Build your own barbecue this summer

DIY Homefit – not just replacement kitchen doors!

As regular readers will know, at DIY Homefit we are very much into upcycling! As well as supplying wonderful ranges of replacement kitchen doors – as well as a wide variety of kitchen and bedroom furniture and storage solutions – we love to reuse household items as much as possible.

So for example if you do have a kitchen refurbishment, then have a good think about what you could do with your old kitchen cupboards and doors. Take a look at our recent article Upcycling for Summer to get your creative juices flowing!

If you have had any recent building work done on your home, perhaps have piles of bricks leftover, then why not put them to good use?  With the recent spell of warm sunny weather – and hopefully much more to come – let’s take a look at a barbecue that you can build yourself.

If you and/or someone you know are good with brickwork then a built-in barbecue is a brilliant barbecue solution. It goes back to the roots of American suburbia, and just feels so much more authentic than an off-the-shelf product. A homemade built-in barbecue works just as well as expensive shop-bought barbecues but adds a touch of quirkiness to the proceedings; and you also have the satisfaction of knowing that you have made it all yourself from natural products.

A built-in barbecue can provide a focal point to your garden or patio and be a great place to gather family and friends together. You can also choose what size to build, depending on the number of people that might be at a typical barbecue. Built-in barbecues are also durable and weather resistant, easy to maintain, and don’t need any extra storage space.

The basic design and materials you need for your built-in barbecue are as below.

The first thing you need to do is decide where to put your barbecue. Position it so that smoke will blow away from your cooking and eating area – but also will not be troublesome to your neighbours.

It is advisable to start with a concrete base for stability. Then the main raw material you need for most of the barbecue is bricks, but you may also want to build an inner “firebox” wall lined with firebrick – also called refractory brick – which will withstand high temperature and also provide low thermal conductivity for greater energy efficiency.

Look for a grill in rustproof cast iron or stainless steel, and attach angle irons or brick ledges to the firebox to support this. Then fix a solid metal sheet around 7-15 inches under the grill to hold fuel and make it easy to remove the ash (it is a good idea to do this after each use to avoid excess smoke and tainted flavours).

Hopefully you will be able to build your barbecue over the course of one weekend, leaving plenty of time to enjoy the fruits of your labours!

So if you do have bricks lying around, don’t plan to get rid of them but instead put them to good use and build a trend-setting built-in barbecue that will become the envy of all your family and friends this summer! And don’t forget to check back here soon for more upcycling help from DIY Homefit.