Kitchens & Fire Features
Outdoor Kitchens and Fire Pits
An outdoor kitchen is a built-in cooking and serving structure set on its own frost-ready foundation, usually combining a grill island, counter space, storage, and sometimes a bar or fire feature. It is the most expensive element per square foot that we build, because it involves footings, utilities, appliances, and finish materials rather than just a surface.
Outdoor kitchens and fire features are the elements that turn a patio from somewhere you sit into somewhere you spend the evening. They are also the elements most often bolted onto a finished patio afterwards, which is the expensive way to do it.
The reason we push to plan them at the same time as the patio is practical. A kitchen needs its own foundation, it usually needs gas, electrical, and sometimes water run to it, and it changes where people stand and move. All three of those are cheap decisions on a plan and costly ones once the pavers are down and the trenches would have to go through them.
The range here is wide. At one end is a well built fire pit with a seat wall around it. At the other is a full kitchen with a built-in grill, counters, refrigeration, storage, and a bar. Both are worth doing properly. Neither is worth doing on a foundation that will move.
What we build
- Built-in grill islands with counter space and storage
- Outdoor bars with seating overhangs
- Wood burning and gas fire pits, and built-in fire tables
- Seat walls and pillars framing the cooking and gathering area
- Frost-ready footings and structural bases for every built element
- Coordination of gas, electrical, and water runs with licensed trades
- Counter surfacing, cladding, and cap detailing to match the surrounding hardscape
- Integration with the patio layout so circulation and sight lines work
Materials and appliances
- Oberfields wall units and caps for structures, so the kitchen matches the surrounding hardscape
- Counter surfaces selected for freeze and thaw durability rather than indoor appearance
- Stainless or weather-rated appliances, doors, and drawers built for outdoor installation
- Fire pit liners and burner assemblies appropriate to wood or gas
- Frost-depth footings or engineered bases, depending on what is being built
- Gas and electrical work performed by licensed trades to code
Authorized contractor
We are an authorized Oberfields contractor, which is what lets a kitchen island, the seat wall around the fire pit, and the patio underneath all read as one material family instead of three separate purchases that nearly match. On a built element that sits at eye level, that consistency is very visible.
How we build an outdoor kitchen
A kitchen is a small building sitting on your patio, and it needs to be treated like one. The order below is why we would rather plan it with the patio than after it.
Layout and use planning
We start with how you cook and how people gather, because that determines everything else. Where the grill faces, how much landing space sits either side of it, whether the cook is looking at the yard or at a wall, and where guests naturally stand. Getting this wrong produces a beautiful kitchen nobody uses.
Utility planning
Gas, electrical, and any water runs are located before construction, and they are run by licensed trades. This is the step that has to happen before the patio surface goes down, because trenching through finished pavers afterwards means lifting and resetting a path through your patio.
Footings and foundation
Built structures get a foundation designed to sit below frost movement. The Michigan Residential Code requires footings for permanent structures to bear at least 42 inches below finished grade, which is why a substantial masonry kitchen here goes considerably deeper than the same build would in a milder climate. Lighter structures may sit on an engineered base rather than full footings, and which applies depends on what is being built.
Structure and framing
The island framework goes up, sized around the specific appliances you have chosen rather than to generic dimensions. Appliance cut-outs, ventilation clearances, and access panels all have to be right at this stage, because they are not adjustable afterwards. This is why we want the appliance list settled before we start building.
Cladding, counters, and caps
The structure is clad and the counter surface is set. Materials are chosen for a climate that freezes, which rules out some indoor-kitchen surfaces that would not survive here. Cap and cladding details are matched to the surrounding paver and wall materials so the kitchen reads as part of the space.
Fire features
Fire pits and fire tables are built with the correct clearances, the right liner or burner assembly, and a base that will not move. Gas features have their own connection and safety requirements handled by the licensed trade. Wood burning features get located with prevailing wind and the neighbours in mind, which sounds obvious and is regularly overlooked.
Appliance fit and handover
Appliances go in, connections are made and tested, and we walk the finished space with you. We also talk through winterizing, because anything with water or gas in a Michigan backyard needs a seasonal routine.
Building an outdoor kitchen for Michigan winters
The foundation is where a Michigan outdoor kitchen is won or lost. A structure with weight and rigidity sitting on a shallow base will move with frost, and unlike a paver surface it cannot flex and settle back. Movement shows up as cracked counters, split cladding, and doors that stop closing. That is why we treat footings as non-negotiable and reference the 42 inch frost depth the Michigan Residential Code sets for structural footings.
Water is the second issue. Anything with a water supply needs to be drainable and shut off before the first hard freeze, and any surface where water can collect and sit will eventually spall. Counters get pitched slightly so water runs off, and we design storage so it is not sitting in a puddle every spring.
Material selection has to account for the climate rather than the catalogue. Plenty of attractive counter surfaces will not tolerate repeated freeze and thaw cycling, and some will not tolerate de-icing salt tracked in from a nearby walk. We would rather steer you to something that survives here than build something photogenic that is failing in three winters.
The practical upside is that a properly built outdoor kitchen extends your season rather than just serving summer. A fire feature in particular makes an outdoor space usable well into the fall and again early in spring, which in this state is the difference between a few months of use and most of the year.
What an outdoor kitchen costs
Outdoor kitchens are the highest cost per square foot of anything we build, and the spread between the low and high end is enormous. A fire pit with a seat wall around it and a full kitchen with built-in appliances, refrigeration, and a bar are different orders of magnitude, even though both fall under the same heading.
The cost drivers are the structure count, the depth and complexity of the footings, how far gas and electrical have to be run and what obstacles are in the way, the appliance package you select, and the counter and cladding materials. Appliances in particular are a client-controlled variable that can move the total substantially in either direction.
The most useful piece of budgeting advice we can give is to plan the kitchen at the same time as the patio even if you build it in a later phase. Running the utility sleeves and setting the footing locations while the ground is already open costs very little. Doing the same work through a finished patio costs a great deal.
Project Gallery
Work we have completed across Southeast Michigan. Every photo is our own.
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Outdoor Kitchens FAQs
Common questions from homeowners planning hardscape projects in Southeast Michigan.
Related services
Planning a kitchen or a fire pit?
Talk to us before the patio goes in if you possibly can. Even if the kitchen is a later phase, an hour of planning now saves lifting pavers later.