The "pond" is all dry, Gary... [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
Lots of drain pipe and 52 tons of gravel later, and I have no more flooding problem in the front yard. I only have one angry duck living in the willow tree because I destroyed her habitat. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
Good thing your not in Florida, distroying wetlands will get you a trip to jail, and lots of fines...............
Have a great day, Les
NRA Life Member
WELL!! That didn't leave much to be said about brick BBQ for the back yard... Except maybe... I have seen a brick back yard BBQ that was essentially a storage unit. The overhang of the countertop helped weatherize the "cabinet" doors, protecting them from water running in at the top. The builder (DIY homeowner) was also concerned regarding the transient nature of BBQ designs, their longevity, and the like. He built in a large access pannel in the back side of the unit to allow removing and replacing the the "guts" which was a partially dissassembled rollaround gas BBQ. The opening in the counter was oversized and made to fit by using inserts to adapt thte current BBQ unit to the oversize fixed opening in the counter top.
Sounds messy but looked and worked real good. The adaptor/spacer thingy was reminiscent of those used in sewing machine cabinets. His were made of aluminum but they could have been some other material. He commented that he had originally intended to cover the aluminum with tile matching the counter top but just never got around to it and got used to the aluminum as is top. Looked fine to me.
The bottom like is that he wasn't rigidly locked in to specific dimensions and the BBQ unit could be changed out for a similar but not neccessarily the exact same size unit.
The brick was left over from his house. He didn't use any firebrick. I'm not sure what the armature was or if there was one but his idea could certainly be redone along the lines of the aluminum frame with fibercement covering as an armature.
I don't have enougn left over brick to even make a decent hibachi holder, they cut it that close. My wiffe muttered something about getting more brick and making a BBQ. Now I have some good info on that thanks to this thread.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Here's the brick pit I admire:
Wilbur D. Hog
Now that is a worth while project. I think I just may tackle that, down the road, as right now I'm getting ready to put down 1200 square feet of harwood, and 1700 square feet of tile, my back hurts just thinking about it.
Brick almost completed on the house.
I appreciate the URL, Les
NRA Life Member
Don,
I know that most of the portable Weber units would not be very adaptable to a built-in installation, but what about their fairly nice looking 'built-in' models?
Weber Gas Grill lineup
Weber Summit Silver 'A'
Weber Summit Silver 'D'
Weber Summit Gold 'D'
Not that I have any experience installing grills and have no idea how these Summit series grills stack up to the brands that you recommend, but it does show that what is available on the market is constantly changing. Weber does seem to be responsive to customer demand. So far, I have really enjoyed my Weber Platinum II series grill that I bought about 5 years ago.
Essentially, what Weber does is take their conventional, cart-mounted Summit grills, and make a slide-in enclosure for them. The grill is mounted in the enclosure instead of on a cart. This not quite as clean and smooth as a grill designed from the git-go to be a built-in, but it is moderately successful. It looks like they have redesigned the cabinets (and possibly the grills) since I closed my store, so they may work a little better, now. Also, I haven't kept up with prices -- at one time, the Weber Summit with the slide-in enclosure was over $2K, which put it in a price point where the competition had better built-in grills for the same or less money. Remember as I say this, that I love Weber grills.
Look for DCS, Lynx, FireMagic, ProFire, Napoleon, Dynasty, and several others.
...Don
Okay, folks - I'm hopin' someone here can help me......
I'm currently trying to lay out a fairly large BBQ pit/smoker capable of cookin' for groups of 100-150 folks <we have this li'l BBQ every May.......(G)>. Typical load is 5 briskets, 30 lbs of chicken, 35 lbs of sausage, 45 lbs of ribs an' a gross of corn on the cob.
The last masonary pit I built was about 20 years ago - and nowhere near the size of what I'm contemplating currently. What I want is a raised-hearth grill large enough to cook the chicken over the fire, and a smoker large enough to hold the rest of the meat. I'm thinkin' a 3' x 4' grill area, an' a smoker with 4-5 slide-out racks for the rest. The smoker would use the grill fire as the heat/smoke source.
My challenge is that while I'm confident I can figure this out, I'd rather not sit back later and think "Wow - wish I'd have put THIS feature in!"(G) i.e. - I'm planning on running my electrical along the backside of the pit for lights that will allow me to see both the grill and smoker at night (I'm "old-school" - brisket ain't good unless it's smoked for at least 14 hours)<G>.
If anyone has plan sources and/or ideas, I'd welcome 'em - my plan is to get this underway in about a month or two. I'm not new to pits themselves - but the pits I've built in the past have been of steel (photo of my latest one attached). We finally found a place with a yard large enough to take something the size of what I want, and I want to finally build my "dream pit".
Thanks!
George
http://members.tripod.com/AlamoRun/
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