Outdoor kitchen masonry in Wilmington NC - a grill island built around your appliances

Most folks who call me have a patio, a grill on a cart and a plan they've been putting off for a couple of summers. The price mostly comes down to how big the layout is, how many appliance openings it needs, how much of it gets stone facing and how easy it is to get block and concrete into your backyard. The schedule turns on how soon your appliances are settled, when the gas and electric trades can get in and how long the countertop shop needs. When I come out, I walk the job with you and put the estimate in writing, so you've got your own figure instead of a guess off the internet.

Before we lay any block, I ask you to pick your appliances, because the grill, the fridge and any side burner each need an opening built to their own size, and guessing now means tearing out block later. Once that's settled, we pour the slab, build the concrete block shell on it and leave each opening where it belongs. The gas and electric lines usually get run in after the block is up and before the stone goes on, so that's the window your other trades need to hit, and I'll tell you when it's coming. Then we set the stone veneer, get the top ready for your countertops and clean up. All along I'm watching the mortar and where rain runs off the slab, because a kitchen that holds water won't look good for long.

If you're putting a kitchen out back, think about how you'll get to it. We also do walkway construction for a solid path from the door to the grill, and brick wall installation when you want a low wall or a seating ledge around the cooking area.

In Wilmington, building permits for structures and accessory structures come from the New Hanover County Department of Permits & Inspections, and its list doesn't name outdoor kitchens, so whether yours needs a permit is a question for that office, not something I'd guess at. Parts of the city also sit in FEMA flood zones, and the city's zoning staff handle requests about the flood insurance rate map, the federal flood risk map, which matters if your yard sits low. Before work starts, we tell you which office handles your address and whether a historic district review could come into it, and we help you get the paperwork together.

We're based in Wilmington and work across the cities around it, and dampness wears on masonry all along this coast. We see the same conditions on jobs in Carolina Beach and Porters Neck, so when you're close to the water we talk about salt air before the first block goes down, and I'll show you which cracks are worth keeping an eye on once it's built.