Brick & Stone Barbecues

Constructing a traditional brick or stone barbecue complete with chimney, doors, mortar and the whole shebang is a daunting task. If you have not built anything from brick or stone using mortar, levels, string, etc., you will be in for a surprise. Now I'm not saying that you can't do it - I'm just trying to get you prepared for some severe hand/eye co-ordination competition!

Elements of a Great Design

Traditional backyard barbecues that function well have several things in common. The cooking surface should end up very near the same height of your bathroom sink. For many people this is between 28 and 30 inches. If you are a tall person, you may want the surface at 34 inches or so.

These barbecues also mimic your kitchen cooking area. There should be a flat surface at least 16 inches wide on one or both sides of the cooking area. This surface permits you to set down your cooking utensils, plates, spices, etc. If you can spare the extra room, it would be ideal if the area on either side of the cooking surface was 24 to 30 inches wide.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in barbecues is controlling the fire heat. You want to make sure the fire does not burn the food or yourself while you are standing in front of the barbecue. The fire control aspect of the barbecue is accomplished by installing doors. These are similar to the swinging doors you see on old fashioned steam locomotives. The two doors are stacked upon one another. The seam between the two doors is at or near the location of the grate that holds the charcoal. The bottom door controls the amount of air that feeds the fire, When the door is open, air can flow up and through the glowing charcoal. The more air you supply, the hotter the fire will burn. The second set of doors is directly in front of the fire. These doors act as a shield so that the direct heat from the fire will be blocked from hitting you. The metal doors also reflect the heat back into the fire and eventually to the food you are cooking.

Finding these specialty doors will be no easy chore. You can sometimes obtain cast iron doors that we builders use in fireplace cleanouts. They are available in different sizes. The smallest door is 8 x 8 inches. I would recommend that you try to find a door that is a minimum of 12 inches by 12 inches.

The Quick and Easy Barbecue

A simple, efficient and sleek brick barbecue can be constructed within two days. It will serve well for many years and requires not one trowel of mortar! You stack it together like toy blocks. All you need are two grates - one for the charcoal and one for the food. These are available at any retailer that sells kitchen appliances, utensils and cooking supplies. If you can afford it, try to get stainless steel grates. Keep reading to see how to build this simple and functional barbecue. If you have to put together a little grill in a matter of minutes, I have a solution for that as well. Check out my simple hibachi setup!

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Brick & Stone Barbecues

Constructing a traditional brick or stone barbecue complete with chimney, doors, mortar and the whole shebang is a daunting task. If you have not built anything from brick or stone using mortar, levels, string, etc., you will be in for a surprise. Now I'm not saying that you can't do it - I'm just trying to get you prepared for some severe hand/eye co-ordination competition!

Elements of a Great Design

Traditional backyard barbecues that function well have several things in common. The cooking surface should end up very near the same height of your bathroom sink. For many people this is between 28 and 30 inches. If you are a tall person, you may want the surface at 34 inches or so.

These barbecues also mimic your kitchen cooking area. There should be a flat surface at least 16 inches wide on one or both sides of the cooking area. This surface permits you to set down your cooking utensils, plates, spices, etc. If you can spare the extra room, it would be ideal if the area on either side of the cooking surface was 24 to 30 inches wide.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in barbecues is controlling the fire heat. You want to make sure the fire does not burn the food or yourself while you are standing in front of the barbecue. The fire control aspect of the barbecue is accomplished by installing doors. These are similar to the swinging doors you see on old fashioned steam locomotives. The two doors are stacked upon one another. The seam between the two doors is at or near the location of the grate that holds the charcoal.

The bottom door controls the amount of air that feeds the fire, When the door is open, air can flow up and through the glowing charcoal. The more air you supply, the hotter the fire will burn.

The second set of doors is directly in front of the fire. These doors act as a shield so that the direct heat from the fire will be blocked from hitting you.  The metal doors also reflect the heat back into the fire and eventually to the food you are cooking.

Finding these specialty doors will be no easy chore. You can sometimes obtain cast iron doors that we builders use in fireplace cleanouts. They are available in different sizes. The smallest door is 8 x 8 inches.  I would recommend that you try to find a door that is a minimum of 12 inches by 12 inches.

The Quick and Easy Barbecue

A simple, efficient and sleek brick barbecue can be constructed within two days. It will serve well for many years and requires not one trowel of mortar! You stack it together like toy blocks. All you need are two grates - one for the charcoal and one for the food. These are available at any retailer that sells kitchen appliances, utensils and cooking supplies. If you can afford it, try to get stainless steel grates.

Keep reading to see how to build this simple and functional barbecue. If you have to put together a little grill in a matter of minutes, I have a solution for that as well. Check out my simple hibachi setup!

Maintaining Portable Grills

Do you currently own a propane gas grill that you leave outside? Most of these contain painted or chrome plated steel parts. They are very susceptible to rusting. The heat from the fire can open up the paint film and allow water to contact the steel. The chrome plating can be thin.

It is virtually impossible to stop all of the rusting. The vinyl barbecue covers go a very long way to stop rainwater from getting your grill wet. But, they can trap moisture like a hot air balloon if left on during hot, humid weather. Moisture that seeps from the soil can float up under the vinyl covers. The sun makes the vinyl tent a steam bath.  I recommend that you remove the cover during sunny days and recover the grill at night. You want to protect the grill from the morning dew.

If you do not use your grill during the winter months, try to bring it into your garage out of the weather. Even still, it can rust in the garage. The grill will get very cold. If you get a quick warm-up, the water will actually condense like a fog on the cool metal. It happens to my shovels every winter!

NEVER take the propane canister inside your house over the winter months. If a leak develops for any reason, your house may explode. If you want to put your grill in your warm basement, that is fine. Leave the propane outside.

Natural Gas

If your house has natural gas, make every attempt to run it to your brick grill or portable grill. Existing grills that burn propane can be retrofitted to burn natural gas. It may cost several hundred dollars, but will pay off over time.

A Quick Hibachi 

I knew I had to make a quick, small grill. Don't ask me why..... Anyway I had 12 firebrick handy, some chicken wire and a small grate that my wife uses to cool fresh cake rounds. These grates are readily available and measure about one foot square. The fire bricks are 4.5 inches wide by 9 inches long.

If you stack four of them side by side you get a rectangle nine inches deep by 18 inches wide. You then stack two more on top of each end brick and cut a piece of chicken wire to lay over the top of these two mini-towers. Stack two more bricks on top of each tower. Now place the grate on top of the brick towers.

You can do this in about five minutes. The cooking surface will allow you to grill five hamburgers or two steaks or 10 hot dogs easily. It is very simple to build. Once the bricks have cooled you can take it apart and save the pieces for the next grill out!

A Dry Stack Barbeque Plan

The plan below is a very simplistic barbeque that you can build in two days. The hardest part of the job is pouring a simple concrete pad that will support your barbeque. The pad MUST be square and level. This is not that hard to do. The pad should be 48 inches wide by 39 inches deep. Make it five inches thick. I want you to install 1/2 inch reinforcing rods as well. Put three in each direction about one foot apart from one another. Pour half the concrete and then place the rods in the wet concrete. Then pour the remaining concrete. It does not have to have a nice finish on top as you will only be able to see an inch and one-half at each edge when you are done.

The key is to make sure the darn thing is level in both directions. When you pour the concrete you strike it off so that there are no humps or depressions. If you goof this up, the brick will not stack properly! Use a standard carpenter's framing square to get your concrete form square.

Top View

Top View Notes

The top cooking grate is clearly shown. The bottom grate is directly below separated by about 10 inches or so.

You can slide the grate back so it touches the back wall. This will keep stray "dogs" and brats from rolling into the fire.

The cooking surface is actually about two inches below the actual top of the barbecue. This works out well as you don't have to worry about things rolling side to side.

The pattern of the first/bottom course is a simple continuation of the alternating pairs of brick. Just put them in and they will work out.

Simple Bridge Tips

The bridge in this photograph - depending upon its length - can be built by one person in less than 20 hours. It will take at least 4 days to complete the job. The work will happen on the first and fourth days with the other two days spent at the pool or golf course. Here is why:

The first day will be spent digging the trench and pier holes, setting the forms and pouring the concrete. It is not as hard as it sounds. The key thing is to dig enough dirt out of the way so you can easily set the forms for the grade beam. If you give yourself 6 inches of clearance around the grade beam you will be fine.

Use a round point shovel for your initial digging work. Switch over to a flat spade to trim up the sides and bottom of the trench. Do not over-dig. If you go to deep, don't add fill dirt. You simply will have to mix more concrete.

Grade Beam Alignment

The top of the grade beams needs to be level from side to side. The two beams don't have to necessarily be at the same height. In other words, if your bridge will be sloped, they will not be at the same elevation above sea level. However, if you don't get the beams level from side to side, the bridge surface will be a helix and all twisted. It will really look strange! Before you drive the final stakes that will secure the forms before the concrete is poured, check them for level and string a line from form to form to make sure the top of the two forms are in the same plane. If the tops of the forms are not in the same plane, you will have some problems with the sill plate and the bridge joists. The joists will not sit flush on top of the sill plates if the tops of the grade beams are not in the same plane.

The Piers and Steel

Before the forms are set you need to use a post hole digger to create a pier at each end of the grade beam. A 6 inch diameter hole is fine. Dig until you hit the frost level in your area. Try to widen the last foot of the hole if at all possible. This helps prevent frost heaving of the piers. Be sure to include two pieces of 1/2 inch reinforcing steel in each of the grade beams. Look at the plan for the black dots!

The sill plate will be attached to the grade beam with 1/2 inch anchor bolts. Make sure the threaded part of the bolt sticks up 2 inches above the top of the grade beam. Place the bolts at 32 inches on center and start the first bolt at 8 inches from one end of the grade beam. By installing the bolts in this manner you will avoid problems when setting your floor joists. The bolts will fall directly in the center of the joists if you begin your joist layout from the same side of the grade beams as you did for the anchor bolt placement! Don't get confused when you do each grade beam!

Bridge Joist Sizing

Have you ever walked across the floor of a new home and bounced up and down? The reason this happens is that the floor joists are flexing. It is natural for them to do this and is even permitted by the building codes. Just because the floor joists bounce doesn't mean they are going to crack and collapse.

If you want a stiff floor, you need to make sure the floor joists are sized correctly. Engineers have developed tables that tell you what types of wood floor joists are the strongest and produce the least amount of flex or bounce. You can get these span tables from any high quality lumber yard. They are not easy to understand so make sure you have someone show you how to use them.

Bigger is Better

Wood joists are simply beams. If you want a beam to have minimal deflection over a given span, then simply increase the height of the beam. For example, if you install upright a ten foot long 2 x 6 over two sawhorses that are about 9 feet six inches apart and then suspend 2 sacks of concrete from the middle of this beam, it will surely deflect or sag and might even crack. Substitute a ten foot long 2x12 and perform the same test and the joist's deflection may not be visible to the naked eye. Long bridge spans simply need large joists.

Suggested Spans

If you are going to build a small bridge that spans perhaps 8 feet or less, I would use 2x8's that are placed 16 inches on center. A span of 12 feet would require 2x10's and spans between 14 and 18 feet would require 2x12's. Anything over 18 feet would require 4x4 or 6x6 posts mid span to cut the actual span in half.

If you are thinking of building any bridge with a span greater than 20 feet, you better get a structural engineer involved, plain and simple.

Steel is a Great Substitute

A good friend of mine owns a Christmas tree farm. A creek runs through the property. He wanted to build a pedestrian bridge that would also support a small tractor. The span between the support piers on either side of the creek was about 24 feet. I suggested that we build it using two steel I-beams that were 14 inches high and weighed about 12 pounds per foot. An engineer specified the beams and the completed bridge is quite handsome. We had holes punched in the top flanges that allowed us to bolt treated 2x6 plates. We simply nailed treated 2x6's to these plates to make the bridge deck. The entire bridge took a little over a day to build. Keep steel in mind for your long bridge!

Companion Articles:  Bridges in Your Backyard, Bridge Building Tips, Bridge Planning