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Three Deck Design Ideas For The Avid Barbequer

16 November 2016

Timmothy Mitchelle

Spring time has struck in Australia, and soon it will be time to fire up the barbeque to start entertaining your friends and family. As someone who needs a new deck before the outdoor entertaining can kick off, now is the perfect opportunity to incorporate your love for barbequing into your new deck design. These three design tips will give you options to discuss with your deck builder before the build gets underway.

1. Safety First

While it is desirable to have a covered deck to keep you dry during summer storms, it is important you know what the barbeque manufacturer has to say about clearance heights for ceilings over your cooking unit.

When cooking fat hits the open heat of a barbeque, a large flame can flare up. The last thing you want to do is burn down your new deck area because a large fire hit the roof. If you do not still have your barbeque instruction manual, you can find this information online, or you can give the manufacturer a call.

One way to avoid this issue completely is to leave the area above the barbeque uncovered. Alternatively, consider awnings that can be retracted back from the cooking area once you fire up the grill. Also, a steel roof is a safe option since it is not highly flammable like a wood one.

2. Food Preparation Area

When you head outside to cook on the barbeque, it is great to have plenty of area on each side where you can prepare the food for cooking. After all, who wants to be stuck in the kitchen doing the prep work when the rest of your guests are outside having fun?

When it comes to food preparation areas on each side of the barbeque, consider what products will stand up best to being outdoors. Wood, for example, is not the greatest material for a food preparation area. Not only does it splinter after being exposed to the weather for some time, but wood can soak up grease from food which makes it unsanitary to use.

A stone or granite countertop, however, gives you a hygienic and strong area where food can be set down and prepared. Additionally, these products add a new dimension to the look of your deck, so it is not just a wood filled area.

3. Storage

Since you want to spend a lot of time out on your deck using the barbeque, it makes sense to keep all your cooking tools out there too. Discuss with your deck builder ways that you can incorporate storage into the deck design.

For example, if you want to include bench seating around the outside of the deck, discuss hinging the seat portion of the bench. The underneath of the bench serves as a storage box for your cooking gear, and the lidded seat protects it from the weather.

Hooks attached to support posts near the barbeque make an ideal spot for hanging tools and aprons. When discussing storage ideas, however, ensure that the storage place for spare propane tanks is nowhere near your barbeque. While it is tempting to keep it close by in case you need to change the tank mid cook, it is a safety risk to have it stored near your hot barbeque.

Home design websites are a great source of ideas when you want to turn your new deck into a supreme barbeque area. Once you have a list of desired wants together, pass them onto your deck builder and let them incorporate these into a new entertainment area you will thoroughly enjoy spending time in this summer.

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