Patent ID: 8898827

Claim:
A sink-support insert for supporting a sink having a weight, the sink-support designed, configured, and sized to transfer the weight of the sink to a sheet substrate and to provide a waterproof mounting structure for the sink and a faucet in a finished sink installation, wherein the sheet substrate includes a planar upper surface and an insert opening having a peripheral supportive edge for vertically supporting the sink-support insert and the sink and the faucet attached thereto in the finished sink installation, the sink-support insert comprising: a plate made of a waterproof material, said plate: having a planar upper surface designed and configured for adhesively receiving countertop surfacing when the sink-support insert is in the finished sink installation; having a lower surface; having an outer periphery designed and configured: to conformally and supportingly engage the peripheral supportive edge of the insert opening in the finished sink installation so that the peripheral supportive edge vertically supports the sink-support insert and the sink and the faucet attached thereto in the finished sink installation; and so that, when said outer periphery of said plate is supportingly engaged with the peripheral supportive edge of the insert opening, said planar upper surface of said plate is flush with the planar upper surface of the sheet substrate; including a sink opening spaced from said outer periphery of said plate so as to define a sink mounting region and a spacing between said sink mounting region and said outer periphery of said plate that is: selected to provide a waterproof faucet mounting region designed and configured to receive a faucet aperture for receiving therethrough a portion of the faucet in the finished sink installation; and selected to decrease, in the finished sink installation, a likelihood of any water that infiltrates between the sink and said sink mounting region migrating to the sheet substrate along said lower surface of said plate.