Egg on wooden deck

Davekatz

We are adding on to our patio and soon Bella the BGE will be moving from a concrete pad to a wooden deck. I thought I'd tap in to the collective experience of the forum to help me decide whether to be worried about this or not.

Anybody else Egg on a wooden deck? Have you had any fire problems? Do you put a fire-resistant mat underneath? Where do you put your hot grates or plate setters?

Thanks in advance,

Dave

Jasper

When we first got our egg, before the table was built, we had it on our deck on a nest sitting on top of a big fire proof mat. Not the roll up kind, the stiff solid ones they sell at Lowes. Hot items like grates and plate setter when taken out were put on top of the mat and leaning on our house, which is brick.

Boilermaker Ben

Don't tell the fire marshall or the condo association, but we have ours on our deck (ours is a 2nd floor unit). We haven't had any fire problems, but the occasional spilled lump/ash makes for some unsightly messes. We're having our deck powerwashed and re-sealed in a month or two, and will be buying a grill matt after that. I store all my accessories inside the egg, and put them on our patio table when the egg is in use, so I've always got a raised grid or a cool platesetter, or some such thing to put something hot on, and protect the table.

Carolina Q

Davekatz wrote:

Anybody else Egg on a wooden deck? Have you had any fire problems? Do you put a fire-resistant mat underneath? Where do you put your hot grates or plate setters?

Yes.
Not yet, but I won't be surprised when (not if) I do.
No, but I probably should.
Grid goes on a couple of bricks sitting on the paver-covered patio right next to the deck (and egg). PS goes directly on the pavers.

I had my egg on the paved patio, but it's not exactly level so the dome kept trying to close by itself. So I moved it 3' away to the slightly raised (8") wooden deck area. I really need to figure out a way to level the pavers as I'm not comfortable with the egg on wood.

Little Steven

Dave,

Had a little problem a few years back







Steve

Carolina Q

That's what I meant when I said when not if! Wow, Steve - I knew about this, but had never seen the pics!

FlaPoolman

and your still having to deal with it love the way the new porch looks but what a long road to get there.

Davekatz

Yikes! :ohmy: Sorry to hear that.

Will be looking for a fire-resistant mat right away.

fishlessman

if you didnt upgrade the lower vent with the screen, do that as well.

reelgem

I've never seen the pictures Steve. I need to get some fireproof mats under my eggs ASAP. My gazebo would go up in flames in 10 secs. Yikes!!

Carolina Q

Visual aids are far more persuasive than mere words! Here's another - from bill in January...



PS: A fluke, to be sure - but fluke happens.

RRP

knocking on wood - but yes my eggs have resided on a wooden deck for 10 years now with no trouble.
The wall behind the eggs is a 8' x 36' brick fireplace wall with no overhang.


As precautions though they rest on ceramic feet which are on two sets of concrete pavers, plus I religiously use the bottom vent screen and lastly have this metal catch tray under the egg in the event an ember did pop and get through the screen.

Davekatz

Been looking at grill mats, but can't find any big enough for the whole egg table to sit on. Anybody found a big one yet?

PhilsGrill

By default decks are made of wood, patio's are usually cement. Assuming you have a deck, almost 100% of the eggs are on wood decks. With the new screen it is not an issue as it was on older eggs without the screen.

RRP

glad you brought that up - I have not been seeing the screens on new eggs at my dealer's place. The vents are installed at the factory - at least they used to come that way - anybody know if they have been discontinued or are optional now? Glad I spent the money to retrofit my eggs with them when they first came out.

Carolina Q

Bought mine last August and it had the screen. No idea what they're selling now, but I can't imagine they'd get rid of THAT!

Capt Frank

An option [not a very asthetic one, I admit] would be to buy a piece or two of "concrete board", the stuff used to put down on wooden subfloors before laying tile.

As I said, not attractive, but it would certainly do the trick. I believe it come in 1/4" or 1/2" thickness.

Capt Frank
Homosassa, FL

RRP

With the way a wooden deck twists and turns with seasonal humidity I'm not sure that cement board would take much traffic before it cracked or scattered. I think he would be better off just buying two or three of the mats and lay them side by side. One problem that has been addressed here before is the safety trade off is you can be guaranteed that the deck under those mats will never look the same, may rot, will not fade the same, and can become the haven for bugs like roaches in particular! Yup, people, roaches are common insects in the outdoors in many parts of the country whether you want to believe it or not!