Hi everyone, I'm a new member; I found the forum as I was researching online.
I'm about to build a new brick smoker and grill in my London garden, having been thinking about it for several years. I was all ready to get going and then realised there are a few critical bits I didn't have answers to, and the more I've been going down the rabbit hole the more I feel like I could do with some advice from someone more experienced!
Space is limited and I have a specific concrete area that's earmarked for this - it's not huge but it's in the right place and we've structured the garden build around it (the two blue-outlined areas).
The grill is important for parties and I want it to be big enough to cater for a whole lot of people. We used to have a cheapo one that was about 1m x 50cm and it was fantastic, but it gave up the ghost a couple of years ago.
The smoker is the bit I'm really interested in. I have an old ProQ that all the fittings are falling off; it's also super leaky and basically showing its age. It's probably big enough for my needs I'd say, in terms of internal cooking space. I like to hot smoke but also want to cold smoke in winter months.
Here is the old kit when it was in its prime
My other half is also interested in a pizza oven, but at this point I don't think it's feasible to build in (we are considering a portable now).
I've had this great book for years and have based my design off one of their classics
Side note - initially I was going to go with an offset design with the grill and firebox on the lower level and the smoke box and a small pizza oven on the top level, but I didn't like the compromises to each of the components. I am now thinking the bottom is a huge grill, and the top is a bigger masonry smoker - fewer compromises; each piece is also simpler and there's less to go wrong. We may try to cook pizzas in the smoker as well!
So I have a couple of questions I would love input on; and of course if anyone has more general comments please send them my way!
Doors - I'm unlikely to find the pieces I need off the shelf I think; should I just bite the bullet and get them fabricated? Any tips or watchouts? Anyone know anyone local to London UK? :)
Fire bricks - That design above has them connecting straight into the masonry, but I've struggled with my designs to work out how to do that since they're subtly different sizes (to take account of the thinner mortar joints, but still doesn't quite work). Then from on here it seems I want a bit of a gap between the fire bricks and the standard ones to account for expansion. Is this the common practice? Any tips for how to accommodate that into the design above? Also, and most crucially, if the fire bricks are a standalone separate container, how on earth does the doorway work?
Thanks for reading!
I'm about to build a new brick smoker and grill in my London garden, having been thinking about it for several years. I was all ready to get going and then realised there are a few critical bits I didn't have answers to, and the more I've been going down the rabbit hole the more I feel like I could do with some advice from someone more experienced!
Space is limited and I have a specific concrete area that's earmarked for this - it's not huge but it's in the right place and we've structured the garden build around it (the two blue-outlined areas).
The grill is important for parties and I want it to be big enough to cater for a whole lot of people. We used to have a cheapo one that was about 1m x 50cm and it was fantastic, but it gave up the ghost a couple of years ago.
The smoker is the bit I'm really interested in. I have an old ProQ that all the fittings are falling off; it's also super leaky and basically showing its age. It's probably big enough for my needs I'd say, in terms of internal cooking space. I like to hot smoke but also want to cold smoke in winter months.
Here is the old kit when it was in its prime
My other half is also interested in a pizza oven, but at this point I don't think it's feasible to build in (we are considering a portable now).
I've had this great book for years and have based my design off one of their classics
Side note - initially I was going to go with an offset design with the grill and firebox on the lower level and the smoke box and a small pizza oven on the top level, but I didn't like the compromises to each of the components. I am now thinking the bottom is a huge grill, and the top is a bigger masonry smoker - fewer compromises; each piece is also simpler and there's less to go wrong. We may try to cook pizzas in the smoker as well!
So I have a couple of questions I would love input on; and of course if anyone has more general comments please send them my way!
Doors - I'm unlikely to find the pieces I need off the shelf I think; should I just bite the bullet and get them fabricated? Any tips or watchouts? Anyone know anyone local to London UK? :)
Fire bricks - That design above has them connecting straight into the masonry, but I've struggled with my designs to work out how to do that since they're subtly different sizes (to take account of the thinner mortar joints, but still doesn't quite work). Then from on here it seems I want a bit of a gap between the fire bricks and the standard ones to account for expansion. Is this the common practice? Any tips for how to accommodate that into the design above? Also, and most crucially, if the fire bricks are a standalone separate container, how on earth does the doorway work?
Thanks for reading!
