't appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night to be asked...

But this was just cutting out the sink base. Our plywood was glued to the granite- now I'm remembering... so granite guy had to 'cut' the plywood at the shop I guess.

Thanks for your responses. It seems a bit more than just cut a sink hole since ours will be an undermount and the granite fab place says the plywood has to be routed around the sink edge so that the sink sits flush with the plywood and has 1/4" of wiggle room.

I've asked my cabinet maker to do this since (1) he should have the wood cutting tools and (2) he has the wood cutting SKILLS to do this properly. He wasn't entirely enthused when I mentioned it, but I hope he'll come around when I explain it this way.

I'd be cautious about the sink hole being cut by someone other than the granite person, only because *someone* has to be responsible for making sure everything fits! My granite guy came and templated, measured for the sink, and took the sink with him back to the shop. When they brought the fabricated countertops out they put it in place, drew on the plywood where the sink cut out was, then removed the slab, and cut the hole. Your cabinet guy may be the more skilled with wood, but if the plywood hole and the granite hole are not perfectly lined up, who is to blame?

Oh boy..I'm in the situation as remodel1958. The fabricator contract says they want the sub top in and the undermount sink in before they come out. The cab people say they don't do that unless they're hired to do the granite(which they're not). Cab people didn't want the responsibilty...what to do? I can't see the plumber cutting the sub top. Doesn't make sense..

So even more specifically, the fabricator says the hole in the plywood for the sink (undermount installation) must have a routed edge so that the sink sits on top of the routed edge and flush with the top of the plywood. AND it must have a 1/4" wiggle room.

muscat - if the fabricator comes out to template after the plywood is on top and the sink is cut out and sitting in the hole I should think they are to blame if it's not perfectly lined up!

Is ANYTHING simple???

I have 3cm granite, and so no separate plywood. But the top of my sink base was solid plywood, so it had to be cut out. My contractor (and cabinet installer) did the cutout. I can't remember if it was during templating or when they came to install the granite - I think the latter.

There was no overlapping of the sink flange on the wood top. The cutout is big enough to clear the entire sink and the clips that hold it to the granite. Pretty much like what Kevin shows.

I wish you did business in the SF Bay area, Kevin!
I think my cabinet maker is going to balk at having to do this foe me.
One question - I notice that the sink in your finished photo is an undermount and you did not have to route out an edge in the plywood. My fabricator insists this be done. Sounds complicated...

I wish you did business in the SF Bay area, Kevin!
I think my cabinet maker is going to balk at having to do this foe me.
One question - I notice that the sink in your finished photo is an undermount and you did not have to route out an edge in the plywood. My fabricator insists this be done. Sounds complicated...

Usually when we are installing granite, GC there already has the hole cut most of the times. Sometimes we do it for them, but the responsibility is still the one who's laying in the plywood.

Someone from our GC cut the plywood. We had a separate contract with the granite fabricator but there was a line item in our contract with the GC for support of the granite installation. That meant that he had our project manager and a plumber there for both the templating (so everyone could agree on sink placement or any other issues) and installation.

They did something similar to what Kevin showed by cutting away an area of plywood where sink accessories go through the counter rather than drilling a hole:

I think that is a better way to do it. The threaded shafts on faucets, hot water dispensers, etc often aren't long enough to go through more than 1.5 inches of counter (2 cm granite plus 3/4" plywood) before the nuts are put on. By cutting away an area instead of making a hole the same size as the granite hole, they only have to go through 2 cm of granite and one doesn't have to fuss with extenders.

Our fabricator did all the holes when then cut them into the granite onsite for the faucet, air gap, and soap dispensers. They also cut the plywood hole for the sink, even though the cut the sink hole in the granite at their shop. Ask these questions of your fabricator when they come to template. Good Luck!

okay - tomorrow is TD (Template Day) deep breath!

I had the cabinet maker ask the fabricator over to his shop for a consult. And it was finally agreed that the cabinet guy will cut the hole for the sink and area for the fixtures.

Thank you all for your words of wisdom - they really helped me speak on the topic with some intelligence.

It's common for each tradesperson to have things "they don't do". So every little detail can't be taken for granted. In my case, the fabbie was responsible for the plywood and cutting any holes and mounting the sink.