Basins & Sinks

Yes, stone basins have served bathrooms for centuries, and the modern specification makes them straightforwardly practical. The interior is finished smooth and sealed, so water, soap and toothpaste sit on the surface rather than in it; cleaning is a rinse and a wipe with a pH-neutral cleaner, and the non-porous behaviour of a sealed, honed interior is comparable to ceramic in daily hygiene. The habits that matter are chemical, not microbial: acidic descalers and aggressive bathroom sprays etch calcium-based stone, so the neutral cleaner lives in that bathroom, and standing cosmetics get wiped rather than left. With the sealer maintained on its schedule, a stone basin is a wipe-clean object, the material asks for correct products, not extra effort.

Three architectures for three situations. A pedestal basin is a freestanding column with an integrated bowl, a complete sculptural object that needs floor space, floor-mounted or wall plumbing, and nothing else; it suits powder rooms and bathrooms where the basin is the event. A vessel basin is a bowl that sits on a counter you already have or are building, the flexible option, sized and drilled to your counter plan. A vanity top is the counter and basin cut as one piece of stone, the seamless option, made to your cabinet width with tap positions drilled to your fittings. All three come from the same stones and finishing; the choosing question is your bathroom’s architecture, and the drawing resolves the plumbing geometry for whichever you pick.

They are drilled to your specification before dispatch, this is the one part of a basin order where precision is not optional, so the process is explicit. Your production drawing shows the waste outlet position and diameter, tap hole positions and diameters (or “no tap holes” for wall-mounted mixers), and overflow provision where the design includes one. You confirm those against your actual fittings and plumbing layout, your plumber’s input at drawing stage is warmly encouraged, and the basin arrives ready for connection. Standard waste sizes are used unless you state otherwise; unusual fittings just need their spec sheet sent with the enquiry. What we deliberately avoid is guessing: no holes are drilled that the approved drawing does not show.

Water itself, no, sealed and finished stone handles constant water contact; that is what a basin is for. What ages a basin prematurely is what water carries and what cleans it: hard-water minerals dry into a dull film if the basin never gets wiped, coloured cosmetics and dyes can mark an unsealed surface, and acidic cleaners etch the finish in one enthusiastic session. The counter-regime is small: a wipe-down after use in hard-water areas, the pH-neutral cleaner as the only cleaner, and resealing on the schedule in your care notes, more frequent than furniture because exposure is daily. A basin kept this way patinas gently; and because it is solid stone, even a neglected one can be re-honed and resealed to fresh.

Weights vary enormously with the architecture, so your quotation states the real figure: a vessel bowl is a comfortable two-hand object in the low tens of kilograms; a monolithic pedestal column or a full vanity top is a two-person piece that can reach toward or past a hundred. Support follows the type. Vessels sit on the counter, which needs to be rated for the stated weight, standard stone or timber counters are. Vanity tops load the cabinet beneath; we confirm the cabinet construction can carry the top at enquiry. Pedestals stand on the floor and need it level. Wall-hung installations are specified case by case with fixing details on the drawing. None of this is exotic, it just needs the number, which the quotation gives you.

Yes, fitting your dimensions is the normal order, not the custom exception. For vanity tops: send the cabinet width and depth, the wall conditions (upstands, splashbacks), and your tap and waste intentions, and the top is drawn to those numbers with the bowl positioned where you want it, centred, offset for counter space, or doubled for two users. For vessels: the bowl diameter and height are chosen against your counter depth and comfortable rim height (commonly bringing the rim to around 850–900 mm from the floor, but your ergonomics rule). Undermount configurations are drawn with the counter cut-out template supplied. The drawing you approve carries every one of these dimensions, so the piece meets the room, not vice versa.

Most of the collection’s stones make excellent basins, because suitability is engineered in finishing more than inherited from the stone: dense marbles (Carrara, Nero Marquina, the green stones) and filled travertine all serve daily water contact well once the interior is finished and sealed. Two honest cautions: unfilled travertine is not used for bowl interiors, open pores and daily water disagree, so travertine basins are specified filled; and translucent onyx, being softer, is reserved for lower-use settings such as powder rooms, stated plainly at quotation rather than discovered in service. Dark polished interiors show hard-water film sooner than honed or lighter stones, which is a wiping-habit question rather than a defect. Name your bathroom’s reality and we will steer the stone accordingly.

Where the design accommodates one and your regulations or habits call for it, yes, overflow provision is a drawing decision made explicitly. Many sculptural stone basins, particularly vessel bowls, are traditionally made without overflows; that is normal and code-acceptable in many markets, and it pairs with an unslotted waste. Where you want one, family bathrooms, rental properties, or markets whose plumbing conventions expect it, pedestal and vanity designs can incorporate a concealed overflow, and the waste specification changes to slotted accordingly. What matters is coherence: overflow, waste type and your plumber’s fittings must agree, which is exactly what the drawing stage confirms. State your preference (or your local requirement) at enquiry and the specification follows it.

Your plumber connects it; we make that connection boring, in the good sense. The basin arrives drilled to the approved drawing, with the drawing itself packed as the installer’s reference, waste position and size, tap holes, fixing points for wall-hung or pedestal-secured pieces, and the counter cut-out template where undermounting. Positioning heavy pieces can be included with placement-level delivery where available for your destination; the plumbed connection itself is always the local professional’s scope, both practically and for compliance. Two coordination tips that save call-backs: give your plumber the drawing before installation day, and have fittings on site when the basin arrives so any discrepancy is caught with everything in one room.