Outdoor Kitchen: Part 3 – Main Cabinet Framing

Once the roof was finished (see part 2 here), it was time to start framing the main cabinet. This was going to be an L-shaped affair that would house a propane barbecue (reused), burner (reused), sink, paper towel dispenser, trash can drawer, Traeger, refrigerator, and some storage drawers.

It would also have an access panel on both ends of the long run to access plumbing and electrical, as well as provide some extra hidden storage if needed.

The short end that would stick out perpendicularly from the house wall would also have a counter for bar stools that wrapped around the Traeger.

The first step was verifying/finalizing dimensions, which was a bit complex since I was having to account for cement board, mortar and stone veneer, all in relation to both the appliances that would need to fit into the cabinet, and the countertop that needed to have a certain amount of overhang all around, plus more in the seating area to accommodate legs, plus fit neatly between the two roof posts. Needless to say there were a lot of pencil sketches and mock-ups in the shop before I was confident enough in my measurements to actually commit to starting to build.

I put together the base frame in 2 pieces, set it in place to make sure it would work. Then I clamped them together and leveled the whole thing with shims again to verify I wasn’t about to build a base that would ruin everything that followed.

I pulled it up, painted all of it and stapled sill insulation to the bottom–I chose not to use pressure treated like I normally would with it contacting the ground because a) it’s expensive and b) finding enough PT that’s actually straight is nearly impossible. So this was my solution to protecting it from water-induced rot.

Building Up The Frame

Once the base was built, positioned and leveled, I started building the remainder from it, starting with posts at every corner and along the back as needed. These posts were 2-3 2x4s screwed together so I could attach full length inside the base and have outer pieces resting on that base and flush with the outer dimension for cement board attachment.

You can also see in the following pictures framing surrounding plumbing and electrical. There would be space between the back of the cabinet and the house, and any tiny opening I knew would be exploited by mice, so I got extremely precise about sealing every possible hole with 2×4 frames and masonite sections as needed for gaps while I still had easy access.

The beveled vertical 2x4s against the wall are the structure that would support the tall tiled backsplash, which was really mostly intended to serve as a heat barrier for the propane barbecue that would be in that section. It would create a pretty significant air space between the tile / cement board and the house so heat could better dissipate.

Electrical & Plumbing Interlude

Before I did any more framing, I needed to sort out some electrical and plumbing while it was still easy to access.

There were 2 existing receptacles in the back wall conveniently. The left one would be used for the Traeger and the right would be for the fridge plug, but also be used to run some overhead LED task lighting and another receptacle on the outside of the counter.

Before continuing on with framing, I ran the plumbing lines to where the sink would be and finished the back mouse-proofing, which meant covering all of it with masonite. I added several vents for leaking propane and heat.

The plumbing was pretty straightforward thankfully. There were existing hot and cold water lines that I just needed to extend with pex to reach the new sink location. I kept the same drain setup that was used originally, which was just a hose running from the sink drain into the landscaping drain pipe that the downspout in the corner drained into.

I affixed all the plumbing and electrical conduit to the back wall for organization and to keep the drain line sloped properly.

With the plumbing and electrical in place, I finished the remaining framing. I worked backward from the various built-ins I would be installing, i.e. framed the supports for them and then filled in the rest. For the most part I did this by using pocket screws to position the framing flush with the base, which represented the front surface the cement board would attach to.

I built more involved framing to support the propane barbecue–essentially just a 2×4 shelf that would position it correctly to be flush with the top and front tile (more dome-scratching math figuring thickness of cement board, tile and mortar). The Traeger insert was the same basic idea, but I would be wrapping the whole thing in tile like it was continuous all throughout with the countertop.

Countertop Framing

The final framing work was to build out the base for the countertop. I would have much preferred to have a solid countertop… granite… concrete… but the reality was that stone is expensive and I’d have to hire someone else to do it, and the design was so complex that doing custom poured concrete would have been an absolute nightmare that I didn’t want to experience.

My compromise was to get large porcelain tile (about 16×32″) to minimize grout lines. The main issue is that I wasn’t able to find bull nose tiles for the rim, and the tiles I could find that both looked good and were big enough weren’t colored the full thickness, meaning I couldn’t cut my own bull nosing (it would have just been bare porcelain).

In any event, the point here is that I wanted to create counter thickness both for appearance and structure–I didn’t want a 1/2″ thick countertop, and I needed to be able to create a fairly large overhang for the seating area that was strong enough to support people inevitably pushing on it when they got on and off of a stool.

This ended up being trickier than it might seem. The main counter area was no problem–it would have just a small overhang protruding past the stone veneer. But the seating area needed to extend out AND had very limited options for securing and supporting that overhang because of the Traeger cutout–I couldn’t just run 2x8s across the whole depth to counterbalance the overhang. My fear was that the structure wouldn’t be rigid enough and movement would mean grout or even tile cracking.

I added a 1/2″ plywood base in the shape of the counter first. On top of that I laid 2×4, 2×6 and 2×8 boards flat–this plus the cement board on top would create the thickness I wanted.

For the seating area, I ran the longest 2x8s I could where I could, which was just 3 spots. The short side of that countertop seating was more problematic–there was no way to secure supports any farther back. The solution I finally settled on was letting-in a couple pieces of angle steel and securing them to the frame with structural screws.

Next Time

Cement board, tile, stone veneer, and inserts/appliances. See it here.