Eggs and decks

Powak

swmbo and I are looking to buy a new built home sometime this year so the girls can have their own bedrooms. Just about every place we’ve looked at has a wooden deck. Is it possible at all to run an Egg on a wooden deck without the fear of burning the whole place down? I’ve just seen a horror story or two on here. Should I just nix that idea and always make sure my large is on the ground?

lousubcap

As you are the one who has to address the fear factor, you are the one who needs to be comfortable with whatever mitigation measures you may want to use if on the deck.  I don't have a wooden deck so I'm not one to judge.  However, there are several here who do have the BGE on a wooden deck and hopefully will be along.  

Captainjimpark

Powak said:

swmbo and I are looking to buy a new built home sometime this year so the girls can have their own bedrooms. Just about every place we’ve looked at has a wooden deck. Is it possible at all to run an Egg on a wooden deck without the fear of burning the whole place down? I’ve just seen a horror story or two on here. Should I just nix that idea and always make sure my large is on the ground?

No worries here, I just keep an eye on things and make sure wherever an ember would fall out of the vent is a non flammable surface. Tile in this case.

EggMcMic

I'm with @Captainjimpark on this one. No picture, but mine sits in a wooden table on a wooden deck. There is a large (20x20" maybe) tile under the egg and it extends out in front of the bottom vent. No issues but I do keep an eye on it. I do overnight cooks and lose no sleep over it...

Woodchunk

There must be stairs down off the deck, just buy some paver stones and make a small landing for the grill

WeberWho

Neighbors deck caught fire 4-5 hours after they were done grilling and long been asleep. They lost everything but a few boxes of pictures. I can't justify it in any way on the deck. Just my own personal opinion though 

SmokingPiney

I set my deck on fire with an escaped ember from a Weber kettle after many years of no problems. My wife caught this in the middle of the night when she went to get a drink of water. I put it out, but it would have burned my house down if she didn't see it when she did. 

I had a slab poured and covered on the side of my house after that scary incident. I will not run a coal fired grill on a wood deck ever again. 

I'm not risking my house, even with small odds. 

nolaegghead

I heard about some guy once that actually lived in a WOOD house and had a GAS STOVE!!!  Talk about dumb!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

my eggs are on a composite deck, My house would have likely burned down 5 years ago when my table caught on fire if it (the deck) were wood. Melted a big hole in the composite but burned itself out before spreading. Still feel very lucky to this day. have no idea how it happened. Just came out the next morning and half my table was gone and there was hole melted in my deck. I do think this was more of a table issue than an egg issue. I moved to a nest and haven't had any problems since. I run a stick burner and pizza oven up there too. Living dangerously

PoppasGrill

Build a sandbox on the deck to put the grill in like they used to cook on the old wood ships.

tenpenny_05

Before I got into kamados I had several instances where I caught a loose ember smoldering on my deck.  Gives you that terrible "I'm an idiot and that could have been bad" feeling.  But that was usually associated with weber smokers and chimney starters.
Ever Since I had my Kamados, I have never once had an instance where loose embers were an issue. **knock on wood**

Meeeshigan22

Mine is in a wood table on a wood deck but I don’t like it. Building a paved area off the deck, winter has slowed my progress however.

DoubleEgger

I used Ipe on our recent deck build. I wanted fire resistance but wanted the look and feel of wood. It wasn’t much more expensive than Trex. 

Carolina Q

As I understand the story, Chris Capell (Dizzy Pig) was egging on his driveway, 10-15 feet from his open garage door. The fire marshall's guess was, an ember popped out, landed inside the garage and Chris lost his house.

But then again, nola says people have gas stoves in flammable houses so maybe it's ok.

nolaegghead

Carolina Q said:

As I understand the story, Chris Capell (Dizzy Pig) was egging on his driveway, 10-15 feet from his open garage door. The fire marshall's guess was, an ember popped out, landed inside the garage and Chris lost his house.

But then again, nola says people have gas stoves in flammable houses so maybe it's ok.

I called people with gas stoves in wood houses dumb.

onedbguru

I rented a house with a wood deck but I used hardibacker (cement) board. This puts a little safety on your side.  You can't stop all of it, but you can mitigate it. 
https://www.lowes.com/pd/James-Hardie-0-42-in-x-36-in-x-60-in-HardieBacker-Fiber-Cement-Backer-Board/3067737

SemolinaPilchard

If you have to egg on a wooden deck, after the cook, hose down the deck. No guarantee, but it can't hurt.

GrillSgt

You will never get over the fear. Alcohol can help. In all honesty it never bothered me until a few weeks ago as I used the last of a bag of RO and it had a lot of fine stuff in it. My mistake. When I closed the lid checking on the cook it ejected a shower of sparks through the screen, I was a bit freaked out. So no more fine stuff, Rockwood only and I will let it burn out when the lump is getting funky followed by a thorough vacuum. 

NPHuskerFL

DoubleEgger said:

I used Ipe on our recent deck build. I wanted fire resistance but wanted the look and feel of wood. It wasn’t much more expensive than Trex. 

Love our Trex remodel upgrades. I know what we put into ours $$$ so IPE is more?  Crazy. 

NPHuskerFL

SemolinaPilchard said:

If you have to egg on a wooden deck, after the cook, hose down the deck. No guarantee, but it can't hurt.

baychilla

I've been using my egg on a deck for about 10 years now.  I watch the sparks when lighting and then forget about it (granted I have a fireproof pad under it - sometimes).  The only real fire issue I'm concerned with is the dry @#$@ pine needles that clump on the model RR track.

Botch

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

my eggs are on a composite deck, My house would have likely burned down 5 years ago when my table caught on fire if it (the deck) were wood. Melted a big hole in the composite but burned itself out before spreading. Still feel very lucky to this day. 

I've always wondered what composite does when a hot ember lands on it, thanks for the info.  I ran my Eggs on a wood deck for a couple years, and now have a composite deck.  Always keep the bottom screen closed and inspected, but I'd always feared of the ceramic shattering while going (which has been reported here a couple times).  
Life has its risks.  Many here are scared to deep-fry over the Egg, with the pot of hot oil over embers, yet I fry/stir-fry inside my wooden home, over a gas range, regularly.  fwiw.      

YukonRon

I lived in a neighborhood that was deck central. All houses had at least one, and of course backed up to one another. 
One neighbor, bought a screened fire pit. Caught two decks on fire. His and his next door neighbor. 
Be safe.

Carolina Q

SemolinaPilchard said:

If you have to egg on a wooden deck, after the cook, hose down the deck. No guarantee, but it can't hurt.

Ask @Spaightlabs how that would work.

GrateEggspectations

Carolina Q said:

As I understand the story, Chris Capell (Dizzy Pig) was egging on his driveway, 10-15 feet from his open garage door. The fire marshall's guess was, an ember popped out, landed inside the garage and Chris lost his house.

But then again, nola says people have gas stoves in flammable houses so maybe it's ok.

Was it also Chris who got bit by the tick, resulting in the red meat allergy?

...Talk about bad luck....

  

Spaightlabs

Carolina Q said:

SemolinaPilchard said:

If you have to egg on a wooden deck, after the cook, hose down the deck. No guarantee, but it can't hurt.

Ask @Spaightlabs how that would work.

Doesn't work near as I can tell.  Our composite deck was soaking wet as was the wood of the table, at least the top.  Problem was that when the support members under the concrete paver started smoldering they just kept going and when the table failed it tipped towards the house, catching a resin box on fire which in turn caught the siding on fire and burned up into the eaves/attic.

We didn't have a huge margin of time to spare in getting out.

The new house and all new stuff are pretty nice though.  If the table had tipped to the south I would have had a broken egg and a burned table and that's all.

Powak

Sounds like egg’s going on a stone patio on the ground. I can’t risk that. I was more worried about the egg breaking apart on overnight smokes and didn’t even consider sparks.

NPHuskerFL

@Spaightlabs Curious. Wood table, stone paver (thickness?) & w/ or w/ an air gap. Could this have been preventable other than having the egg on a concrete slab.  I'm not an expert but, seems if there was no air gap that in itself was step 1.  

Dobie

Woodchunk said:

There must be stairs down off the deck, just buy some paver stones and make a small landing for the grill

This is what I did, I moved recently and no way I was cooking on the deck.
At some point in the near future some concrete will get poured, but 4 20 inch pavers for now. 

Teefus

I don't worry a bit. All my cooks are supervised (no overnights). A garden hose is always at the ready. 

Gulfcoastguy

I have a second driveway to my detached garage. My nest is ten feet in front of that garage on the concrete driveway. The dog door goes out to the wooden deck. 77 pound piggy dogs and grills are a bad combination. He can see the grill through a gate but not reach it.