Building Outdoor Kitchen, Footing Question.

[crzy2bealive]

Building an outdoor kitchen area.

It’s going to be about 16’ long x 3’ wide x height is TBD.

Cinder Block will be wrapped with stone veneer, concrete top, grill, sink, etc.

I’m doing a rough layout as you can see in the picture below.

Question for the footing.

How thick should the footing be?

Also how wide?

• I’m using 6” wide cinder blocks.

I’m assuming use a compacted gravel base, before pouring concrete.

If so, roughly how thick should gravel base be?

Can I just wet set the blocks into the concrete?

• Or pour the footing and wait for it to dry and then start stacking blocks?

Don’t beat me up to bad I’m just a YouTube mechanic.

 

[crzy2bealive]

I built the planters by the cypress trees by myself.

All cinder blocks have been filled solid and with rebar installed every other block.

Plan for that area is to face it with stucco and have concrete cap poured to top them off.

 

[NicPaus]

That soil looks decent. I would do 12-16" deep. Run 2 pieces of #4 rebar in the footing and rebar every other block vertical. Set the first course in the concrete and get it all level. Next day start stacking. To really over kill you could tie the rebar from each side together and pour a slab in the middle. Once stacked fill the cells with rebar in them with concrete.

 

[Melloyellovector]

What Nick said

 

[crzy2bealive]

That soil looks decent. I would do 12-16" deep. Run 2 pieces of #4 rebar in the footing and rebar every other block vertical. Set the first course in the concrete and get it all level. Next day start stacking. To really over kill you could tie the rebar from each side together and pour a slab in the middle. Once stacked fill the cells with rebar in them with concrete.

Would I set the first course while the concrete is still wet?

With the cinder block being 8” high would I aim for half of it to be sunken into the wet concrete?

 

[NicPaus]

Would I set the first course while the concrete is still wet?

With the cinder block being 8” high would I aim for half of it to be sunken into the wet concrete?

Yes while it is wet. 1/3-1/2 depending on your finish height. Don't mix it to wet. Will be hard to get it level.

 

[Melloyellovector]

Wet set is quickest way
elevation for courses all depends on finish height
for clean look we typically do all counters same level 42in finish counter height - deck to counter top
its going to be covered in stone, stucco etc. if you have to cut block so what. if you want to overthink it to set footing height depth to wet set full blocks and have zero cut blocks then break out calculator, levels, string lines, etc… but not really necessary

 

[Sawtooth]

Your footing trenches/soil look to hold shape, I’d go with exactly what Nic and Tim said. I would go a little deeper than you have excavated in your picture to at least 12” depth like Nic mentioned and I would not use any of the compacted rock.
Should be nice when you’re done. Make sure to stub up some conduit inside the base if you are going to have a rotisserie motor or mini fridge etc. also run your water lines and drain for the future sink. All these need to be lower than your footing, not through the footing. Also if your BBQ is natural gas you will need to run that line to the inside of your structure as well. If you are using propane make sure you put some vents down low in the backside of the structure behind where the new BBQ will land when complete.

 

[Mikes56]

My buddy helped me build mine in my backyard. At this point run some 2”-3” conduit so you can pull light wires in the future if you want to. I did undercounter LED strips that was really easy once there was power into the area.

My buddy talked me into a dishwasher also. I store the dishes in it, and when we have a party the dirty dishes get put in the dishwasher and start it. There are clean dishes right there for the next party.

Maybe a drain or French Drain to make it easy?

 

[crzy2bealive]

Thanks all for the advice now I can move forward.

I’ll be working on getting the trenches dug out a little deeper for the footing this weekend.

I’m tapping into the detached garage for power, water, and sewer.

I luckily have a washer and dryer in there so makes it easy.

 

[crzy2bealive]

Wet set is quickest way
elevation for courses all depends on finish height
for clean look we typically do all counters same level 42in finish counter height - deck to counter top
its going to be covered in stone, stucco etc. if you have to cut block so what. if you want to overthink it to set footing height depth to wet set full blocks and have zero cut blocks then break out calculator, levels, string lines, etc… but not really necessary

Thanks yah it will be stucco / stone veneer so I definitely won’t get crazy with string lines and calculators.

Also I’m not the best when it comes to stacking block as I’m still learning…….so it’s best that the mortar lines get covered lol

 

[NicPaus]

If it's going to be stucco. Fill every cell. And brown coat it before color. It will make the color coat dry evenly. Otherwise it can look blotchy and no fixing it. The filled cells dry at a different rate than the hollow ones and it can change the color of the stucco causing the blotchy look.