On 8/1/2011 7:53 PM, paulaner wrote:
On Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:46:31 -0700,
wrote:

On 7/31/2011 10:26 AM, paulaner wrote:

I'm thinking about a small "outdoor kitchen" when I add a screened
porch on the house. I'd like to have a nice gas grill built into a
concrete countertop, ideally with a burner on the side as well. The
plan will also include a ventilation hood.

It appears the built-in models are about 2 times the cost as a
freestanding grill. Can I just buy a nice webber grill and retrofit
it into the space I need?

I have a natural gas line nearby, so I plan to hire an experienced
plumber to connect the system up for me. Yes - I will buy the right
burner elements.

Thoughts?

I thought about one of those built in models too. In the end I built an
outdoor bar with a sink and under-the-counter refrigerator and stuck
with the standalone grill. The bar was easy to build and I made it
pretty big. I made it with a tile top (18 12" tiles). Would have
preferred a single piece of granite (granite is very inexpensive in
California due to all the Chinese granite) but I could not cut a hole
for the sink. A lot of the outdoor island kitchens don't include a sink,
but that was a must-have for me.

I recall that for the Costco grill I got offered an inexpensive natural
gas kit.

Thanks. I am thinking about a concrete countertop. from what I am
reading they look pretty good. A sink is not a must have for me, but
maybe a place to put beer on ice would be convienient...

a small concrete countertop is pretty easy. if you want it polished, the
diamond tooling for that is about $350, but you can get on ebay cheaper
or resell what you do buy after you're done with it. you can get lots of
colors, can mold in a sink, and insert objects before you pour the
concrete for custom inlays.