Outdoor small bbq kitchen failure - a simple fix?/

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Hello

so, in March 2021, one of my then 5 cats died. Just woke up to find him dead on my seat in the litter room.

I love cooking spit roasts on my bbq, but didn’t have the room to prepare, cook and let rest, so I decided to build a kitchen bbq area, where I could store the gas bottles. And my cooking equipment. It took me almost all of 2021 to build it, but I am disabled, so could only do a little work here and there when pain was better, I managed to get a hour or so done, before had to packup.

late October 2021, I again lost another cat, he became unwell, and was expected, but it stopped me from getting in the right frame of mind to finish the build (just needed to “glue” the countertop (they are floor tiles) but I used the bbq nearly daily and spit roasted food at least twice per week.

so in 2022, I decided to redo my bedroom, from doing some sort of plywood floor using it as planks of 5inch widths, but needed a couple of tools to do this. So in 2022 I saved and brought tools, anyway, I may of brought too many and now needing a small workstation shed. Anyway, in December of 2022 about 14 months since I last used the bbq, I thought that the bbq was now closer to the shed. Using my temperature gun, I found The wood shed got about 20°c hotter than before, spoke to an “expert“ how said to add a sheet of metal that he provided, I then install, but we then have a cold week, and I go to cook, and the glass above on the shed (shed window) cracked, before installing the metal sheet, the glass never got hot.


anyway, I go to cook again about 2 months later, I released that Behind my bbq was now catching on fire, this was sorted with seconds and no damage done to the shed, but found a big problem, to support the bbq, it was mounted onto a fire resistant beam, at least what was told… to keep everything level. I am not sure how, but my bbq has not only dropped, but has also fallen back towards the shed, so now the grease from cooking my spit roast had run off into the support beam and it trapped the heat and the grease caught on fire.

I am not sure if the screws failed, the bbq legs that was attached to the beam have rusted away, or something else. I can’t see that well behind the bbq, but it has dropped by some 2-3 inches at a minimum, however the other structure work hasn’t moved, so, how would I fix all of this? The metal sheet has almost completely rusted but I don’t think all of it has, just the surface.


should I undo and resit the bbq, or rebuild all of this, or use some sort of jack to lift up the bbq then re secure the bbq?
 
Can you post some pics of the area affected?

Blup
 
really sorry, I hope this was a joke, but I literally worship my cats, and I found this very upsetting… I do think you were joking though so all is okay… just a heads up incase for further jokes made by anyone else.

you kind of need to get inside the cabinets (if you call them that) to have a look, and I can’t see or get down enough to see what’s happened, it’s my 5 year old niece that was able to get inside to look.

I do have progress pictures of the build though, so hope that helps.

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I am afraid your barbi is far too close to timber to be safe. It isn't a great idea to make a timber frame around a barbi like that. If you want tables/surfaces either side, a better way is to get some concrete blocks and built uprights with them, and top them off with a paving slab. standard blocks are 440, and slabs are available at 450 x 450. 4 blocks high with a slab on top would be a good size. You do need to do it somewhere else though away from the shed!

By the way, everyone should worship cats :giggle:
 
Pictures don’t really show how everything went together or how far away from the shed it actually is, well now it’s closer as bolts broke…

it doesn’t look square in the pictures here. But the first picture shows or at least hope it shows that the bbq is completely off the floor on the left side, and back. The huge piece of wood is holding up the bbq and I think it’s 6x6inch. Behind this, we installed a fire back, from advise from an “expert“ at the store.

as you may see in some pictures I used wood to hold the bbq level, while I install the frame around the bbq, I then used concrete boards I think… I don’t think they were plaster boards but it looks like them… I added 2 layers in many places.

the slabs I used were 600mm x 600mm…
 
Nothing to do with the bbq structure wise, just allows storage and prep area.

I am unsure what is the best course of action here, as the frame around the bbq is not attached, the bbq breaking from the back, which has made the grease to pour out and catch fire at the time, according to my mum who looked behind the bbq by jumping on the side prep area.

I am going to need to reinforce the back legs, maybe bring the bbq forward another 2 inches, and just have the cladding attached straight to the front legs, or bring it forward another 2.5 inch and not have any cladding around the frame of the doors. But that would mean getting a new support beam of 8x8, or add extra wood to it, but if needed but that would need protecting from heat/fire so would need a new fire back.

I also need a new drip tray, as this was broken when the bbq dropped, and leaked hot flare flames fat onto the support beam.
 
Does the frame have a purpose?

I built a frame (looks slightly different to OP) around my BBQ as a work area. It allows you to keep the patio table free, whilst having a sufficiently large area to prep and store the food to be cooked.
 
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