How To Build A Barbecue - A Stove For Summer Cottages And Holidays

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

How to build a barbecue - a fashionable and prestigious stove for summer cottages and holidays

Recently, it has become very fashionable and prestigious to have a barbecue in your country house or plot - this is something like a Russian stove, where you can cook various meat and fish dishes on an open fire.

The word barbecue in French is the meat of a bull roasted over an open fire. For these purposes, there are many options for stoves, which in the West are called barbecue. I am engaged in construction from natural stone, so I would like to share my experience of building a barbecue from natural materials, and with little financial costs. Such a structure will decorate any part of your summer cottage or cottage. This barbecue is easy to make, so any owner can do it - it does not require any special skills; it is built of natural stone, in addition, it is multifunctional, that is, you can cook meat and fish dishes in it, fry, stew, dry and even smoke products.

When starting to build a barbecue, you should choose a convenient place, that is, you need a small area, about 2-3 m2, it should be in the center of the recreation area, preferably not far from the house, next to a pond or an alpine slide. The barbecue itself will eventually decorate your recreation area. And from experience I want to say that a barbecue should be under a canopy or have its own roof. I repeat that there are many options for building a barbecue, but I will offer you the most simple, multifunctional and practical option.

Construction should start from the foundation, it must correspond to the barbecue area. A trench about 30 cm deep is dug under it, which is filled with rubble or gravel, spilled thoroughly with water and compacted. This is the so-called pillow; on top of it, a metal mesh or several reinforcing rods should be laid, which are laid in the form of a lattice. After that, we construct a formwork about 10 cm high from the boards around the pillow and fill it with concrete. In a couple of days we will start building the barbecue itself.

During the construction process, you will need about 15 ordinary gas silicate blocks, about 150 pieces of oven bricks, 6-8 buckets of clay, one bag of cement and medium-grain sand well washed with water. From the tools you will need a mason's hammer, a trowel, an ordinary shovel, a couple of ten-liter buckets, two containers of 80-100 liters in the form of a barrel, in which you will have to prepare a clay mortar, and a box (bucket) for preparing a sand-cement mortar.

How to prepare clay mortar? To do this, take six buckets of red clay, grind it and place it in a barrel, filling it with water to the top. After 5-7 days, the clay is thoroughly mixed with water, until a homogeneous mass is formed, resembling jelly in consistency.

Then, taking 2-3 buckets of clay solution, pour it through a sieve into a box. We put 2-3 buckets of pre-sieved sand there, add about one liter of cement and mix thoroughly. The solution should be of medium consistency. How to determine that the clay solution is normal - that is, such a solution that does not crack when the stove is heated? There is a very simple way: scoop up a little mortar with the edge of the trowel and tilt it 45 degrees, if the solution slid off the trowel without leaving traces in the form of its residue, then such a solution is, as they say, normal.

In addition, you will need a sand-cement mortar. It is made from washed, or better river sand in proportion to cement 3: 1. For facing a barbecue, you will need about one ton of stones - an ordinary cobblestone the size of a soccer ball, preferably a red and burgundy color. A cobblestone should be selected, in which at least one of the sides was flat, it will be front when facing. If there are few such cobblestones, then they can be easily chopped with an ordinary sledgehammer. It is worth inflicting 2-3 blows with the edge of the sledgehammer, and the cobblestone is most often pricked into 2-3 pieces, while the split pieces will have, as a rule, a flat surface. Having made a pillow and preparing building materials, we proceed directly to the construction of a barbecue. I suggest you a barbecue with the following elements:

1. Furnace part.
2. Woodpile.
3. Two table tops.
4. Washbasin.
5. Roof.

Let's start like this: from the gas silicate blocks we lay out a barbecue pedestal with a woodpile, that is, a niche for firewood. The height of the pedestal is about 70 cm, the size of the woodpile is at your discretion, but count so that it will fit firewood for 2-3 fireboxes. The masonry is made on a cement-sand mortar. After that, start building the stove itself. To do this, you need about 150 pieces of stove bricks, since you will lay out the combustion part itself and the chimney from it, that is, the chimney.

As you can see from the diagram, we lay out the base in two rows of bricks, the laying is done on a previously prepared clay mortar. The brick is laid along the stove, while its edges should protrude forward by 1/3, since in the future the whole barbecue will be faced with natural stone. The oven itself can be made, like a woodpile, rectangular or in the form of an arch, in the latter case, you must make an arch from the boards. The size of the furnace part: it should be 5-7 bricks in width, and 3 bricks in depth. If you are making an arch-like ceiling, then the upper rows of bricks should be hung in the form of a wedge. For the strength of the overlap, reinforcement should be used.

The next stage is the construction of a pipe, that is, a chimney, also on clay mortar from oven bricks, the latter are laid flat on top of each other. Do not forget to insert a valve into the chimney, as well as bring a small bend, the so-called tooth, along the back wall, which will improve draft. Having made the stove and chimney from gas silicate blocks, create a half-sphere-shaped niche on the same level with the stove, in which you place the sink and turn on the tap for water. On the back surface of the barbecue, make small niches from the bottom and top for buckets of water, while it is desirable that they be closed by doors.

What do you need warm water for? You will be convinced of its need when you have to wash your hands repeatedly during cooking. Such a system is very practical, simple and, as you will see for yourself, necessary. For convenience, also on the sides of the barbecue, you should make the countertops on which you will place the dishes and food in the process of cooking. We make niches for buckets and a washbasin from gas silicate blocks on a cement-sand mortar. Countertops can be made of wood or cast from concrete by revealing their surface with ordinary wall tiles. Lay out all other voids from gas silicate blocks.

If you decide to make a roof over the barbecue, then in the corners from four sides when laying, lay vertical pipes on which the roof frame will hold (see diagram). I recommend covering your structure with cobblestones - it is very beautiful, comfortable and durable. The technique of cladding such structures is described by me in the article: "The basement of your house from natural stone", which will be published in the next issue of the magazine. Do not forget to install and install lighting and an electrical outlet under the roof of the barbecue.

For a multifunctional barbecue, make a coal box out of metal with a rack for skewers and plates for cooking roasts and fish. To make everything cook faster, do not forget to make a valve in the shape of the oven. It is advisable to build a barbecue under a large canopy, where you can make a table and seats out of stone in advance. To reduce prying eyes, pyramidal or columnar thuja or juniper can be planted around the barbecue in the form of a hedge.

I wish you success and bon appetit!