How to make a brazier out of bricks with your own hands

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Pampering family and friends with delicious meals takes a lot of work. But it's worth it!

1. Prepare everything you need

To build a barbecue, you will need simple tools, most of which can be found in any garage or shed. But the materials and some accessories will have to be purchased.

• Shovel - to prepare the base.
• Sand, cement, refractory mixture, water - for masonry.
• Paving slabs (optional), crushed stone, or rubble stone, or broken brick - for the foundation.
• Trowel (trowel) - for masonry.
• Hammer-pick - for splitting and cutting off bricks.
• Angle grinder (grinder) with a stone disc - for cutting bricks.
• Plumb line, level, rule - to control the correctness of the masonry.
• Tape measure, square, pencil, cord - for marking.
• Glasses, gloves - for protection.
• Trough - for mixing the solution.
• Bucket - for water and mortar.
• Solid red brick - for the construction of a barbecue.
• Fireclay brick - for covering the firebox.
• Roofing material - for waterproofing.
• Reinforcement, corners - for reinforcement.
• Basalt or kaolin wool - for thermal insulation.
• Metal umbrella-cap (optional) - to protect the barbecue.

2. Find a place to install

The brazier should be kept away from wood and other flammable buildings. It is best to place it between the utility block and the house or in the immediate vicinity of the gazebo. Take into account the direction of the prevailing winds so that smoke and ash do not drift towards the house. If there is not much space, you can later plant shrubs around the barbecue area for protection.

Placing a barbecue in the back of the garden, do not forget about communications: next to the hearth you cannot do without electricity and water. Think in advance about convenient approaches from different parts of the site.

3. Decide on the design

Knowing what space is available for construction, you can start choosing the barbecue itself. If you do not have experience, it is better to stick with simpler options without a chimney and additional elements such as countertops or sinks. It is advisable to draw up a project or find a ready-made one. It will help not only to accurately calculate the number of materials, but also serve as a cheat sheet during work.

Unfortunately, detailed drawings showing the layout of each row cost money. The maximum that you can count on on the Internet, including on YouTube, for free, is a general overview of the design or just a photo of the finished result, which are of little use.

Therefore, it will be great to sketch the project on paper, in Sketchup or other design software. You can even practice and try to lay out the grill from bricks without mortar. This will allow you to decide on a comfortable height, try on the size of the grate, and also provide for attachments for skewers.

4. Prepare the base

Since the brick weighs a lot, the grill should be placed on a solid base. For small hearths, for the laying of up to 200 bricks, it is enough to pave the site with sidewalk tiles on compacted sand or rubble, having previously removed the sod.

Heavier barbecues need a solid foundation. For its arrangement, it is necessary to dig a pit 50–70 cm deep or not less than the level of freezing on heaving soils. Then fill it with rubble stone, broken brick or crushed stone and pour over a slab 15–25 cm thick from ready-made concrete or cement-sand mortar. To prepare such a mixture yourself, combine 1 part of cement with 4 parts of sand and gradually add water until the mass begins to resemble sour cream. It is advisable to reinforce the slab with reinforcement, placing it in the middle of the structure.

Before the concrete has completely hardened, it is impossible to start building the hearth within a month. The only exceptions are small barbecues, the construction of which can be started a few days after the base has set.

5. Go through and sort the bricks

Open barbecues without a chimney are most often built from ordinary (red) solid bricks. And in versions with a pipe, refractory fireclay bricks are additionally used, which is lined from the inside of the firebox. This is necessary so that normal material does not crack and collapse from high temperatures.

Some craftsmen, in order to save money, take hollow bricks for the barbecue. This is permissible, but a structure made of such material will turn out to be less durable.

Bricks should be the same, regular shape, with right angles, without cracks, curvatures and extraneous inclusions. When tapped, a good brick emits a ringing metallic sound, and when dropped, it breaks only into large pieces. A material of this quality is used in the most important parts like the firebox.

A very high sound is produced by burnt bricks, and too dull - unburned ones. The former are unstable to temperature changes due to a different coefficient of expansion, while the latter are not strong enough and can hide cracks in themselves. In principle, such a material is suitable for the base of a barbecue, pipes and other elements that are not in direct contact with fire.

6. Prepare curly elements

The laying should be done quickly so that the applied solution does not dry out and does not lose strength. Therefore, you need to immediately prepare all whole bricks, halves and other pieces. You can divide the material into parts using a hammer-pick or angle grinder. The first method is faster, the second allows for greater accuracy and is used for complex elements.

Well-fired bricks are better suited for splitting. They need to be marked with a pencil, drawing a line around the entire perimeter. On the same mark, shallow notches are made with the tip of a hammer on each of the edges, then they are lightly tapped on them, turning the brick in hand. After that, they hit the rib harder on one side and on the other until the part is separated. Irregularities are removed by rubbing this edge against another brick.

It's easier to work with a grinder. After marking with a pencil, it is enough to make slits on each side. You don't even have to cut it to the end, and then just hit it with a pick to separate the piece. The rest of the protruding part is easy to clean up with the angle grinder, making the edge perfectly flat.

7. Prepare the solution

For masonry, two types of mortar are used with different properties. Clay-sand is resistant to high temperatures, but is afraid of moisture, therefore it is used in the firebox. With cement-sand, everything is exactly the opposite: it does not withstand strong heating, but it tolerates the effects of water better, so it is used for basement, masonry and pipes.

Clay-sand mortar can be prepared by yourself, but this is a rather troublesome business. After all, you need to find the right clay, choose the right proportions. It is easier to use a commercially available refractory mixture for masonry ovens, designed for a temperature of 1000 ° C or more. It only needs to be diluted with water according to the instructions, and then let it brew for the specified time (usually 60 minutes).

Cement-sand mortar can also be made from the ready-made dry mix using water. But if desired, it is easy to prepare it yourself by mixing 1 part of cement, 3-4 parts of well-sifted sand and gradually adding water until the desired consistency is obtained.

Both solutions must be completely homogeneous and resemble sour cream in density. When laying, the excess of a properly diluted mixture is easily squeezed out under the weight of the brick and slight pressure by hand.

8. Lay out the plinth

Masonry starts from the basement. With a pencil or chalk on the foundation, mark the contours of the barbecue. If the design is very simple, you can do without it. The first row, like all subsequent ones, should be placed first dry, trying on and checking the fit of the bricks, and only then laid on the mortar.

However, you cannot put it directly on the foundation: due to the proximity to the ground, moisture will accumulate in the blocks and over time they will collapse. This can be avoided by adding a layer of waterproofing under the bricks, for example, roofing material or other material of similar properties.

First you need to put the corner stones. Then, using a cord, make sure that the length of the diagonals is the same, and if necessary, correct the location of the corner elements. After that, you can add the rest of the bricks in the row.

9. Continue laying

It is not worth placing the entire row at once on the solution: it will dry out quickly. It is better to apply the mixture to one or two bricks. The stones themselves should be dipped in water for a few seconds before laying. Otherwise, a lot of moisture will be drawn out of the mixture, and it will thicken quickly.

Try to keep the minimum joints between the bricks. For an ordinary private - no more than 5 mm, and for fireclay - no more than 3 mm. All joints must be completely filled with mortar. Squeezed out excess is removed with a trowel or hand. On the outside this is necessary for aesthetic reasons, and on the inside to reduce smoke resistance and improve traction.

Each subsequent row is laid so that the vertical seams of the lower one fall on the centers of the stones of the upper one. That is, if the first one starts with a whole brick, then the second one starts with a half. And then everything repeats: all even and all odd rows will be the same.

10. Do not forget to make out the seams

The mortars set quite quickly, so you should make out the outer seams right during the laying. They can be given a concave or, conversely, a convex shape, using a tube or hose cut along the length.

Another option for masonry design is "wasted", when the seams are left incompletely filled, with the same gap. For this, square steel bars 5 × 5 mm are placed at the edges of the row. After laying several bricks, the elements are removed and rearranged further along the row. The result is an even, neat seam.

11. Make sure the masonry is level

It is important that the walls and corners are strictly vertical. To check this, you should apply a level to the masonry and, if necessary, correct the protruding stones by lightly tapping with a hammer.

The rows, in turn, must be horizontal - this is also checked by a long level or rule. If the grill is large, you can pull a cord or fishing line on top of the corner bricks and align the top of the remaining stones along them when laying.

12. Make arches and floors

In simple barbecues, it is enough to build in a charcoal brazier. Although you can just pour them on the bottom of the hearth. But in more serious structures, the space under the firebox and above it must be closed with arches and ceilings resting on steel corners.

Arches are formed from an odd number of bricks, which are laid out according to a pre-cut pattern from plywood or boards with the desired radius. The stones are laid from the walls to the center, and then in the middle they are connected by a wedge-cut key brick. The outermost elements are trimmed for precise fit.

For floors, steel corners are used, which serve as a support for the bricks lying on top. Elements are stacked between the corners, and from the outside of the barbecue - on them. In the latter case, a hole is sawn in the stone to the depth of the upper flange of the corner.

Metal lintels should not reach the walls by 1–2 cm, otherwise, when heated and expanded, they can destroy the masonry.

13. Take care of the firebox

In simple open barbecues, the firebox can be laid out of ordinary bricks. In large structures with a chimney, the temperature is very high, and only refractory fireclay bricks can withstand it. Therefore, from the inside, the firebox is lined with just such a material in parallel with the main masonry or sweat. The second option is less convenient.

The solution in this case is clay-sandy. Bricks can be installed on the edge, the main thing is to comply with two important conditions. It is impossible to combine ordinary and refractory masonry: the latter will expand when heated, which can lead to the destruction of the structure. For the same reason, you should not lay fireclay and ordinary bricks close to each other: leave a gap of about 1 cm. It is advisable to fill it with basalt or kaolin wool (in extreme cases with sand) for thermal insulation.

14. Place the smoke box

This element is only found in large barbecues. It is the link between the firebox and the chimney. The smoke collection chamber connects them to each other due to a gradual narrowing. Bricks are placed here on a clay-sand mortar.

To cover the opening of the hearth, arches or metal corners are again used. Then each row of masonry from the sides and front is shifted by 3 cm inward to get a kind of pyramid and gradually reach the size of the pipe. To improve traction, it is advisable to cut the inwardly protruding corners of the bricks, although this is not necessary.

15. Build a chimney

Only solid hearths have a pipe. If you are building a small barbecue, go to the next step. The chimney is made in half a brick, the material is laid with the wide side. The section of the pipe should be at least 12% of the area of the furnace opening, and the height should be from 1–1.5 m (from the bottom of the furnace) or 0.5 m higher than the ridge of the arbor roof.

Laying is performed on cement-sand mortar. It is allowed to increase the thickness of the seam up to 10 mm. To check the verticality, use a level and a plumb line. At the end of the chimney, it is advisable to install a metal umbrella-cap that will protect the top of the chimney and the inner walls from the damaging effects of moisture during rain and melting snow.

16. Dry the structure

After laying, you need to let the grill dry completely naturally. For small structures, 1-2 days are enough for this, and for hearths with a chimney - at least a week. A completely dry brazier is considered after damp spots disappear on its surface, and condensation stops appearing on metal structures.

You can speed up the drying of a large building by burning a little dry fuel, such as wood chips, in it. The volume of the filling should be about 20% of the standard volume of the firebox. Each time it is increased, gradually bringing it to normal. In this case, it is advisable not to bring the temperature of the outer surface of the barbecue above 50-60 ° C (with it, the hand can be kept on the surface for several seconds).