Where, if not at the summer cottage, you can fully relax from the routine city problems. How nice it is to have a barbecue in the fresh air and spend a pleasant evening with friends and relatives. The place in which there is a stove for cooking daily meals and barbecue, as well as equipping a convenient area with a dining table, many of us are familiar as a summer kitchen. Cozy summer kitchen in the country, equipped and originally decorated with their own hands, often becomes a favorite place for hanging out for all family members.
Choosing the type of future construction
There are more than a dozen varieties of buildings for cooking and eating. If the starting point is the degree of openness of the kitchen space, then the kitchen is divided into open and closed.
An open summer kitchen with your own hands due to the lack of walls allows you to visually create the effect of freedom. The main elements of an open kitchen are a stove, a sink for dishes and kitchen furniture.
The material for the manufacture of such structures is often: for the foundation - stone, and for the building itself - wood. The roof is equipped at the request of the owner. Some of them do not specifically make a canopy in order to achieve maximum unity with nature on the site. Wanting to build a summer kitchen in a country house without a roof, the owners set aside a place for construction under the crown of a tree.
The main advantage of open kitchens is that they are well ventilated, they are not hot in a hot summer.
Equipped indoor summer kitchens can serve as a convenient place for the night of guests, a kind of hunting lodge for outdoor enthusiasts and just a temporary pantry. Closed kitchens are built mainly of plywood, lining and drywall. Wanting to create a more durable structure that will last several decades, they choose stone, brick and foam blocks as the material of manufacture.
Building a summer kitchen with your own hands, in addition to saving financial costs, has another advantage - the ability to combine building materials, experimenting and creating an original design.
Regardless of what materials the construction will be built of, the main thing is that the kitchen is convenient and comfortable. It will be great if you provide a water supply to the kitchen, and equip the drain through a pipe outside the building.
Allocation of space for a cozy corner
The place under the kitchen where the whole family will spend enough time daily at the dining table is chosen so that it is convenient for the supply of electricity, water and other communications. It is most preferable to equip the kitchen away from the economic zone with pets, as well as a toilet and compost heaps.
A very good option when the kitchen is located directly above the cellar. This solution will allow you to place all the necessary products at hand. And during the period of harvesting, preservation is easy to lower the cellar until cold times. The location of the kitchen on a small slope will allow for independent drainage of rain and melt water.
Construction Technology Brief
Stage # 1 - arrangement of the foundation for the construction
The construction of the foundation begins with the choice of location, leveling the surface and marking the future construction site. If we build an open-air summer kitchen with our own hands, then an alternative to the foundation can be a simple platform, literally 10-15 cm deep. To equip it, you must remove the indicated layer of earth, filling the bottom of the resulting foundation pit with sand. After that, carefully compact and cover with paving tiles, bricks, boards.
Under a more solid construction, a tape or column type of foundation is laid, which is already buried by 50-80 cm. For relatively light structures from wood beams, a column foundation is laid. It is an equidistant stone or brick pillar located around the entire perimeter of the building that receives and distributes the load created by the structure.
The tape type of the base is able to take the load of heavier structures made of stone, brick and foam blocks. It is a concrete trench filled with concrete, which is located around the perimeter of the entire building.
And here is the slab foundation:
The stages of the construction of the foundation directly depend on the design that you have chosen. Basically, this process takes place in several stages:
- Excavation. A soil layer is removed along the marked perimeter with a depth of at least half a meter.
- Tamping a sand pillow, the thickness of which is 15-20 cm.
- The construction of the foundation. The poured foundation in favorable weather freezes during the week.
- The arrangement of the floor, the basis of which is a sandy 15 cm pillow. Tamped sand is covered with a layer of crushed stone and poured with cement mortar. If you want to lay the floor with tiles, you can lay it right away on a concrete screed.
An example of the construction of a strip foundation:
The floor level of the summer kitchen should be at least 5 cm higher than the ground level. This will prevent water from entering and spreading over the floor of the open room during rain
Stage # 2 - walling and furnace installation
Wooden structural elements are fastened with screws and screws. Beam structures are preferably made of metal corners. The external walls of the building can be sheathed with a 20 mm board, and the internal walls with drywall, lining or the same board.
Thinking about how to build a summer kitchen from brick, stone or foam blocks, it should be borne in mind that for the construction of the building you will need knowledge of the masonry of the material and skills in building the wall. For the construction of summer kitchens, the technology of laying in one brick or even in a half brick is often used.
The same work can be done to equip the working area of the premises with a barbecue oven:
Article in the subject: Do-it-yourself stationary barbecue made of bricks: equip a picnic area
In the future, when erecting a roof, it is necessary to provide for the installation of an exhaust pipe to remove heat and smoke from the space of the working zone.
To equip the furnace, a special fireclay brick is used, which is resistant to high temperatures, but at the same time it is an excellent heat conductor, quickly warming up the room.
Windows on the floor look very impressive in the summer kitchen - the entire height of the wall. This solution allows not only to bring additional sunlight into the room, but visually expand the space. Sealing joints between openings and frames can be done with silicone gaskets.
Stage # 3 - roof installation, window and door insertion
The simplest version is the option of a flat and shed roof configuration. In addition to the simplicity of the construction, the installation of a shed roof is a less costly undertaking. However, most often the roof is made gable.
The roof frame is constructed from longitudinal and transverse beams. The material of the roof of the building is often slate, tile and metal. The choice of material is based on a harmonious combination with other structural elements. When planning to equip a room that can be used in the cold season, it is advisable to provide for the use of a heat-insulating layer, which can be expanded polystyrene or mineral wool.
During installation, it should be noted that the sheets of material must extend beyond the perimeters of the structure in order to ensure the correct flow of water. At the final stage, windows and doors are installed.
Room finishing options
The floors in the room can be laid out with 20 mm boards, which will later be varnished and painted in an interesting shade of paint. The ceilings can also be planked and opened with a layer of drying oil. Using gypsum board as a ceiling coating, you can diversify the design by working with color combinations of the interior.
When choosing interior items, it is advisable to give preference to original things made of porcelain and clay, forged elements and carved wood, which can emphasize the taste of its owner.
When deciding for themselves how to make a summer kitchen, the owners of the plots have a great opportunity to erect an original design that will allow you to enjoy your meal and have a good time in a cozy room, while feeling unity with nature.