Brick BBQ in NC

My friend Tony C. lives in North Carolina where BBQ season is all year round.  Well, for die-hards it is here too but you have to be careful of ice, snow and freezing cold, frost-bite prone grilling.

Tony recently had a home built and has been adding the finishing touches to the exterior including patios and a Brick BBQ.  Here is an article he offered for the rest of us DIYers... Thanks Tony!

My wife and I found ourselves in an interesting (if unheard of) situation in the middle of 2009. The economic situation of the past 3 years had worn down the housing construction market to the point where we were able to take our 10-year plan to build our dream retirement home, and get it done within 8 years. 

 

Long story short, we found a builder that would come in at our price, with high-quality, and we moved into that home in May of 2010. 

 

But that was just the beginning of the story as far as work went. We had decided to do all our own landscaping and in addition to that I had put 2 large decks and a brick barbecue on the original plan for approval. With the approval only valid for 12 months, I set about building the decks – one I completed during the weekend of Mother’s Day 2010, and the other (in 95 degree weather) during July 4th weekend, 2010. 

 

With that done I had just a little time left on the plan approval to build my brick barbecue. I first designed a non-traditional (as in not square) shape because I wanted to break up all the right angles of the house and decks a bit. The design I put together in an XL file (yes, I know, there are better tools for that) and I ordered a Napoleon grill insert from CSGrills.com and double steel doors from eBay. The brick was left over from the house construction (almost 4 pallets!). 

 

As you can see from the photos, I first set bricks out in the general shape I had settled on. Once I (well, mostly my wife) was satisfied with the shape and position I then dug around the bricks, creating a 9-inch deep natural form in the soil. I then built forms from 1 x 6 inch pine and framed out the area for concrete. 

  

 

Then (and I can’t emphasize this enough) with my wife’s help, I mixed and poured 40 – 40lbs bags of Quickrete, setting rebar after about 3 inches had been poured. We kept it watered, pulled the forms and let it set for a couple of weeks.

 

Since I subscribe to the Clint Eastwood philosophy of DIYing (“A man’s got to know his limitations”), I called in a crew of bricklayers to do all the real work. They were a little concerned when they saw the base and listened to my eloquent engineering description of what I wanted built on top of it. Finally I brought them into my home office, pulled up the xls sheet and showed them the picture. They all smiled and said “This ain’t no big deal, son.” and happily retired to the back yard once again, this time with a printout of the plan.

 

Three days later construction on my brick barbecue was complete, and I went about finishing the job with pavers and plants. So, on to the next project! 

 

 

Like Dean Martin always said, “With a good plan, the right tools, and a liberal amount of Canadian whiskey you can accomplish almost anything.”

 

I think it was Dean Martin, anyway…