Outdoor Grill/Fireplace

[UpstateBill]

Hi all,

We are thinking about having a mason build a stone charcoal grill on our patio like the ones you used to see in state parks years ago. Has anyone here built something like this at their home? We have about a half ton of field stone left over from our new fireplace build this past fall. I am thinking that we would need to line the inside of the stone with firebrick and maybe have limestone on each side to put food, cooking utensils, beer, etc. We are looking for ideas, though, as we are not sure whether it is possible to construct something that could be used as both a charcoal grill and as a small fire pit/fireplace. The picture below is sort of what we have in mind. Thanks!

 

[pma1123]

Hi Bill,
I have a brick BBQ grill at home, and due to the proximity of the grill to my house, I don't do anything besides charcoal in it.
I make no claims for the design or construction, it was there when I bought the house. It does get a lot of attention from visitors though...
There is a cleanout door on the bottom, which I open when burning, and it has a passage that leads up to the chimney, behind the firebox. (draft? air feed?)
The 'firebox' is 1/4" plate steel, with the side plates welded on, total about 8" high. The grate is a stainless steel commercial dishwashing rack that rests inside the box, but unlike the park grills, this has no adjustment for height of the grate above the coals.
It will take an entire 18lb bag of charcoal no problem if you're planning to do lots of grilling, and the bricks warm up nicely.

As you can see, I got sick of bailing out rainwater/scooping out snow, so I had a cover made for the top and chimney.
Here is a picture I had handy...

 

[UpstateBill]

Wow, pma1123, that is similar to what we had in mind! Your grill is very, very nice. I bet you do get a lot of compliments on it. I am hoping that we will get similar compliments once we have one built on our property. That is interesting about the dishwasher rack as I was wondering what to do about a grate. I was thinking that maybe we could use an oven grate or something, and then have the mason make it so that a couple of the firebricks stick out a bit on each side to hold the grate in place at different levels. Having an ash pit with a clean-out door would definitely be a nice feature to have.

 

[pma1123]

Excellent; very glad this was helpful/inspiring.

I should mention, people have been so intrigued by it, that they've brought over burgers, brats, buns, steaks, beer, etc. just to see this monster in action. Trust me, its a good problem to have.

I'll work on some additional pictures to give a better feel for how the steel box, grate, and the air passage all work.

I had no clue that brick BBQ's were even a 'thing', but thought it was a pretty awesome 'extra' when I looked at the house. My dad tells me these were all the rage in the 1950's; a status symbol of sorts. After buying the house, I started looking this stuff up, and realized there is a huge cult following of DIY'ers building these, as well as seeing some 'kits' at Menards that included the bricks and a basic design.

I honestly don't have a good reason why you couldn't do a moderately-sized wood fire in the setup I have; if it were further away from the house.
With the 1/4" steel box and maybe some sand in the bottom to sheild the coals from the steel box, I bet this design would make a great little firepit to gather around.