RTA Outdoor Kitchen Safety Webinar – 2023

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hi there I’m Jamie Mueller brand manager for RTA Outdoor Living thanks for tuning in today for our outdoor kitchen safety webinar if you’re watching live stick around till the end for a live q a session and you can feel free to post your questions throughout this webinar

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we’ll select some at the end to answer so if you have a question while we’re talking just go ahead and put it in the chat so um we encourage you to share this link with anyone you know who might be considering an outdoor kitchen in the near future

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um thanks again for sticking in with us on this uh um on the technical difficulties so anyway whether you’re a homeowner or a contractor um before we dive in I want to go over the purpose of this webinar and what we hope that you get out of this so we want

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to empower you to plan design and build a safe outdoor kitchen and the best way to empower you is to inform you with several key considerations and because above all we want you to feel confident in the lifetime safety of your outdoor kitchen so now I’m going to go through a few

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Disclaimers
01:11
disclaimers this webinar is only a resource it’s not a comprehensive guide so please consider this a baseline for your safety needs for your outdoor kitchen if you choose to build an outdoor kitchen on your own or through any Source other than RTA Outdoor Living

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we are also not liable for the outcome of the outdoor kitchen we cannot emphasize enough to always read the grill and appliance manufacturer manuals and follow all the instructions because these can vary by manufacturer and finally local codes can

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vary as well so be sure that you or your contractor understand and comply with all the local codes that apply to your home so

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Why Are We Speaking Out
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why are we so passionate to speak out on this topic of outdoor kitchen safety well there are several reasons first The Outdoor Kitchen Market has grown considerably over the past decade covid and stay at home restrictions certainly contributed to that growth with more

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homeowners investing in their outdoor spaces basically the outdoor kitchen industry is relatively young in most regions of the United States and because of this research and information is still evolving at outdoor kitchen safety and also still very limited in fact for

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many topics on safety there are zero resources but we aim to change that and this webinar is part of that Aim so unfortunately we see a shocking number of unsafe outdoor kitchens built all over the country we we cringe because that means the homeowners and even the contractors

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are at risk and we’ll get into those risks today the reality is many contractors and outdoor kitchen manufacturers who have jumped into this fast growing industry they don’t use proper safety measures So today we’re going to make sure that you know what

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the proper safety measures are and and that you know your outdoor kitchen will be safe so are you ready to learn um all right I’m passing this off to

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Expert Introduction
03:15
James King our vice president of sales and design he’ll be your guide through the rest of this webinar okay hey James thanks so much Jamie um definitely excited to uh to dive in here today and go through a very important topic one that’s probably not discussed often

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enough which is uh the topic about our kitchen safety so

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Our Experience
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so I know Jamie touched on basically why we’re shedding some light on the topic itself but I wanted to start by going through some of the experience we have and and why we consider ourselves qualified on discussing the topic about our kitchen safety so one we’ve been in the industry

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for a little over a decade right now and uh We’ve quickly actually developed a track record of really modernizing the industry and coming up with convention or solutions to kind of get through some of the conventional limitations so one of those being a modern uh or a

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monolithic panelized system that we’ve developed that’s become our core product at RTA and um on top of that which we’ll we’ll talk about throughout this webinar we’ve developed kind of the new standard when it comes to outdoor kitchen ventilation and on top of that our team

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as a whole works not only in certain markets but we work Nationwide and consult with thousands of homeowners with their outdoor kitchen project projects anywhere from design to kind of planning and ultimately you know assembly and installation of their kitchen

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so just give you guys a quick timeline of uh some research and testing that we’ve done over the years so going back to 2013 we really pioneered this uh single layered construction as I mentioned it’s a monolithic panelized system that’s now become the core product of RTA and um

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we’ll we’ll discuss a little bit more in depth throughout this webinar as well but it is a non-combustible material which is very important from a safety standpoint in 2017 when we were developing our products and kind of when the company was founded was we were

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developing the standard for some new island ventilation specifications and in 2021 we did extensive grill heat testing when we were developing a new product and kind of really got some insight on the impact that grilled grill heat and other Appliance cooking appliances the impact

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that those had on the structure of your outdoor kitchen and the countertops 2022 we actually began researching some doing some initial development on heat shield solutions for scenarios where you’re building an outdoor kitchen up against a wall and then in 2023 we’ve actually

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been Consulting with a couple companies and um working on Research to with all the major Grill Brands as far as manuals and requirements on setbacks and just different specifications when it comes to designing planning and constructing an outdoor kitchen

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on top of that we’ve really been at the Forefront of publishing hundreds of articles that and also dozens of videos as well mostly in the form of Education when it comes to safety of an outdoor kitchen but also Construction and design um and on on top of that right now we

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are actually currently the only company the only outdoor kitchen company that offers a safety guarantee and that really just speaks to the confidence of the materials that we’re using we know they’re safe to use which we’ll get more into throughout this webinar

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Webinar Agenda
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so just want to give you guys a quick quick agenda a quick overview of the agenda that the topics we’re going to cover today so we’ll start with uh identifying The Big Three risks that you have and we’ll actually talk about one that is often overlooked we’ll talk

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about materials and construction and why materials and construction when it comes to an outdoor kitchen are vitally important we’ll dive into the appliances we’ll talk about those and the different types of appliances that you want to use in an outdoor kitchen we’ll talk about

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ventilation and why it’s so critical especially when it comes to a safely built outdoor kitchen we’ll also dive into what you can do about locating and protecting your um your environment when it comes to locating your outdoor kitchen and then last but not least we’ll give

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you guys a little bit of value in terms of how you can actually ensure and guarantee that your outdoor kitchen is safe for you and your family to use

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Outdoor Kitchen Safety Risks
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so let’s get started with the risks that you have with an outdoor kitchen so we’ll start with the big three so you have heat considerations gas and then also grease so the uh I’ll speak on the first image that you’ll see the melting um siding so this is a lot of times

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you’ll even see people putting their Standalone grills up against the side of a vinyl sided house over time between the cart model or even if it’s a built-in over time the Heat obviously starts to starts to melt away that vinyl siding because it’s it’s it’s a it’s not

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technically combustible but it’s certainly something that can melt um Expo if exposed to heat for uh for an excessive amount of time the other scenario is going to be when you’re locating your outdoor kitchen underneath a overhead combustible structure so this could be

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like a pavilion or a Pergola the real risk you have there is again excessive heat over time that’s Rising can start to compromise that that combustible material and then worst case scenario you have flying Embers or even grease fires that get out of control and can

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set the whole structure on fire the other the other risk you have with fire is just anytime you’re placing your Island nearby to anything that’s combustible so you want to be mindful of that and then um gas is a big is a big concern because if you don’t ventilate your Island

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properly gas can get trapped inside the cavity which can lead to an explosion as you can see an example of this happening in the image that’s that’s uh right here last point about grease I didn’t get into on the last side but last point about the grease was that’s really just

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speaks to you being able to properly maintain your your grill over the time if you’re not cleaning out the grease traps or the grease trays those those things can actually start to set a grease fire which can ultimately if it’s bad enough it could get out of control

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and set the whole structure on fire so let’s let’s move on to outdoor kitchen risks when it comes to personal safety the first concern that you have is Burns so most outdoor kitchens have cooking appliances which get hot and if negligently used over time if you leave

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your grill on the the actual knobs on a side burner or a power burner or a grill can actually get so hot that it can burn you if you touch it so I think my main main point here is don’t be negligent be mindful of when you’re using your appliances but also this speaks more to the design

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of your outdoor kitchen and the importance of being able to strategically lay things out and separate your kitchen into different zones so typically you want to have your cooking zones on a Hot Zone and then separate your you know your cool your dry storage zones away from those

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appliances so that if you have kids running around they can still access and use different elements of the outdoor kitchen without getting too close to those appliances that are going to be hot as I mentioned in the last last Point gas getting trapped when the uh you know

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when the spark from the grill starts if there’s gas that’s trapped inside that that can obviously ignite an explosion that’s kind of a worst case scenario and then fires again just speaking to if you’re not locating your outdoor kitchen in the proper location or taking these

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types of things that we’re going to go over in this webinar into uh account excessive heat can obviously cause a fire if if exposed to that combustible surface for an extended period of time so I think this is the so those are kind of some of the the obvious things to

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look at but when it comes to outdoor kitchen risks that you have that these are kind of some of the often overlooked things that are not covered all the time um really the the top section shows really the concern you have is if you’re not using the right materials over time

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your frame or the structure of the island can actually become weakened or it can become structurally compromised um so think about your Island structure is really what’s holding up you know whatever finished material you’re having countertops it’s holding the appliances

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so if the material that you’re constructing the the base of the island out of becomes compromised so does the rest of the unit so we’re pointing to an example with wood it weakens over time not mentioned on here is just simply termites and outdoor climates and

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outdoor exposure that can actually weaken and compromise the structural Integrity of wood over time but even more than that just the appliances themselves at the temperature fluctuation can actually cause that structure to become compromised the other consideration is really the

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weight of the kitchen so this is probably most commonly found if you’re constructing a an outdoor kitchen on top of a deck um because decks aren’t always rated to handle the weight especially if you’re using a you know a heavy material to build your

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outdoor kitchen out of that deck that deck although it might handle it while you’re building it and maybe for a couple weeks but over time that deck can become structurally compromised and even collapse but the other thing you’ll want to be mindful of is just any type of

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patio you’re pouring even if it’s a paver patio a concrete patio just having a proper structural footings if necessary so that your patio doesn’t actually sink over time which can cause if the patio starts to sink in your structure of the outdoor kitchen

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typically will become compromised as well and then the last thing is just the uh common mistake people can make is getting a little crazy with cantilevers on a bar overhang so bar overhang is a is a very useful feature to have on an outdoor kitchen but you want to be

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mindful of not putting too much cantilever especially if you’re not putting supports underneath support brackets or something to support that countertop from becoming too top heavy and then obviously flipping or tipping over and falling onto somebody

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Outdoor Kitchen Build Materials
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so now let’s dive into materials and and why those matter so we we’re going to have some good resources throughout this webinar that you got that you can that you can uh tune into but the the key components of outdoor kitchen materials that you’re going to want to

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keep in mind are going to be a it’s not an interior kitchen so whatever you’re building out of needs to be outdoor rated since it’s an outdoor kitchen may seem obvious but you’d be surprised how many situations we we see or we come across where the um outdoor kitchen

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wasn’t really constructed out of materials that were designed to last outdoors and then the second component is going to be the material should be non-combustible we’ll get into more of that here in the next couple slides but um just just the IBC the

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international uh body on construction materials is a really good resource you can you can plug into and get some more information on since outdoor kitchen materials are classified as Construction Products so let’s talk about com combustible materials versus non-combustible

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materials so combustible is really just the if it’s a combustible material it simply just means it’s something that has the risk of not only Catching Fire but can actually spread the fire to other parts of the structure or the building or the area that your outdoor

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kitchen sitting in and then a non-combustible structure or non-combustible material is simply just the opposite so materials that will not ignite burn or release flammable Vapors when exposed to excessive heat that uh grills and other cooking appliances and put off

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so another another helpful resource is going to be when you’re referring to trying to figure out what materials are going to be safe from a combustible slash non-combustible standpoint you can refer to the NFPA which is the National Fire Protection Agency this is a great

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resource for understanding the combustibility of different construction materials and then IBC also has some standards around this as well so you can certainly tune into that Resource as well foreign so let’s start with the worst materials you can build an outdoor kitchen out of uh

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starting with wood so a couple different factors as I mentioned wood over time Outdoors with different weather factors and also just termites and and things that can actually start to rot and corrode or not corrode but eat away at the wood itself more importantly than that this this

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webinar is addressing safety wood is a combustible material so we would definitely advise avoiding it a building out of wood at all costs PVC or plastic so uh this is a material that can be air you know can be air infused it’s it’s a lighter weight product but over time

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again it can be structurally compromised because it’s not that dense of a product so you want to be mindful of that but it’s also it’s uh it’s a material that can melt if exposed to excessive Heat and I think the other thing about PVC is it’s it’s also just really not that good

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for the environment either and then the last material that we have here is steel so this is going to be anything non-stainless which does include galvanized so these now let’s get into the better construction materials so these are going to be materials that are less

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combustible so you don’t have as much of a risk from a fire standpoint but they can degrade so they’re ideally not going to hold up as long as some of the other materials will go through so cement board that’s a material that’s most commonly used to basically

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apply to the structure so a lot of times you’ll see in outdoor kitchen built out of a metal frame and then they’ll put cement board on over that metal frame and then clad the the finishing material to that cement board aluminum uh you know from my um from a

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corrosion standpoint certainly better than um then then steel but uh from a a lot of the aluminum studs that you’ll see out you know people constructing outdoor kitchens out of are not also or not really the most structurally sound pieces of material to be building out of

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and the last is going to be HDPE so HDPE is it’s a high density polyethylene so it’s a little bit it’s more dense than a PVC material um certainly um more resistant to heat than PVC is but you still have some of the challenges long term with the material and then also um

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it it can melt under Express excessive heat as well so you’ll you will need some insulated jackets which we’ll talk about more uh later on so best construction materials are going to be basically things that are highly resistant to outdoor elements so these are things like

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um depending on the area of the country you’re in since we’re Nationwide we have to deal with all different types of elements so rain sleet freeze thought moisture Salt Air um heat or sun I should say sun exposure you name it these materials should be

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designed to withstand those different elements so masonry concrete being the best option for any type of finishing material as far as countertops your best bet is going to be to use a granite and then for your appliances you definitely want to make sure to be using stainless

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steel and specifically a higher grade stainless steel so really really the conclusion in terms of materials the big thing to that we want to kind of emphasize emphasize here is very very important that you’re not building out of combustible materials so

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if you’re going to pick materials to build an outdoor kitchen out of want to make sure that they’re non-combustible that’s more from a safety standpoint as I talked about with the different elements and outdoor factors that you’re dealing with um

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that’s another consideration you want to make sure that the materials are obviously designed to last

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Appliance Safety Considerations
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so let’s go through appliances and why and why those matter and why the design and the style of the appliance matters so another great resource you can refer to as as antsy so it’s the American National Standard Institute and uh this they’re going to have some great

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resources as far as what are the kind of the best practices or what are the standards when it comes to a gas grill or burner or other cooking appliance safety so let’s start with Standalone or a cart model Grille as most people are familiar with

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so we’re going to talk about kind of the different designs of grills and which ones are meant to be built in which ones aren’t and the things that you should be you should be on the lookout for so most people are familiar with Standalone grills it’s usually when we’re working

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with customers they’re usually they usually own a standalone Grill they’re looking to upgrade out of that and kind of step up their outdoor cooking and entertaining games so most people have a standalone grill that they’re looking to get out of um we do we do come across people that

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want to incorporate that Standalone Grill into an outdoor kitchen will go through why you wouldn’t want to do that but most of the time it’s it’s it’s simply just a lack of knowledge around the subject because most people are familiar with these stand-along grills

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they’re most readily available because they’re what you’re going to find at a big box store like Lowe’s or Home Depot and a brand that a lot of people are familiar with is Weber they pretty much dominate this space so it’s just what most people are familiar with but the

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challenge with these grills is one they are a lower lower price point Grill so they really aren’t designed to last long term so if you’re building something like that into a structure like an outdoor kitchen you have some challenges there for from a longevity standpoint

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but even more important to that is the safety of the of the grill so if you’ll read closely in a lot of these manuals they’re going to specifically say to not build these into an island structure or an enclosed structure and the reason is is because these grilles are designed to

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actually vent um out of the Firebox because they’re planning on the it’s a standalone Grill so they’re planning on the the grill being basically open on all sides so when you build that into an island you’re closing off the you’re restricting that airflow and that

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ventilation design which could cause some major issues and obviously put you and your family um you know in an unsafe situation so built-in grills are going to be grills that are specifically designed to be built into an outdoor kitchen so you do get a jump up in price a lot of that

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just comes with it’s designed to last longer it’s uh built out of higher grade materials but they’re also designed to specifically again be built into an outdoor kitchen so they’ll have flanges typically where they’ll rest on the countertop when you slide it in so that

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it can from a construction uh from a construction standpoint it’s a lot more turnkey the main the main reason that you want to use a built-in grill though is it comes down to safety so a built-in grill it’s designed to not you know conversely like a standalone

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Grill it vents out of the Firebox well a built-in grill is actually designed to vent out of the top or the back of the Grille Hood so it’s the section that’s exposed above the countertop so you’re not restricting the airflow and it has free access to basically

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vented vent out on the back side of the grill so that’s very important it’s also uh has better insulation so a lot of the times when you build a standalone Grill into into a structure it’s not that well insulated so it’s spitting off a lot of heat to the to the rest of the island

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structure whereas with a built-in grill it’s designed a little bit better so it doesn’t actually disperse that heat as much as a standalone Grill does so really conclusion on appliances pretty basic stuff here but really the the main thing is is you want to be

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building only built-in grills or gas appliances into an outdoor kitchen and not modifying you know a cart model and putting it in maybe it might be convenient at the time but ultimately when it’s sacrificing you and your family’s safety really not worth the uh the added risk

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um just a little Pro tip if you refer to any Grill manual you can check for the certification so that you’ll see CSA ETL or UI certification which means that it’s meant to be built into an outdoor kitchen we’ll touch on pizza ovens real quick so um the the risk you have here is is hot

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coals if it’s a wood Wood-Fired oven you have hot coals that could Escape especially if you have little ones around want to be mindful of that again I think a lot of that goes back to design maybe separating this piece out where you know your kids won’t be

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but you always do run that risk and then pizza ovens from a ventilation standpoint you you want to again refer to any real manufacturers or Pizza Oven manufacturer specifications but you want to make sure that those things are set back and clear away from any

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combustibles from a heat and ventilation standpoint pizza ovens really need airflow and diff in multiple different directions and then the other thing about peace Evans is they actually get a lot hotter than most grills do so we you know we have pizza ovens that get

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up to a thousand a thousand degrees and above so this speaks to the quality of the pizza oven that you want to buy because the higher quality of the pizza oven is the better the um the better insulated it’s going to be which means you know we have pizza ovens that can get up to a

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thousand degrees and since they’re so well insulated um basically it’s designed to keep the heat in so you can actually touch the exterior of the pizza oven while it’s on although it will be hot it actually won’t severely burn you so that’s a that’s a key fundamental thing but that

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speaks more to the quality of the appliance so when you’re searching for pizza ovens that’s a key key factor to look into and then the other last last consideration is going to be pizza ovens that sit on a countertop so there’s specific models that are designed to sit

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on a countertop versus building it into a masonry structure so a lot of these pizza ovens are going to be in the 300 pound range of course there there’s some that are heavier so you you obviously want to make sure that your structure can support the

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weight of that pizza oven sitting on it over time and you also want to have an air gap between the bottom of the oven and the countertop itself foreign

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Outdoor Kitchen Ventilation 101
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let’s dive into uh to ventilation which is going to be a critical component of making sure you have a safe outdoor kitchen so ventilation 101 uh it’s really the purpose of ventilation is because you you can have a gas leak and if that gas leak if it’s basically leaking into your

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Island and there’s no way for that gas to dissipate or Escape outside of that Island when you go to reignite your grill you could have a big a big problem and it could lead to an explosion so ideally the the vents are really there as a safety precaution in case you have

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a gas leak air air can flow through and it can also dissipate and allow that gas to escape the other consideration that’s I think it often overlooked is just removing heat buildup from the appliances allowing that to also escape the island as well

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so we’ll start with propane so propane is a heavier gas so propane actually sinks so with a propane if you’re building an island that is a propane grill or Appliance you on the left hand side you can see you don’t want your vents to be located at the top of the island structure

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because if the propane sinks it’s really not doing anything to allow the um the gas to escape out of the island so we’ll walk through a few scenarios on the far left you can see that’s the worst location for the vent um in the middle starting to get better

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towards the the middle of the island but it’s still not you can see the bottom half it’s still basically gas just sitting inside of that structure the third from the left you know you’re getting better that’s where you’ll see a lot of vents um placed or located but unfortunately

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those are not that’s still not the ideal location because you still have gas that can get trapped in that let’s call it the bottom quarter of that structure and the last placement is going to be ideal so you want it at the very bottom of the of the panel or the structure that’s

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where you want the event to be located so all that propane gas if there’s a leak it can dissipate and Escape out of the island let’s move on to natural gas so natural gas is different than propane so natural gas is a lighter gas so it actually Rises versus sinks so basically you have

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kind of the opposite effect you don’t want your ventilation at the bottom of the island because the gas is going to rise above that then and you’re going to have a lot of gas that still gets trapped in so similar we’ll kind of walk through a reverse situation but on the left hand

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side that’s going to not get the job done as you can see in the graphic second one in is still not getting the job done you’re going to have a lot of gas trapped in that that top half of the island the third again this is probably the most common placement that you’ll see

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across the industry if you see vents put into an island unfortunately you still do leave the ability for gas to get trapped in the island so the best the best location is going to be at the very top right below the countertop so we’ll talk about cross ventilation uh

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the goal will get into kind of the different specifications from different grill manufacturers but the ultimate goal is you want to create cross ventilation that allows airflow to pass through and move through basically without any obstruction so we’ll work again from left to right

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so cross ventilation is really the if you’re meeting the minimum standard it’s just putting two points of ventilation on each side of your Island that creates cross ventilation but it still didn’t meet our standard when we when we set out to develop the product so

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second best is the second one in where you’re having cross ventilation but you’re adding event placement on the back so it’s it’s still allowing more airflow through that back end um best is the next example which is where you’re getting two points of

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ventilation on the side also um two two points of ventilation on the front and back so one on the front one on the back definitely allows for a fair amount of airflow the challenge you have there is it doesn’t cover basically everything so you’ll see our our Islands have seven

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points of ventilation to ensure maximum airflow and ventilation so we’re covering basically all the different requirements to make sure if it’s a natural gas or a propane grill we are covered because we have ventilation on top and bottom but also speaking to the heat that can build

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up we’re kind of covering it there too so even if it’s a propane grill you want the gas the ventilation for the gas towards the bottom but it’s not going to get the job done as far as heat buildup so we’re kind of covering both of those you’ll also notice we have ventilation points

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um two behind the grill so one that’s on the top of that panel one on the bottom and then we also have another point of ventilation it’s a small uh about a quarter inch Gap underneath the Grille to allow airflow underneath it and that’s actually located right

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below the uh the grease tray on the grill so these uh overhead uh kind of visual is actually very helpful to kind of get an understanding of how this should ideally operate so when it comes to vents you can be UPS vents can be obstructed and airflow can

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also be obstructed by a number of things so we gave you the example of a concrete block or cinder block construction example on the top so the challenge with cinder block is a it’s very hard to vent those types of Island structures out because of the way

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that this the blocks basically have to be cemented together and just some of the nuances in construction itself don’t allow for for an easy installation of vents the other challenge that you have is the the island structure or the the cavity of the island is actually

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restricted by the the thickness of the blocks sometimes you have to do like courses of blocks for structural purposes and that’s like restricting the airflow um so really in the top you can kind of see that gas and heat is really just circling around inside of that Island

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the other obstacles that you have outside of even just construction methods themselves are appliances so we refer that we refer to these as deep closed box appliances so these are going to be like refrigerators Cabinetry sealed storage basically anything that

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has a body or has like a structure to the Appliance that’s going to sit inside of the structure because as the structure wants to be as open as possible those appliances are kind of restricting some of that airflow and then the um the other factors are just if you’re building Islands up

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against structures or walls that can also restrict the access and the airflow as well so your safest and best option here is um RTA has a basically we call it a hollow structure so we have monolithic panels that make up the base on the outside but there’s really nothing

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restricting any of the airflow or access so from a ventilation and an airflow standpoint it’s really ideal um because it allows for maximum airflow I taught I mention a little bit about heat ventilation so we’ve talked about it a little bit but essentially again to

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reinforce the point about yes if you had a propane grill in your Islands you ideally want that vent for gas purposes to be at the bottom but that’s not actually getting the job done when it comes to heat because heat is always going to rise so in order to allow the

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heat to escape you want to place ventilation cutouts towards the top of your Island even if you’re operating with a propane setup and then I the last point is just in terms of location so ideally you want you want the the airflow on the sides but you also want the airflow behind the

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grill so directly behind the grill and then as I mentioned we have a a point of airflow right underneath the grill so it actually covers Us front and back let’s get into uh vent design so these are going to be the most common vents that you’re going to see that we’ll talk

35:59
about the challenges with these vents so every Grill uh Grill brand is a little bit different in terms of their requirements most of the grill Brands though they’ll specify you want basically two points of 20 or two points of cross ventilation so and those

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ventilation cutouts they usually want them to be 20 square inches so some grills can be as much as 30 but most of the time the grill manufacturers are going to specify 20 square inches of cross ventilation so let’s give you kind of an example of this most commonly designed

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ventilation or vent that can be built in or incorporated into an island the challenge with these is they actually don’t meet the specifications so you can see we we kind of zoomed into one of these ventilation holes on the vent itself it’s 2.1 inches by you know

36:56
0.160 inch so if you actually do that math out it actually the whole vent as an entirety only has about four a little over four square inches of venting so if you were to use this you would literally need five of these on each side of your Island just to meet

37:14
the minimum requirement for ventilation so that’s why we we created our own standard because these just weren’t these weren’t going to meet our requirements from a safety standpoint that’s why we developed our own system um it’s why we went away from this this

37:28
design which you commonly see across the industry uh the other the other thing I mentioned is you know these events talking about things that can obstruct your ventilation if the ventilation gets obstructed you have a challenge because the ventilation is designed to allow

37:44
airflow right so these vents unfortunately can easily get clogged with different debris that’s going to be you know shuffled around on the patio or the you know the outdoor environment that you have so as soon as they clog they they need to be cleaned out or

37:58
they’re not going to be effective so we’re going to touch on our ventilation design a little bit so as we mentioned in 2017 when we developed our product we didn’t extensive research on ventilation and you know the the standard stuff that a lot of the

38:20
other companies were doing just didn’t meet the mark for us so we feel like we’ve established really the gold standard when it comes to ventilation in an island and our ventilation cutouts are a little bit different so we don’t have those metal vents um we actually cut them into and

38:38
incorporate them into our casted panels a couple advantages here obviously you’re getting better airflow it’s meeting the requirements from a manufacturing standpoint we we think they’re actually cool in the sense that they’re pretty discreet so you can kind of see them in the image on

38:54
the left on that white kitchen you can see the one towards the bottom the one you can see it’s a little bit more discreetly tucked underneath the countertop the right hand side you can see it’s actually looking directly at that ventilation on the ventilation cutout on the top

39:09
um but you can you can hardly even notice it but our ventilation you can see as I mentioned there’s seven different points of ventilation so On Any Given Grill island or a plot Island that has appliances we’re going to have it at least 130 or just over a little a little

39:27
over 130 inches of ventilation that’s strategically built into our panelized system to not only look discreet and and be super functional but obviously allow for better better ventilation and maximum airflow so in the event you’re not going to use RTA or you’re not working with us there

39:49
are recommendations that we can make to ensure that your island is going to be safely built and safely constructed from a ventilation standpoint so definitely want to stay away from the manufacturer’s vents as we mentioned again you need up to five of these on

40:08
each side just to meet minimum requirements if you’re working with a contractor just make sure that you are holding them to the requirements that the manufacturers have as far as ventilation so if they are not educated you certainly want to be doing your due diligence to let them

40:26
know and work that you know into whatever agreement you have with them that it has to be safely ventilated because it’s enough it’s often overlooked then it can cause some major challenges and obviously a very unsafe situation in the long term if you’re buying an RTF system

40:44
that stands for ready to finish there’s a lot of great systems out there but you want to specify if it’s not already designed into the frame you want to specify openings to support proper ventilation and then um we would we would recommend venting top and bottom again to ensure

41:03
if you’re using propane but also heat uh Escape out of the uh out of the islands and you want to have it on all three sides so that’s back side left side right side and then you you should have a minimum of about a quarter of an inch Gap underneath that

41:20
Grill basically that’s giving you that steady cross ventilation so this is a um if you’re just gonna buy um on vents online there are vents that meet the requirements this is actually one of them you can see as an example so just make sure you do you’re doing your

41:37
due diligence if you’re going to be purchasing events online making sure that they meet the requirements so conclusion on vent recommendations or ventilation as a whole is um you want at least 20 square inches at the top and bottom on each side um add a bare minimum and then you

41:58
should you really should have ventilation going front and back to allow again maximum cross ventilation um for your entire Island structure so that’s really the recommendations we can put forth from a ventilation standpoint

42:14
Build Location – Dos & Don’ts
42:14
location and why it matters so we’ll talk about the location of the outdoor kitchen we run through we run into a lot of different scenarios when it comes to uh location because we’re working in a lot of different scenarios work with a lot of customers so we definitely get tested

42:31
in terms of uh strategically designing and placing outdoor kitchens to make sure it’s the most effective use of the space but also not that it’s just effective and functional but make sure it’s safe so first scenario we’re going to go through is going to be against a home or a

42:50
a wall or even a fence that can be a common scenario as well but I’d say most commonly it’s people build trying to build up against the back of their house the second scenario we’re going to go through is building underneath a covered structure or an overhead structure so

43:05
this could be like a pavilion or a pergola and then the third scenario is just going to be building uh around any type of features that are going to sit on the patio or other structures that you have to work around so as far as the grill setback requirements so this speaks to

43:23
specifically when you’re building an island up against a wall for sure but even if you’re having um different features that you’re building around maybe of a a railing or something like that so if it’s a non-combustible material you can see this is through the

43:39
extensive research that we did on the different Grill Brands this year you can see some of them are not specified but most of them will range anywhere from about four to seven inches and again this is specifically if you’re building against a combustible strut or a

43:54
non-combustible structure so anything that cannot ignite or catch fire so these are going to be things like stucco cinder block um you know concrete walls whatever the case is um really the purpose of this setback is to allow since the Grille does vent out the back

44:12
the purpose for this setback is to allow airflow because if it’s too tight up against that wall it’s not going to allow the ventilation design to work how it’s how it’s intended to so the next setback requirement that you’re going to want to keep into

44:28
account is if you’re building around combustible materials so this could be you’re building up against a wooden fence You’re Building against a wooden wall maybe the back of your house um you know Cedar House Cedar whatever the case is as long as it’s combustible

44:43
these are the requirements that you’re going to have to work within so as you can see the setback requirements are much much larger so most Grill brands are going to be a minimum of uh 12 inches you will see I think a few in here that are actually just under 12

44:59
inches so but most most most grill manufacturers are going to require at least a foot but some of them can be up to 24 inches or two feet and just a quick point on that on that on that point is that is not only the back of the Grille itself so you want to

45:19
make sure it’s set back from the back but it’s also speaking to all four sides so even if you had a combustible structure to the right that was within 12 inches that would still not meet the requirements so let’s talk about and against the wall type of structure

45:38
in a little bit more detail so as we mentioned the the key things that you’re going to want to have to look out for is the setback requirements depending on if it’s combustible or non-combustible just to make sure that whatever that surface is behind it’s not getting

45:54
exposed to the excessive heat and potentially obviously compromising the safety of your of your Island and whatever the structure is behind it the other thing you’ll want to consider is if it’s not only built up against the wall but you have an overhead structure

46:09
over it as you can see in this picture then you’ll have to start to take into account things like Hood ventilation So Hood systems and ventilation that’s actually going to be able to pull that smoke and that excessive heat basically through the ventilation system and out some of them

46:27
vents out the back wall and then some of them vent through the uh through the roof of the structure so let’s do a deeper dive into the situation where you’re building underneath a structure so different structures you can build under some um you know Florida you

46:46
commonly have one eyes you have pergolas shade structures like a pavilion different things that keep people out of the elements so there’s a lot of utility to building underneath a structure because you get more use out of your kitchen typically but um you definitely definitely you

47:03
definitely have some some more variables that you’ll have to work around so if it is a solid roof structure that is made from combustibles most grill manufacturers again you’ll want to you’ll want to check with the manufacturer themselves or on the manual but most will require

47:20
some type of ventilation system so that’s going to be the hood the flu and the blower and what that’s going to do is it’s going to again take the excess of smoke and Heat make sure it doesn’t actually rise and just continually get exposed to that overhead

47:37
structure so it’s going to be able to take that stuff and move it out of the out of the overhead structure this also is a key consideration for contaminated air so if you have a lot of buildup of smoke and and basically heat I mean it can be just honestly just an uncomfortable

47:55
environment for your guests and maybe even for you that’s cooking on the grill to be in the other thing is again excessive grease fires that could you know basically get out of hand at least if you have that ventilation system it can kind of mitigate some of the risk there

48:10
if you’re building under a non-solid um slash non-combustible surface so these are going to be things like um pergolas that are not completely covered um they can be made out of aluminum you know you may not be required to um to put a ventilation system in in

48:25
those scenarios key thing here is ultimately your best bet in any of these scenarios when you’re trying to figure out what the requirements are you’ll want to start with the grill manufacturer themselves but you’ll be it’ll be of your best interest to check

48:40
with your local Township to see what type of requirements they have because they may have more even more strict guidelines than the manufacturer themselves so last scenario is building around other features on your patio so these could be things like deck railings you

48:59
could have planters that are made out of wood it could be a serving table a column from a structure whatever the case is um really you’re following the same guidelines as the distance from grills to combustibles right so kind of to my point about that setback is in all sides

49:16
of the grill so you’re not out of the woods if maybe your grill is clear free and clear on the back but you have a basically a wooden post maybe eight inches away from the grill you have the same concerns right there so if you’re if you’re building around

49:32
those structures you really just want to basically follow those guidelines and you should be in good shape um and then the last Point here is if you’re building up against anything that could obstruct or get in the way of those ventilate those uh those points of ventilation

49:48
you want to make sure that they’re going to be free and clear or you’re strategically replacing those ventilation cutouts to ensure again the requirements from a ventilation standpoint so the I guess the challenge with the safety up against the wall scenario is

50:09
the outdoor kitchen industry is is is pretty uh is pretty young so it’s not widely developed with a lot of different best practices or you know safety um you know confines if you will so a lot of these things are still really being researched and developed so

50:30
really there’s a lack of consistent standards and solutions so um grill manufacturers are going to really vary widely um in terms of setbacks for grills on these different different scenarios and you could get different answers so the most common approach that we see

50:49
dealing with putting an island up against a structure that could be made out of a combustible material is to actually replace that combustible material or put that put some type of heat shield that’s made out of a non-combustible over that combustible surface to really protect it

51:08
um so that’s that’s one solution the only challenge with that is the backsplash material can actually transfer that that heat to a non-combustible material that’s behind it so what we’re setting out to do is is really again trying to be at the Forefront of development from a um from

51:29
a requirement standpoint and trying to set the gold standard for the industry so really what we refer to or what we’re really leveraging is the knowledge and the history of the wood stove industry it’s been around a long time they have a lot of best practices it’s a more mature industry

51:47
um so we’ll kind of go through some of the insights that we’ve learned with Consulting with some different companies in our research to date so really the best situation you could put yourself in is a really try to avoid installing near A combustible wall

52:03
unless you’re going to properly design wall protection so that’s what we’re going to kind of get into here and you can kind of see the diagram on the right side I’ll I’ll talk you through it so the wall covering should act as a true heat shield the one thing you’ll

52:17
want to be mindful of again the only challenge you have there is the heat can actually transfer into that combustible material that’s behind it so the ideal scenario is to actually get a 7 8 of an inch space to allow airflow between that Gap then we also would recommend overhead

52:36
ventilation um if you’re working underneath an overhead structure the reason for that is to draw that heat grease and everything again away from that wall so it doesn’t build up and it doesn’t consistently become exposed to that back wall in general

52:52
so as I mentioned we are we are in the thick of working with some companies in developing a system and a solution for this for these unique scenarios that do come up so we’re we’re currently working on developing that we expect the initial prototype to be um to be ready

53:13
to roll out here in quarter two of 2023. so in conclusion when you’re building an island against the wall the one thing or the couple things you’ll want to be mindful of is a probably the most important thing is really keeping your grill and other cooking appliances away from anything

53:34
that’s going to be combustible if you have to build near combustibles again it’s critically important that you’re going to follow the setbacks that are outlined by the different grill manufacturers and uh also consider a heat shield that’s kind of laid out by

53:49
the standards of the the wood stove industry

53:53
Do You Need a Grill Jacket?
53:55
let’s get into Grill jackets so Grill jackets or some uh some people might know them as insulated jackets really the purpose of these is to If You’re Building a grill into a structure that is made up of combustible materials then you want the the insulated jacket

54:17
basically acts as a buffer to um basically not have that heat disperse and protect it from those combustible materials that could be close by it also can provide a barrier to reduce the grease to reduce the risk of a grease fire so many manufacturers

54:36
there’s probably some gray area here but many manufacturers actually permit building um a built-in grill into an island structure that’s made out of combustibles as long as you use an insulated jacket the key thing here is you just want to make sure the insulated

54:53
jacket is actually going to set you up for the best outcome so some you’ll see on the top that’s the example of kind of like worse the worst design as far as a insulated jacket goes and the reason is is because it allows there’s different points that’s allowing

55:10
the actual heat to kind of sink and disperse into the island so the job of the insulated jacket is to buffer and create a barrier for that heat to not Escape but if you have the basically those holes and those different points it’s actually allowing that to escape

55:25
and kind of dissipate into the island structure which is really what you don’t want so not really the best way to to deal with heat the better solution is to find a insulated jacket that’s double walled um basically it’s only going to allow the Heat or the airflow to go through

55:45
the front Gap underneath the grill and um it becomes a better barrier basically between fire the Firebox and the island structure and also the interior of the island itself so not all key points here are really just insulated jackets can work and they are

56:05
effective but not all manufacturers insulated jackets are built the same so you want to do your due diligence and make sure um you know you’re getting a double walled insulated jacket that it’s going to set you up for your the best success the reason we know about this is because

56:21
we did extensive testing when we were rolling out and developing a new product a couple years back and what we did is we were testing it on an HDPE cabinet with solid surface countertops and what we found is the insulated jackets were not really doing a great

56:37
job of buffering that heat so we were getting the countertop was was melting during our testing and we were having some challenges basically reducing that heat dissipation so we really learned this through trial and error um on our ends as we were developing products but we tested two

56:55
different Grill um Grill brand jackets um or three the two different built-in grill Brands and three different jacket Styles so what we kind of found through our through our testing is single layered so not double walled insulated jackets really provide very

57:13
little to no buffering and heat the heat can actually dissipate and sink into the island which is ultimately not accomplishing what it’s what it’s designed to do so in conclusion with that your best bet is to find a double walled insulated jacket to um to reduce that transfer

57:31
from heat to the island structure so all in all that’s the conclusion what a if you’re not familiar with what an insulated jacket is or a grill jacket that’s a pretty good high level overview of the different functions that they serve but also the things to be looking

57:50
out for the other thing I want to point before we move on to um to move on from Grill jackets is a lot of people have the the misconception that they can build an island with a grill jacket close to a combustible material behind it and what they think is that

58:10
the grill jacket is actually going to buffer that heat from the let’s say it’s a wooden wall behind the island um the the insulated jackets only protecting the Heat and the excessive heat from the from the uh from the Firebox itself so it’s not protecting you from the exposed section

58:29
of the grill head which is really where everything’s ventilating out on a built-in grill anyway so you want to be careful of not making the assumption that the grill jacket’s going to protect you in that scenario you’d still want to work through those

58:42
requirements and some of those protocols that we talked about as far as protecting an island or a wall that’s going to be behind the uh behind a grill

58:53
Outdoor Kitchen Construction Method
58:53
awesome so let’s let’s dive into construction and why the construction of an outdoor kitchen matters I think we’ve we’ve talked a little bit about throughout this webinar about the outdoor kitchen industry is an immature Market it’s an inventura industry that

59:11
hasn’t had a lot of development and hasn’t had a lot of time to sort some of these best practices and golden standards get them flushed out you’ll see even in this article it literally says other than following all of Manufacturers installation and structures and using only tested

59:27
enlisted appliances there are no specific code requirements for built-in freestanding barbecue grills so really there’s no there’s no Playbook to turn to so what you have is you have a lot of differing assumptions you have a lot of differing knowledge and opinions out there and

59:49
quite honestly there’s nothing really concrete to be able to point to as the golden standard so and those things will develop as the as the industry becomes more and more mature but for the for the um you know the time and date that we’re at unfortunately a lot of that stuff is

60:04
not developed so really I mean there’s no active you know association either so we’ve referred to some of the building materials and some of the the resources that we pointed to but none of those are actually specific to outdoor kitchens they’re more you

60:20
know outdoor kitchen or I’m sorry outdoor construction materials more than they are specific to outdoor kitchens so the the one challenge is as the industry is becoming more and more evolved it’s getting more and more demand so more and more people are wanting outdoor kitchens

60:38
which with the increased demand you’re getting more and more people that will say they can build outdoor kitchens but if they’re not actually specializing in the construction of outdoor kitchens it can quickly literally become the wild west where you’re hiring people you’re

60:52
working with people who are Consulting you on things that may not even be the best practices and they’re also not building your Islands from the you know the safest standpoint and keeping in mind everything that we’ve covered so far in this webinar which ultimately it

61:08
could look beautiful it could look functional it could be more cost effective than another option But ultimately if it’s not safe to use um you know it doesn’t really matter because if it blows up it doesn’t matter how good it functions doesn’t matter how

61:21
pretty it looks if it’s putting you and your family at a safety at a safety risk you know you want to see her as far away from that as possible so and you would be surprised I mean we run across a lot of different scenarios even people that have been in the industry for a long

61:35
time still are not building the outdoor kitchen structures with all of these things in mind and making sure they’re crossing their teeth and dotting their eyes from a safety standpoint foreign so we’ll just go over the four fundamental kind of pillars when it

61:53
comes to constructing an outdoor kitchen so to start you have to have a place to put your outdoor kitchen so that’s usually going to be some type of patio right that’s going to be the patio or sometimes you’re going to build it on a deck but it’s going to be some type of

62:06
base or Surface that you’re going to build on top of we’ll go over some of the nuances and things that you’ll want to be mindful there you’re going to have the frame or the substrate so that’s basically the structure of the island itself and then typically you’re going to have some type

62:19
of finish or cladding material that gets applied to that substrate that basically gives it kind of the nice aesthetic look the substrate really provides a structure and then your countertops um those are going to go on top and those are going to provide support for

62:36
any type of drop-in Appliance and also it’s going to give you the ability to prep and serve food as well so let’s talk about best practices or things to be mindful when it comes to your surface for uh for your outdoor kitchen so you definitely want to make sure

62:55
whatever system you’re building it out of you want to check what type of weight requirements um the structure or the system is going to provide right there’s things that are very lightweight on the market there’s things that are probably somewhere in

63:09
between which is where an RTA system would fall in line with and then you have super heavy construction methods like a concrete cinder block or a paver block Construction in those scenarios if you’re just simply building a patio and you’re not reinforcing it with a

63:25
structural concrete footing the challenge with that is the weight over time can actually cause that patio to sink and then over time as I mentioned previously it can cause your outdoor kitchen structure to become compromised as well so you just want to be mindful of that you

63:40
can get specs I’m pretty regular pretty easily when working with different manufacturers on the products that you’re going to use to build the outdoor kitchen out of and then whatever your contractor you’re working with to build the patio you can just give them weight

63:53
requirements and make sure that it’s going to be adequate for the patio surface the um the other scenarios that you’re going to run into these are becoming more and more popular are building an outdoor kitchen on top of a deck especially elevated decks so again you

64:12
want to check the weight load not all decks are made to withstand the weight of an outdoor kitchen specifically if you’re using heavy construction methods like a concrete block system um so you definitely want to do your due diligence there if it needs to be

64:27
reinforced maybe it doesn’t meet the weight weight capacity that that is required then you want to reinforce it before you put the outdoor kitchen in place the other thing to be mindful of with a deck is you’re typically building out of some type of combustible surfaces or even

64:41
composite decking can melt so when you’re placing and strategically designing things you just want to be mindful of those surroundings because you’re dealing with different variables and then the last couple points about any type of surface I mean wooden decks or composite decks or any

64:58
type of deck those are pretty ideal surfaces because they don’t have any type of pitch for water runoff so from a construction standpoint they’re pretty easy to build on top of the one challenge or variable that you have with it pretty much any type of patio whether

65:13
it’s pavers could be um could be a concrete patio it could be travertine whatever the surface is you usually have to account for some type of pitch whether it’s an eighth of an inch or a quarter of an inch per foot and what that patio pitch allows is for

65:31
water off for drainage purposes so ideally you want to main you want to maintain like an eighth of an inch unless you need to have more than that more pitch than that to be able to move water faster but um really the ideal scenario is if you’re working with your contractor

65:48
before the patio goes down you want to you want to limit that patio pitch as much as possible because the more flat a surface is to build on the easier it is to uh to assemble or build your outdoor kitchen on top of so the let’s go through the worst to the

66:05
best construction materials when you’re building an outdoor kitchen so we talked about wood definitely want to stay far away from this from a couple different for a couple different reasons most importantly from a safety feature or from a safety perspective it is a combustible material

66:21
steel studs and cement boards or cement and board that’s actually a very common uh system or style to build an outdoor kitchen out of the challenge although it doesn’t it doesn’t pose any risks necessarily from a combustible or fire hazard standpoint

66:41
the challenge you have there is that that material can corrode over time which is going to then become compromised and your structure could collapse you know in the in the long term better is going to be aluminum tubing so it’s more more corrosion resistant you

66:56
can use an MGO board or masonry block so that’s going to be a little bit better than the the first option we went through even better than that is going to be gfrc boxes um gfrc if you’re not familiar that’s just glass fiber reinforced concrete and

67:13
then the absolute best materials that you can be building out of are some type of masonry as we mentioned masonry Concrete in our scenario what we have is it’s a frameless outdoor kitchen that is made out of non completely non-combustible materials it doesn’t

67:29
have anything inside any it has no frame material that can actually rust or rot away and the Finish is actually casted and incorporated into that panel so that it really can deal with any type of climate so it really checks all of the boxes you don’t have any concerns with

67:45
delamination or moisture intrusion because the Finish is actually built as part of the panel when we cast it now let’s go through finished materials so finished materials a lot of people you know a lot of it comes down to Aesthetics I mean this is really the

68:04
aesthetic kind of skin or layer on your outdoor kitchen so you know a lot of people are concerned with the aesthetic of the Finish but you definitely want to make sure it’s aesthetically pleasing but you also want to make sure it’s safe and then on top of that you want to make

68:16
sure it’s weatherproof and designed to last long term in the outdoors so worst worst materials you can build out of are anything combustible so going back to safety any type of ePay um any type of wood material or even a composite decking definitely want to

68:33
start stay far away from that that type of construction better than that is going to be a stucco finish which is definitely very popular especially in California stucco is a cementitious product so from a safety standpoint you’re you’re in good good shape as it’s non-combustible

68:49
the one challenge that you do have with stucco is unfortunately it is not doesn’t last that well in uh in climates that have extreme weather so in an area where you have freestyle a lot of moisture a lot of salt in the air and things like that could certainly start to see some

69:08
cracking some delamination of that stucco and ultimately the the island may not become compromised over time but ultimately it’s going to aesthetically not look that pleasing so your absolute best materials that you can use from a finishing standpoint is

69:23
going to be any type of cultures or natural stone veneer you could use brick tile or anything that’s going to be a powder coated metal so we’ll talk about countertops and the different materials that are going to be worse to Ideal so again going back to

69:42
what’s the purpose of the countertop well the countertop is going to support the accessories that sit in the countertop or also known as drop-in appliances uh so the worst surfaces that you can use are going back to safety wood it’s a combustible material you certainly don’t

69:59
want to use that any type of solid surface countertop again those if they get exposed over heat or exposed to heat over time you can certainly have the countertop start to melt and then any type of stainless steel the one challenge that you have there is they’re going to be incredibly

70:15
hot just in direct sunlight on their own but kind of to that point at the top your heat can actually transfer from the grill to the countertop so those stainless steel countertops can get extremely hot and then the last finish or the last material you want to stay

70:31
away from is going to be a tile countertop hey they don’t deal with temperature fluctuation really well tile is a very um rigid and and uh non-porous material but it’s very fragile it doesn’t Flex very well the other challenge you have with tile is it’s a nightmare to clean

70:49
especially if you get a lot of grime and and things in that grout since the grout is very porous it becomes very hard to clean but um not only will it look bad but it it becomes basically a surface that can become non-hygienic the the next best materials you can use

71:08
are marble quartz or porcelain uh marble it’s a beautiful material the one challenge you do have it’s a little bit soft um especially for an outdoor material so over time it can become just it can get dinged and things like that quartz as long as you’re using the right quartz you’ll

71:25
probably be in good shape but you just want to make sure it’s a quartz that doesn’t yellow over time if exposed to direct sunlight which some courts are not resistance to uh resistant to sun exposure and then the absolute best countertop materials are going to be concrete and

71:40
granite so those are going to be most susceptible to the outdoor environments and um granite’s probably the the easiest to maintain and it’s the surface that most people are familiar with

71:52
Utility Safety For Outdoor Kitchens
71:53
so click do a quick run through through uh through utilities and why these matter I think the main point just to start off with is this is a very very critical part of any outdoor kitchen project and definitely don’t want to take any shortcuts here it can

72:11
get very dangerous if you’re not working with a licensed professional so we always advise working with a licensed professional whether it’s an electrician or a plumber um the gas the gas lines will be specified according to manufacturers guidelines so you can hand that stuff to

72:29
a plumber or a licensed electrician specific to gas lines you just want to make sure that they’re the proper size to ensure the correct amount of pressure you want to make sure that the gas lines are away from any type of hot surfaces and then all gas connections you just

72:45
want to make sure they’re pressure tested before you actually use them and then good practice just to go ahead and test your gas lines or your gas connections after the winter if you’re kind of opening up your outdoor kitchen in the in the springtime you can just do

72:59
a simple soap test to ensure there’s no leaks or there’s no loose connections if you’re dealing with small propane tanks so maybe you’re not running a direct line again there’s some things that you can do to just ensure your um your best outcome here you can use a pressurized

73:19
and reusable nature can can lead to a safety risk so basically just want to be able to understand that you also want to understand the manufacturer’s guidelines for propane for using small propane tanks so a lot of that stuff will be in the manual that you can find

73:36
uh you want to inspect the tanks before using them and then we strongly recommend an automatic shutoff device you can actually get these through gas stop and then periodically checking all the connections again to ensure the proper pressure tests and and different things like that

73:57
move on to electrical so just a couple points we wanted to we wanted to bring to your attention here so one again we’re working with an outdoor project so you want to make sure your electrical outlets are outdoor rated GFCI Outlets only just to make sure that

74:14
you’re going to prevent any type of risk from a shock or fire standpoint and then also making sure this speaks to design making sure that your Outlets are not placed too closely to any type of heat sources or running water awesome let’s move on to uh design and

74:33
Outdoor Kitchen Design Matters
74:34
wide design of an outdoor kitchen matter so really a lot of the stuff that we’ve talked about so far in this in this webinar is really can be mitigated just by proper planning and that really ultimately is what design comes down to is ensuring

74:52
that you’re planning the the project out accordingly and making sure that you’re getting all your ducks in a row so if you are not experienced in outdoor kitchen construction we would highly recommend um that you work with a professional to guide you along the project you know

75:10
although it may there’s a lot of you know Facebook groups out there that you know make an outdoor kitchen a lot of DIY YouTube videos that make constructing an outdoor kitchen seem very easy and and doable and although the construction does have nuances like if you’re generally handy

75:26
it’s probably not the um the most difficult project but with all of the factors in mind that we’ve went over so far there’s so many variables to think about that goes beyond just functional aesthetic and also from a budgetary standpoint making sure that project’s cost effective

75:45
a lot of things that are not accounted for in that equation are safety and making sure that your island is set up safely and it’s ventilated properly and a lot of that just comes down to lack of experience if you simply just are not educated in the realm or in

76:00
the space about outdoor kitchens one of these elements can be easily overlooked and one of these elements being overlooked can lead to a major major disaster so there’s also other considerations that most people likely don’t even think about so like if you have prevailing

76:16
winds coming in from a certain area on your property consistently and you know that well you want to be able to design your grill probably away from that so that the um the wind is not blowing into the back of the grill which can which can cause some issues with the functionality of

76:32
the grill or you could look into getting something like a wind guard to prevent that type of scenario from happening so just to highlight some of the things you got all these different variables to think about when you’re designing an outdoor kitchen you’ve got setbacks you

76:45
got clearance from combustible materials you’ve got the airflow on the back of the grill to make sure even if you are building around combustibles that you’re not restricting the airflow and preventing the ventilation from working properly you know you want to make sure that

76:58
there’s no trip hazards you want to make sure that you have adequate walk through space when laying out your Islands on your patio to make sure you’re not restricting the traffic flow and making your patio less usable there’s also again strategically placing your outdoor

77:14
kitchen into different zones whether it’s hot zones it’s cold zones it’s um it’s a storage zone or a dry Zone by separating those again you’re setting yourself up for a better scenario that way you’re not having multiple things in one zone and creating a safety hazard

77:30
for you and your family and then the other thing is just countertop overhangs which we talked about if there’s too much cantilever um the uh the countertop can actually tip or in this case it just becomes structurally compromised and starts to Sag or crack over time so

77:45
all of these really just speak to the fact if you’re not experienced it’s just going to be better you’re going to save a lot of time you’re going to save a lot of headaches save a lot of frustration and a lot of money and a lot of Heartache by just working with a professional

77:59
Why Experience Matters
77:60
so we’ll just we’re just going to kind of highlight the experience we’ve we’ve gone over the experience that we have um why does it matter we kind of talked about it from a design standpoint But ultimately working with an expert is going to greatly enhance the success of

78:17
your project and also make sure that your your family you and your family are going to be having a safe setup to use for years to come so challenge right now is it’s a young industry as we mentioned the the industry is not developed it’s not as mature as some other Industries

78:33
so what you have is you have very few experts you have a lot of people who will claim they can build an outdoor kitchen and they can claim you know that they know how to do it to do it um safely and cost effectively and on all those things but at the end of the day

78:49
if they’re not doing this day in and day out there’s likely um some type of detail that they could miss which again could be very costly so we’ll go through what RTA was founded on so when when we when we came into the market we really founded ourselves on

79:08
the idea of eliminating barriers and eliminating the hassle and making an outdoor kitchen project more convenient for the homeowners that we’re working with so how are we doing that well to start let’s start we’re from a design concept or from a design standpoint

79:24
that’s kind of square one with the project well what we have is we have a free 3D design tool that’s on our website where customer it empowers them to go on our website click into the tool it allows them to actually strategically lay out their their design and they can

79:41
visualize their projects and literally it takes a couple minutes for them to put this together and what took hours days and sometimes weeks before to get an outdoor kitchen designed and visualized you can do it in a matter of minutes on top of that the way the

79:56
software and the tool is built out it allows you to actually design an outdoor kitchen that a is going to be functional B is going to work from a design standpoint and also from a safety standpoint because the way that our tool is built it doesn’t allow you to design

80:13
something that’s not going to actually work so on top of that not only do we Empower people with the tool but we take it a step further from a design standpoint so we have a team of designers that will work with you one-on-one so if you want to get your concept started the designer

80:31
can actually take a look at your space optimize the design according to your space maximize Effectiveness and functionality and flow of the design and also tailor it to your to your budget if you’re coming in with a predetermined budget so we run design consultations

80:47
those are one-on-one services that we provide with our customers we also have a number of exclusive resources that customers will have access to by working with our designers and you can even pass those to contractors that you’re working with on the project we have checklists and

81:05
things that are just again going to make sure that you’re set up for a successful project on top of that we give more in-depth 3D renderings than even our design tool allows so you’ll have renderings you’ll have kind of an overhead layout and a bunch of resources

81:19
so that even if you don’t end up using us you’ll be well equipped with plenty of knowledge to make an informed decision so next step is if we work with somebody and they finalize and they’re they’re on board with a certain design and with they’re working with the design team we

81:37
have a blueprint team who actually creates these detailed blueprints that are specific to your customized layout um so the advantage with that is a you can make sure and ensure the fit inside of your space so you can get that basically laid out and mapped out before

81:54
you approve your design and on top of that you can get your utility lines located and understand where those need to be placed so that you can again not run into any snags or any you know surprises um once you have your outdoor kitchen so we’re going to basically help you in the

82:11
planning and execution stage as well we don’t stop there so even once the once the sale is finalized once somebody’s design is finalized we take it a step further so we have one-on-one support that happens after the kitchen is finalized and put into production so

82:29
you are going to be assigned a dedicated customer success person on our team who works with that works with our customers to make sure that they are not left in the dark on updates throughout manufacturing so they’ll know exactly what stage their kitchen’s in they’ll

82:46
the customer success team will actually work with you one-on-one to ensure that you’ve thought about all the variables and all the different project details from an installation and assembly standpoint so that you’re again you’re prepping while the kitchen’s being

83:01
manufactured so that when it gets to your house you can have everything prepped ready to go and basically to efficiently assemble your outdoor kitchen so on top of that though we don’t stop there before the kitchen’s installed we actually provide day of

83:18
installation support as well I mean our customer success team is unbelievable they’ll literally get on a FaceTime call with you if needed they’ll be able to work through any type of challenges or any hiccups that you’re running into and uh they’ll make sure that you’re taken care of

83:34
so we’ve gone through kind of how we work with customers but let’s go through the product side and really ultimately why RTA and why do we feel like we have the best products that are not only set up for longevity but also set up from a safety standpoint so

83:52
on our structure or Island structure that’s made up of those monolithic panels that’s made out of a proprietary um proprietary concrete blend that’s reinforced with composite rebar and microfibers it’s extremely durable it’s about three to four times the strength

84:08
of a standard concrete and it’s got about a hundred year rating on it and so we’re so confident in the product’s durability that we back it with a lifetime structural guarantee um we work with coyote so coyote is the brand of appliances that we specify into

84:25
our Islands and those appliances of course meet all the requirements from a built-in standpoint and those Coyote Grill coyote appliances are going to fall into the premium class of appliances so well built for the price point really can’t beat them and then

84:43
we also have from a safety standpoint we’ve created the gold standard in terms of dealing with ventilation to make sure that gas does not build up in your Island and also heat does not build up and cause safety concerns so let’s dive into our brand promise

85:00
when it comes to safety so rta’s safety guarantee so as I mentioned at the beginning of the webinar we’re one of the only companies who offers a safety guarantee and the reason that we’re so confident about this is because all of our materials are built our

85:17
designs every material we use for our outdoor kitchens is non-combustible materials so we know everything’s going to be saved we know we know that our ventilation requirements meet the gold standard they meet all the requirements so our brand promise to you is RTA Outdoor

85:34
Living guarantees that every island is manufactured with your safety in mind all Islands will be constructed to adhere this to the strictest safety standards it’s comforting to know that your investment will be well protected and most importantly safe so

86:01
I don’t know if there were any questions

86:01
Q&A
86:02
it doesn’t look like we have any on YouTube but James I have a question for you um so we’ve been talking about potential customer potential people even who maybe not even RTA customers but any homeowner who is looking to potentially open outdoor kitchen in their their yard now what

86:23
about the people who might be watching this and they say I already have an outdoor kitchen and I know that it now does not meet the safety requirements do you have any advice for those people yeah I mean definitely it’s a tough scenario because there’s a lot of

86:40
different complexities there but I mean starting with from a ventilation standpoint if you have a Island that is not properly ventilated depending on what it’s built out of um if it’s built out of a metal structure you could simply cut into that structure and basically Place

87:00
those vents into it uh you just got to be mindful of where those studs are located so that you don’t structurally compromise your Island so there’s definitely ways to do it it can be a little bit tricky if you’re working with like a you know a CMU like a concrete block

87:16
type of construction you know you can certainly cut into that again it’s going to be it’s going to be challenging but there are ways you can do it um if you’re using like a gfrc ready to finish system it’s definitely kind of the same approach from a ventilation

87:31
standpoint you can actually you can modify those those Island structures if you will you just got to be careful that you’re not cutting into things that will cause a structural concern so that’s one way if you’re if you’re concerned about ventilation if you’ve

87:45
put an island up against a combustible surface or a combustible wall on the backside per se uh it’s really never too late to put a heat shield over the the material so that’s that’s one way to do it uh if you have an island that is built underneath an overhead structure

88:04
then it really it isn’t ever too late to put in a hood and flu and ventilation system as well um that can be something you probably want to consult a Contractor on because you have a lot more variables when you’re trying to punch things through maybe it’s the roof of your house or the

88:18
roof of the overhead structure so yeah there’s a couple of ways to approach it I mean it’s obviously on a project by project basis but certainly things you can do to be more proactive and not just kind of chalk it up as I made a mistake and I can’t correct it

88:33
exactly yeah I mean hopefully there’s no one in that scenario right now but um we know we know we’ve seen that happen um with even you know people who’ve come to us after the fact but uh definitely if you’re in that situation you know definitely look for things that you can

88:48
do to keep uh to make your Island more safe um if you don’t have an outdoor kitchen we hope today that this webinar the last 90 minutes that you’ve learned more than when you started and you have such a better understanding of what it takes to build a safe outdoor kitchen

89:02
James thank you for all the information and um to anyone who may not be watching this live feel free to ask any questions in the comments if you’re watching this later we would love to to jump in and answer those questions at any time so I feel like you missed out because you

89:16
didn’t watch it live um but yeah as James said you know we want everyone to feel informed on safety that is our true Aim so that you and your family feel very confident in the safety of your outdoor kitchen not only for this year and not only for this

89:30
barbecue season but for all the years to come that it will be lasting safe kitchen so for more information on this topic you can visit RTA outdoorliving.com backslash safety and also check out the rest of our YouTube channel we have a lot of videos on all

89:48
things outdoor kitchen related so absolutely we’ve got a ton of information out there and you know we’d love to help you either way even if you don’t decide to work with us um we have a whole team that specifically specializes in design um kind of the installation side of it

90:07
so I mean we definitely have the resources to help you and we’d love to uh be a valuable asset to uh to your research and however we can help out absolutely so thanks for tuning in everyone we’ll catch you on the next one thanks a lot