Pat, out of curiosity, why would you pour concrete on top of the pavers? Heat?
Last weekend turned out to be a bit more productive that I expected.
I got the siding on the front done, except for the tiny strip that runs just below the door frame. Here it is just about 5 minutes before the clouds opened up on me:
I also picked up 20' of 1"x1"x1/8" steel angle and a 4'x8' sheet of expanded steel for shelving. The angle is mounted in the cabinet, and the metal will just rest on it so you can use only what is needed. Anyway, my dad helped get the angle cut, drilled, and screwed into place. Unfortunately, 20' was not nearly enough, so I'll need about 10' more to finish the side/rear supports for the 4th & 5th shelf. Oh, and I painted the vents black before screwing them into place:
I'm also going to need to support the front edge of the shelves, otherwise it will definitely flex more than I would like when loaded with meat. Probably get more angle and weld it to the expanded metal -- will also create a handle of sorts when moving shelves.
Yesterday I finally got off my a** and put the aluminum on the back of the cabinet door to cover the framing & insulation, then I carried it out and set it in place. It looks great, but I unfortunately discovered that it is too tight. I've got a couple things in mind that will hopefully resolve that without too much disassembly, and I won't put the hinges on until that has been taken care of, but since it fit nice and snug, I just left it there. I'm really liking how things are looking now:
And, since I'm super impatient now, and like I said, the door was super snug, today I broke down and lit some charcoal. I put 15 briquettes in a chimney and got that going. Once it was about halfway ashed over, I dumped them into the firebox and tossed in a bunch of the scraps of cedar siding for smoke. I snaked a temperature probe through a vent, and saw ~10 degrees of rise. Not great, but it was a very small fire, so I didn't expect anything major.
One issue I noticed was the amount of smoke I saw coming out from the firebox door. I'm not sure if the breeze was sucking it out through the vent, or from around the door or what. That will require more investigation, but I'm not overly worried about it.
Additionally, I noticed two things about my concrete pavers on the top of the firebox - first being they were quite warm considering this was a pretty small fire. I expected them to be warm, but I was a bit surprised. I've got 4 firebricks left and am giving some thought to sticking them to the pavers (inside the firebox of course). The other thing I noticed was nothing huge, just that either the burning newspaper I used to light the
charcoal chimney, or the heat from the coals getting started left a bit of a stain on the paver. Not a huge problem, just something I'll want to remember for next time.
Anyway, there are still plenty of things to finish, most importaintly the door, but I'm pretty damn happy with how things are going. Although I would be a lot happier if it was done...