Outdoor kitchens & fire.

Built in, not placed on

A built-in outdoor kitchen is a masonry structure that your appliances drop into, faced with the same material family as the patio it sits on, and capped with a surface you can put a tray down on. It doesn't get rolled into the garage in October and it doesn't rust out in three seasons.

The grill island at the top of this page is a straightforward example: a block structure faced in wall block, capped, with the openings cut for a built-in grill and a double access door. Everything is set into the mass rather than standing in front of it.

The appliances come first

This is the part people get backwards. The cut-out dimensions come from the specific appliance you're buying, not from a generic opening. A grill, a fridge, a side burner and an access door all have their own required cut-out width, depth and clearance, and they vary between manufacturers.

So the order is: pick the appliances, get the specs, then build the island around them. Building the island first and shopping afterwards is how you end up with a two-inch gap either side of the grill or a fridge that doesn't quite go in.

You buy the appliances so you own them, you get the warranties in your name, and you're not paying a contractor markup on a grill.

Ventilation and clearances

Built-in gas grills and refrigerators both need airflow, and gas appliances need specific clearances to combustible material and vents in the enclosure. This is a safety item, not a detail. If a fridge is sealed into a box with no ventilation it will run hot and fail; if a gas grill's enclosure isn't vented, gas can accumulate.

Run the utilities before the patio goes down

The most expensive mistake in outdoor kitchens is sequencing. Gas lines, electrical for the fridge and lighting, and any water all need to be run underneath before the finished surface is installed. Deciding you want a fridge after the patio is finished means cutting up your new patio.

Even if the kitchen is a later phase, it costs very little to run a sleeve while the ground is already open. We'll ask you about it at the estimate for exactly this reason. Gas and electrical connections themselves are made by the appropriate licensed trades — we build the structure and coordinate the sequence.

Fire features

Two directions, and they suit different people.

Gas fire pits

On, off, done. No wood to buy or store, no smoke chasing people around the patio, no waiting for it to burn down before you go inside. The patio on our work page has a square gas pit set into the middle of the space with a wide cap around it that doubles as a place to put a drink.

Wood-burning

Cheaper to build, and there's a reason people still want them — the sound and the smell. The trade-off is smoke, storage, and cleaning out ash.

Either way, siting matters more than the pit itself. Distance from the house and from anything overhanging, prevailing wind direction, and enough clear space around it for seating. A fire pit placed where the smoke blows straight onto the patio table is a fire pit nobody uses.

Seating walls make it a room

A kitchen and a fire pit dropped onto an open slab still feel like objects in a field. A seating wall around part of the perimeter is what turns it into an outdoor room — it defines the edge, gives permanent seating that doesn't blow over, and ties the kitchen island into the rest of the space visually.

Designing it around how you actually cook

Before the layout gets drawn, the useful questions are: how many people are you usually feeding, do you want the cook facing the guests or facing away, where does the food get put down between grill and table, and how far is it to the kitchen door. A run of counter on the correct side of the grill matters more day to day than an extra burner.

Bring us the space and we'll work through it with you. Free estimate — call or text (862) 371-9140.