Calculators / Outdoor kitchen
Plan your outdoor kitchen island
Pick your built-in grill and how you'll build the island. You get its length, a plan to scale, the clearances to watch, and the blocks and mortar to buy.
Updated · How we check our numbers
Your island
78⅝ in long
Blaze Premium LTE 32 in needs a 30⅝ × 21¼ in cutout. With 24 in of counter on the left, 24 in on the right, the island is 6.6 ft long and 30 in deep. Walls: 51 blocks and 5 bags of mortar.
- Length
- 6.6 ft78⅝ in
- Grill cutout
- 30⅝ innon-combustible
- Counter height
- 36 in34½ in of wall + 1.5 in top
- Blocks
- 515 bags of mortar
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Estimate for planning only, not professional advice. Check the manufacturer’s instructions, your local code and a licensed professional before you buy, build or install. Use at your own risk. Terms.
Size the gas lineFrom the grill's Btu and the run
length = 24 + 30⅝ (grill) + 24 = 78⅝ in
courses = 34½ in ÷ 8 = 4; blocks a course = (2 × 78⅝ + 2 × 30 − 4 × 7⅝) ÷ 16, rounded up
mortar = 51 ÷ 12 = 5 bags
Grill cutout in the island.
What to buy
Block island- 51 concrete blocks8 × 8 × 16, 4 courses of 12, +5%Walls
- 5 bags of mortar80 lb Type S, 12 blocks a bag (Sakrete)Mortar
- 16.4 sq ft of countertop78⅝ × 30 inTop
4 courses make 32 in; the counter needs 34½ in of wall. Make up the 2½ in with a cap course, a thicker mortar bed or a deeper top.
Leave openings for access doors under the grill and any air gaps or vents the grill manual shows; those come out of the block count.
Plan the gas line before the walls go up. A licensed fitter and a permit are usually required.
How we work it out
length = counter left + grill cutout + counter right + other appliances
Cutouts and clearances are from each grill maker's install manual. In a wood or steel-stud island, which counts as combustible, nearly every maker requires its insulated jacket or liner, so we use the jacket's bigger cutout. Bull doesn't allow combustible enclosures at all.
Walls are standard 8 × 8 × 16 concrete block: County Materials' catalog draws it at 7⅝ × 7⅝ × 15⅝ in, so with a ⅜ in joint each block lays 8 by 16. Sakrete says an 80 lb bag of Type S mortar lays 12 standard 8 in blocks. The counter is 36 in high with a 1½ in top, the usual kitchen height (KraftMaid), and we add 5% for broken and cut blocks.
Where the numbers come from
Guides
Outdoor kitchen
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