Exterior cabinet ideas

O wise boating Comrades
I have a sink/ cabinet outside under the Sundeck hard top I want to remodel. I am aware that the teak needs to be refinished and have been waiting to get to this project to address that as well. As you can see, the unused wine cooler is a poor fit. The original ice maker died a couple of years ago and this seemed to fit the hole and just never worked as we thought. I considered a "built in" Raritan SS but just really don't need it. We buy block ice and and also make it in the fridge as well. Obviously I need access to the bottom of the sink. I plan to purchase some teak locally and have a face frame, etc. milled by a local cabinet shop we service. The problem to be is that the frame size is so awkward. A second similar door wouldn't work. Two doors bigger might be OK? Possibly a pull out trash can mounted to an appropriate door? A raised panel door would not match the boat so I need other ideas. I also am interested in adding a thin granite top beneath the sink. How thin can I go?? Can I cut/ fit this myself? Or are special skills and tooling needed? Thanks all in advance. I yield the floor.....

Recently upgraded counter tops to granite at my moms house. 1/2" was the thickness of the 12" X 12" tiles with extremely slim(less than 3/16") grout lines. Starting with a substrate that does not move is the secret to going thin on granite.

Standard tile wet saw worked well along with a 4" diamond blade in a grinder for small fine tuning. To make faucet holes use a carbide hole saw 1 1/4" diameter and take your time. Pilot bit for the hole saw was diamond I believe. Blade, hole saw, and pilot bit was less than $60 if I recall correctly. I already had the holder for the hole saw.

If you desire a solid top look at the plumbing wholesale houses and box stores for granite stock tops with sink hole pre-cut. Take your tape measure and buy the right one and you can cut it to the exact size you need with the sink hole where you want it. Most of the stock sizes have the sink centered. Buy a larger top than you need and cut off the side you don't want. Most of them are $100 or less, about 1" thick but no grout to mess with.

What do you want to store in there? I think you need to do two doors that are matching widths. Are the sides of the cabinet in good shape? Can you put slats in for a shelf or two? Maybe even a removable shelf to allow flexibility and access to the sink? Whats it look like inside now? How is the sink plumbing laid out?

Forklift,

CP has given some good advice. I would recommend 1/16" grout lines. Use a non sanded grout, 3/4 plywood would make a good base. If you go with the pre cut top you can easily cut it to the size you need with an inexpensive hand held (like a 4" skill saw) wet saw from Harbor Freight. Home Depot and Lowes both sell a number of granite tops, some with sinks at very good prices. If you do not replace the cooler this might be the most cost effective way to get seamless granite. Then the double doors would look good.

If you want to get fancy. Specialty Diamond and Toolocity sell inexpensive forming and polishing kits. Cutting and polishing granite is not hard but it does take time and patience. When I finish I will post photos of the granite counter top with undermount sink I am doing for our 37' sedan.

Shoot me an email, datenight@aol.com if you wish.

Good luck,

Rob

Tops, Solid surface will not crack and you can have a soild one piece sink moulded into the top. loads of colors ! the doors on my dads boat we bought off white corian to match the gelcoat and face framed and built the doors with the same stuff, Starboard will do it also, It cuts like wood will route and drill also holds a screw if predrilled. I hate Tile on a boat did it once with 3/4 plywood base,1/2 inch backer board and wall mastic to help hold, it was popping the grout in 6 months.

I tried tile on my galley counter. within a month the first Mate was whining about the grout lines. Within 2 yrs I was replacing with granite. A local granite store custom cut the granite for me. cutting was something like 45 an inch, polishing another $5 per in. It adds up, but is predictable. I re-used the original sinks, but undermounted them Look great. no more whining!
I cracked corian in a moterhome installation, but it does glue back together with crazy glue.

$5/in for cutting, $5/in for polishing, and the size you need can be found as a scrap for cheap.

Thanks for the great responses. Does anyone know of a source for the teak louvered doors they can reccomend?

I have replaced, and am in the process of replacing the rest of, several locker doors using Densetec Marine Board by Polymer Ind. 1/2" thick in grey, a similar product to Starboard . I repaired [total rebuild] the teak frames and tossed the old doors as they were falling apart.

The new grey doors look good and will not need to be varnished, painted or anything else. Can be cut with table saw, Skil saw, routed,drilled, etc and will hold a screw.

They offer other colours such as white white, off white and so on.

The only disadvantage was that in my case I had to purchase the entire sheet of material needing only 1/2 of the sheet for all my doors.

You might consider the stuff for the doors.

sailmagazine.com/sail-buyers-guide/h_l_marine_woodwork/

H&L can be found at most discounters like Defender Marine.

Thanks