Outdoor kitchen in Batumi: barbecue, sink and canopy

An outdoor kitchen in Batumi is in use from May to October, and for the rest of the year it stands out in the rain. So its materials are made for outdoors: a barbecue built of firebrick, a worktop and sink that water and salt can't harm, and pipes laid so that the water can be drained for the winter. We build it as a freestanding structure in the yard, against the wall of the house or next to a gazebo and pool.

Under a canopy or in an enclosed building

An open kitchen under a canopy is cheaper and quicker: a base, a frame, a roof and the equipment. Smoke from the barbecue clears by itself, and in hot weather it is cooler under a canopy than indoors. The downside is the season: in November, when the rain comes with the wind, cooking under an open roof is no longer pleasant.

We build an enclosed outdoor kitchen as a permanent building, with walls, windows and a door, and it is used almost all year round. It needs its own foundations, roof and ventilation, and a cooker hood over the hob that vents outside, while a barbecue or stove inside requires a full chimney with fire-stopping. The walls are often built of blocks, and where foam concrete is enough and where aerated concrete is needed is covered in our comparison of aerated concrete vs foam concrete.

A common option in between: a canopy over the barbecue and the work area, and next to it a gazebo with a table, closed off from the wind with curtains or sliding glazing. How we build structures like these is covered on the page about gazebos and pergolas.

Barbecue, oven and where the smoke goes

We build the barbecue unit in brick, with a firebox of firebrick, and put a worktop next to it. Above the barbecue we hang a hood and take the chimney above the canopy roof, otherwise the smoke will spread out under it. Besides a barbecue, people often ask for a pizza oven, a place for a kazan (a cast-iron cauldron) or a tone, the traditional Georgian clay oven for bread, and we plan the space and base for these in advance.

We choose the barbecue position by the wind. By the sea the wind usually blows from the water onto the land during the day and turns back towards the sea at night, and between houses every plot also has its own air currents. We place the barbecue so that, in the usual wind, smoke goes past the windows of the house, the gazebo and the neighbour's yard. It is separated from timber walls and the roof by a non-combustible shield and by the distance set in the design.

If the house is let short-term, it makes sense to have the barbecue as the only place for fire on the plot. Where and how guests may grill is then written into the house rules, and this is one of the tasks in villa management.

Sink, water and drain

We bring water to the sink from the house in a trench, deep enough that a spade won't reach it, and fit a valve at the lowest point so the run can be drained for the winter. We don't usually run hot water from the house across the yard: by the time it reaches the sink, a bucket of cold water will have run out of the tap. For washing up after dinner, a small water heater under the worktop on its own circuit is enough. A kitchen usually has two or three water points: the sink, the water heater and a tap for watering and for washing down the area.

We take the sink drain into the house sewer or a septic tank, through a trap and a pipe laid to a fall. The stormwater drain won't do for this: it has no water seal, grease and food scraps set in the pipe, and the yard starts to smell. If you grill often and for a lot of people, we fit a small grease trap on the outlet, which is cleaned once a season.

Gas, electricity and lighting

A gas hob or a mains gas grill can only be connected by the gas company, on its own terms. We don't touch the gas pipe: we leave space for the appliance, access to the valve and a ventilated recess, and the gas company does the connection and commissioning. If gas is still uncertain, an electric hob on a separate circuit does the same job.

The cable to the kitchen comes from the house consumer unit, where the kitchen has its own group with an RCD. Sockets above the worktop have covers and sit above the level of splashes from the sink, with separate ones for the fridge and the water heater. Over the worktop and the barbecue the lighting is bright, and the general lighting is warm and dimmed: it attracts fewer insects and doesn't shine into the neighbours' windows.

Base and canopy

The heaviest parts of an outdoor kitchen are the barbecue unit and the stone worktop. Under them we pour a reinforced slab, and the rest of the area is paved on a crushed stone sub-base with a kerb. If a brick barbecue is put straight on paving, within a couple of seasons it cracks from uneven settlement. We dig the trenches for water, drain and cable before the slab and paving, so that nothing finished has to be opened up later.

We give the area by the sink and the barbecue a fall from the worktop towards a drainage channel: after the floor is washed, the water goes there and not under the cabinets. The canopy is built on a steel frame, roofed with profiled metal sheeting or metal roof tiles, with gutters to the stormwater drain, and over the barbecue we leave an opening in the roof for the flue, with non-combustible fire-stopping. How the frame, roof and pitch of a canopy are chosen is covered in more detail on the page about canopies and carports.

Where in the yard: the house, the pool, the neighbours

Close to the house is more convenient: dishes and food are carried from the indoor kitchen, and the service runs are shorter and cheaper. But smoke and the smell of grilling shouldn't drift into the bedroom windows, so more often we put the kitchen to one side and run a lit path to the house. Next to a pool we move the barbecue well away from the water, so that ash and grease spatter don't end up in the pool.

An enclosed kitchen with walls and foundations is registered as a building of its own class, and this is worth finding out before the sketch, not after. We check the class and the setbacks from the neighbour's boundary against the registry extract and the zoning rules with the architect and our partner lawyer, and how the classes relate to a notification or a permit is explained on the page about construction in Batumi. If the yard is still being planned, it is best to fix the kitchen's location straight away on the site plan drawn up by the landscape designer.

How much an outdoor kitchen costs in Batumi

A turnkey 4×5 m outdoor kitchen under a canopy costs from 26,400 to 38,400 ₾. The price includes a paved area, a steel frame canopy, a barbecue unit, a worktop with sink, water, drain, electrics and lighting. The gas connection is not included, as the gas company does it, and appliances and furniture are priced separately.

A kitchen of a different size or make-up is priced from line items: a brick barbecue unit with chimney and worktop 9,300–14,400 ₾, a steel frame canopy 320–420 ₾ per m², paving 125–170 ₾ per m². If the kitchen is far from the house, we add the long run: cable in a trench 69–96 ₾ per linear metre, and each plumbing point beyond the sink, such as a garden tap, 210–310 ₾. An enclosed outdoor kitchen built as a permanent building costs 1,620–2,040 ₾ per m².

The price goes up with long runs from the house, a pizza oven or tone next to the barbecue, a long stone worktop and a sloping site that has to be levelled. We send a preliminary estimate from photos of the yard within 24 hours on business days. The final cost is set on the basis of the design, after a visit to the plot and once the estimate is agreed, and as long as the scope of work doesn't change, a stage's price doesn't go up.