Staining and Finishing Cedar

Charcoal_Addict

Another is is the cut out for the cooker. Water is going to run down the hole. Now that would have to be tiled over as well. That means no round hole. The idea of using tile is starting to look worse by the minute. Now you would have to make a hexagonal hole for the tile to work. Otherwise you have water getting in underneath the cement board.

The other option is to leave the cooker side Cedar to keep things simple and use tile on the working area. The tiled side is going to sit higher than the cooker side of the table.

Geez, saving up for gantite is looing better by the minute.

nolaegghead

First of all, you can't see the inside of the round hold. You can use a diamond wheel on a grinder and cut the tile round.  On the cut-out side of your cement board (and maybe plywood) substrate, you can just seal with liquid nails, or epoxy, spar varnish, whatever.   It's a vertical surface - they're the least susceptible to water encroachment.  Horizontal surfaces are the problem - where water can pool.

Second, tile and cement board are cheap, easy to install.  You can use liquid nails, thin-set, or a number of different water proof adhesives between the cement board or membrane.  Its like a swiming pool or shower - you don't really care if water pools on the horizontal surface.  Ceramics and cements don't rot or decay very fast.

You can do some creative stuff - like a glass tile top http://www.houzz.com/discussions/32250/Is-glass-tile-suitable-for-use-in-a-bathroom---/

You could do mosaic, or an epoxy self leveling top with stuff embedded, or just use some pretty tile, maybe metallic glazed.  Or green to match the egg.