Should have a strap systeem like a HUSH, only place those clips belong is the trash. I would have him get someone then to caulk and do it correctly. No it cannot be don stricly from the bottom. And depending on what he used for caulk the whole thing may need to come apart so the caulk can be properly removed and the surfaces cleaned. Also it should be 100% silicone, no idea what he may have used.

HUSH = Hercules Universal Sink Harness? So you're saying it isn't even installed correctly? It should be strapped in with a harness AND caulked (better) with 100% silicone?

Agree...that's a TOP mount sink, not an undermount. You don't need a harness.

Don't beat your plumber up too bad over this If he's good at plumbing,

If the plumber used silicone, be aware that silicone will not stick to cured silicone. (Nothing else will stick to it, either) As already said, best to pull the sink and remove every last trace of the 'caulking' and reinstall it. Cut and scape away what you can. A single edge razor blade held at a low angle to avoid damaging the laminate counter top. Acetone to clean up the residual stuff.

Or use a razor blade and acetone and clean/ neaten up what you have & see if you can live with the results.

I hate working with silicone sealant. It's the devil; really hard to tool. Adhesive caulking (kitchen & bath caulk) is much easier to use.

I prefer to use Lexel instead of silicone if you insist on a silicone type product. It's a much better product, IMO. Lexel is difficult to work with, like silicone is, though.

Scrape the excess silicone off with a credit card or another plastic stiff enough to scrape, but not hard enough to scratch. Run a small bead to fill any gaps, mist the bead with Windex, spit on your finger, smooth the bead, and wipe up the Windex without touching the fresh caulk. It'll be fine.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Glad to know the harness isn't needed - makes sense. I honestly don't know if he used silicone or not - I guess I can ask just to know how to move forward. He just said he "had to caulk it because the clips didn't fit." I am not set on using silicone, I just want to use whatever is appropriate to use.

A couple follow-up questions:

1. Would removing the sink mean TOTALLY uninstalling everything? (faucet, disposal, etc.) - obviously I'm no plumber haha so forgive me if this is a dumb question

2. Will acetone damage the laminate tops if we got some on there?

3. What's the Windex for?

@Jake the Wonderdog - don't worry, I won't be beating him up over anything b/c as I said, he's done good work for us. I honestly hesitated to post anything here b/c too often people's responses on forums like this are "throw a fit and make them fix it" and that just isn't my style haha.

1. Almost everything. You would have to disconnect the drain/ disposal and the faucet hoses from the water lines. You could leave the faucet attached to the sink but would be easier (and less likely to damage the faucet) if you remove it, too. Most faucets are stupid easy to connect and disconnect anymore so no good reason to leave it attached to the sink. Because it is likely that the plumber ran a bead of caulk on the underside of the rim, you would need to invert the sink and clean the goop off of it. (Re-attach the faucet to sink before you drop the sink back into the hole to save yourself from awkward time on your back underneath the sink.)

2. Acetone is supposed to be safe to use on laminate. To be double sure, pick up a couple of laminate sample chips at a big box store and test the acetone on the chips.

3. The Windex is used to make for easier tooling (smoothing) on the wet silicone.

Thanks guys, my bad on the top mount sink. I will remember that going forward.

To get it done right, remove the sink, etc and set it aside. Clean the caulk from the sink, then clean the caulk from the counter. Once all is clean, take your caulking gun, and put a continuous bead of caulk all around the sink opening on the countertop . Put it close enough to the opening, so when sink is put down on it, the caulk doesnt squeeze out on top of your countertop. Then its up to you if you want to caulk the sink itself to the countertop. Some people do, and some dont.

^ is a lot of extra work and risk.

" Put it close enough to the opening, so when sink is put down on it, the caulk doesn't squeeze out on top of your countertop."

You want squeeze-out, because if you have squeeze-out you have continuous coverage and all small gaps will be filled with silicone instead of eventual contamination. Mist the squeeze-out with Windex, spit on your finger, and wipe it off.

Mist the squeeze-out with Windex, spit on your finger, and wipe it off.

If you’re misting the caulk with Windex, why spit on your finger?

^I think because spit acts as a lubricant - it helps you finger slide over the silicone and shape it rather than get 'caught' on the silicone and drag/smear it.

Windex your finger then. Geesh.