Learn me: Building a barbecue.

It has been decided by SWMBO that we have a patio and a barbecue by next summer. The patio is no sweat. My problem is with the barbecue itself. I want to have a stack so I can smoke meats in, and an open pit for big things. Just a couple of boxes, really, but out of what material? Cinder blocks wouldn't hold up to the heat. Patio pavers seem like a poor choice, too. Is there anything inexpensive that isn't going to buy a bunch of fire brick and lining the whole inside with that?

When I search this one on Google, I tend to go all ADD, looking at other peoples cool E36 M3.

I went all in on this at the new house and at the end of the day I got Traeger and a grill.

Red brick can handle pretty substantial heat, but for any surface directly exposed to fire, you're going to need firebricks. But you can save money by making your "stand" (for lack of a better term) from cinderblock, and your flue/chimney out of red brick. Hell, for a smoker with pretty low temps, you may get away with red brick. Big fires for direct grilling will need a refractory material, though.

A mason I talked to recently was telling me about a refractory concrete that's basically sprayed, like insulation can be done these days. I have no experience with it, and it may be cost-prohibitive for a project this size (since it's made mainly for smelting plants and the like), but I may be worth looking into.

I haven't built a BBQ/smoker pit (yet) but I'm almost done building a wood fired brick oven. I may be able to help out if you want to shoot me questions.

Oh, and for your sake and the sake of your house's next owners, don't skimp on the landscape cloth under the patio. We have a really great patio that's a never-ending fight with weeds because whoever built it didn't bother with any anti-growth underlayment.

Everyone I have ever met that's built one of these demo'd it and went with similar to what weary said. Worst case scenario, build a drum smoker.

Old propane tank, welder, win!

I have nothing useful to add, so I'll just leave this here.

I can't tell you how many times the line "Why must I fail at every attempt at masonry?!" has gone through my head during the oven build.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bHXMogzEm0

So it looks like the only thing that's stopping me is my lack of masonry skills. I've got people to help me out with that, though.

Of all the brick patios I've laid here, every one of them has had the cracks filled with sand be design. I plan on using old road bricks for my patio, installed just like you'd lay a brick road.

If you're dealing with straight lines and sharp angles (that is, no arches/ellipses) for this build, you'll catch on to the masonry thing quick. This oven was my first masonry project of any kind, and it started with laying cinder block (CMU's (concrete masonry units) if you're trying to hang with pro jargon, which is a fairly challenging way to learn to mix mortar.

And mortar is really where the art form of basic bricklaying seems to lie. Getting the mix at just the right consistency to be able to spread easily but still hold a firm joint will take a little while to learn. But once you get a feel for that, the rest is really just making sure everything's straight and level.