How to Build a Brick BBQ Grill

Build your own brick barbeque for a new take on summer grilling.

Nothing says summer like a backyard barbeque. Of course, you could go the traditional route and cook on a gas grill or a classic Weber, but if you want to cook with a little more style, consider building a brick barbeque grill in your backyard. A brick grill is a permanent fixture and creates a focal point. You can use it all year (think s'mores in the fall or a wintertime weenie roast while you and your family look at the stars.)

Things You'll Need

• Metal grill rack and cooking tray
• Pencil
• Bricks
• Mason's chisel
• Sand and cement
• Yardstick
• Level
• Shovel
• Trowel

Instructions

1. Locate a level (or nearly level) place for your brick barbeque. It's ideal to build the barbeque on an existing concrete slab.

2. Lay the metal cooking tray on the ground where you want to build the grill. Use it as a guide for your first course of bricks. Surround it with bricks on three sides. Remember to leave about a half an inch between bricks to account for the space that the mortar will take up. Draw a pencil line around the bricks and then remove them.

3. Make your mortar by mixing five parts of sand to one part of cement. Add water slowly until the mortar is the consistency of mud--stiff, but easily spreadable.

4. Spread the mortar about a half-inch thick on the concrete slab inside the pencil lines. Check that that slab is level. You can compensate for any unevenness by adding more mortar to areas that are shallower.

5. Lay the first course of bricks in the mortar, making sure the lines are straight and the corners are square. Use the trowel to spread a layer of mortar on the side of each brick to connect it with the previous brick, wiping away excess mortar as you work.

6. Allow the mortar in the first layer to dry before building up the sides.

7. Begin laying bricks at the corners first, building a stair-step pattern for the first five layers with the corners making the tallest point. Be sure you stagger the corner joints to make the structure strong. Regularly check that your structure is staying level.

8. Fill in the five courses from the corners out with more bricks. You may need to use the mason's chisel to halve some bricks to keep your edges flush.

9. Lay several bricks perpendicular to the rest on each side of the barbeque when you reach the height where you want your first cooking tray and grill to be. The perpendicular bricks will create a ledge for the tray and grill to rest on. Add two or three more courses and repeat for a second grill ledge.

10. Continue adding brick courses until the barbeque is the height you desire. Allow the mortar to dry before using your grill to cook.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a shovel and wheelbarrow to mix your mortar. That way it's easy to move it around your project area.

• Check your mortar's consistency regularly and add more water if it becomes too rigid to work with.

References

• Gardeners' World: How to Make a Brick Barbeque
• HGTV: Build a Brick Barbeque