Outdoor Fireplaces With Grills
Explore your options for outdoor fireplaces with grills, and prepare to install a warm and welcoming gathering and cooking space in your external living area.
Think Stock, Photographer : Eldad Carin
Outdoor fireplaces are an increasingly common sight in external living spaces like backyards, patios and decks, and for good reasons—they offer a natural gathering, entertaining and cooking space, and can even improve a home's resale value. Cooking features are an especially popular addition to outdoor fireplaces, and one of the top choices to add is an outdoor fireplace with a grill. If you number among the many homeowners who view outdoor cooking and barbecuing as a seasonal tradition, you may want to peruse the many options available for an outdoor fireplace with a grill.
The first choice you'll be faced with when planning to add an outdoor fireplace with a grill is location. Safety should guide your decision making here, with particular caution exercised to avoid any areas with low-hanging branches, bushes or shrubbery, or to clear them of these potentially flammable elements if necessary. If you plan to locate your outdoor fireplace with a grill on a deck or patio, a fire-retardant mat should be placed under it. Additionally, you'll want to consider if your outdoor fireplace with a grill will be adjacent to a dining area, or if you'll do the cooking at the grill and then move the feast to another dining area; these factors may have an impact on the layout and design of your fireplace area.
When it comes to design, you'll have plenty of options for your outdoor fireplace with a grill, from traditional brick, stone and stucco styles to more modern granite and even metal models. If your plan is to hire a stone mason to build a custom-designed outdoor fireplace, you'll have total control over the look and feel, size and materials used to build the fireplace. You'll pay for all that flexibility, however—custom builds are almost always significantly more expensive than prefabricated, modular or portable units. If you choose a prefabricated or modular unit, you can still potentially customize the facade with a thin layer of stone, stucco, brick or granite, emulating the appearance of a custom build for a small fraction of the cost.
When it comes to your budget, a custom build for your outdoor fireplace with a grill will be dependent on the size, scope and materials you'd like to feature in the construction—generally, though, hiring a stone mason will automatically place you in $3,000-plus range for an outdoor fireplace with a grill—with more intricate or larger scale designs featuring expensive materials potentially costing as much as ten times that figure. For prefabricated, modular or portable outdoor fireplaces with grills, the costs are much cheaper. Prefab and modular models generally fall in the $2,000 to $10,000 range, depending on their size and construction. Portable models can cost as low as $300 to $500, offering a much less expensive option for those looking to invest more in groceries for the grill than customized construction.