egging and cedar

markem

I'm in Oregon, so it should come as no surprise that this post involves rain.  

I have a 12' x 12' x 10' cedar pavilion that I plan to use as a cover for the egg when it rains.  The pavilion roof slopes upward to about 14' and there is no vent at the top.  The pavilion uses clear cedar for the posts and supports and cedar faced plywood for the roof with cedar shingles on top.  All pieces are sealed with a good quality stain/varnish.  

My question is this: will running the egg under the cover cause a smokey smell over time?  If so, is there anything that I can do to help reduce the smell as I plan to sell this place eventually?  The design of the rood (unfortunately mine) is such that putting in a top vent would be very expensive and may require that I redo the roof (it is engineered to withstand 80 mph winds that we see here a few times each winter).  I could put a smaller clip-on fan up at the top of the pitch, but would be very unsightly; however, I do have power available for that if needed.

Or should I just wait and see and not stress?  I'm good at over analyzing and unfortunately like to solve all problems before they occur.  

Ladeback69

I am no expert, but cedar is pretty good I thought about not absorbing smoke, because it is used for cedar chest. Did you seal the wood? I wouldn't worry about it to much because it is going to be a good smelling smoke, not like you have a cigarette smoke shop there.

Durangler

FWIW - My egg sits on the corner of a covered patio next to a pier.
I set a cheapo floor fan on a table aiming the fan to the top corner of the patio ceiling while starting the egg if there is no breeze. Not sure if it matters, but it's not hurting.
Kinda ugly & my wife just shakes her head!
)

Eggcelsior

@jfm0830‌ built a pavilion for his eggs. I can't remember the materials but he will hopefully see this and weigh in.

Skiddymarker

I can appreciate the need for cover due to rain. My egg sits in a 7'X7' gazebo (I use the term loosely), roof is 10'X10'. Top plate is also at 7' and the roof is only 3:12 pitch. Roof is sheating ply and 2X4 truss. No issues with smoke for two years now. We always seem to have a bit of a breeze. Smoke will gather under the roof, but clears quickly. I think you might be over thinking it. 

SenecaTheYounger

Type of wood wouldn't make a difference. It's a quesrion of whether the smoke permeates the thing, or is carried away on a draft.

Might put in a ceiling fan, set to blow down.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. My second egg is under cover of an eight foot overhang, and there's no smell.

DaveRichardson

Perfect timing on starting this thread...  I am looking to incorporate a cover on a new table idea this fall; its be cantilevered off the back legs and give me a little shelter in the soon-to-be much more frequent Egging!

jfm0830

Without seeing what the pavilion looks like, the shape of the roof etc. it is hard to even make an intelligent guess. Some points in your favor is the fact you sealed the cedar and if the 10' dimension is the soffit height, the smoke may have spread out and thinned out a bit.

The fact that there is no ventilation at all will probably work against you. I am not so much thinking about a smell, but that over time smoke collecting under the roof may darken the wood over time. I used a 10'x10' EZ-Up shelter for many years. It had a 4-sided hip roof starting at about 6'--6" off the ground. On cold, damp days when I was smoking you could see what was happening with the smoke. Or in my case not happening. If you stood back a ways you could see a cloud of smoke, trapped up inside the roof. You would see some of the cloud extending down to 5 or 6" below the roof and some of this smoke was rolling out from underneath the roof. Smoke naturally rises and it will collect and be trapped under the roof until the temperature drops and then the vapors will fall. My shelter was white and over time I began to notice the color darkening on the inside of the roof. It got darker the higher up you were in the roof.

My smoker was installed near the edge of the roof. With the 6'-6" soffit height I could keep it close to the edge and stay out of the rain. This also got the chimney stack close to the edge and helped about half of the smoke escape naturally. With your roof sounding like it starts at a height of 10' you may need to pull your Egg back in away from the edge to keep it out of a wind-driven rain. I would say fire up the Egg on a cold damp day and smoke something. Stand back and observe the cloud of smoke which should be much easier to see. My wooden grill gazebo has open gable ends and I was surprised at the large amount of smoke that escaped that way. But on the damp foggy type day I could also see smoke escaping out of the continuous ridge vent too. I was able to install the concealed continuous ridge vent on my gable roof without it affecting the structural integrity. From the inside there is just a 1 1/2" wide slot where the sheathing stops short of the ridge rafter. On the outside there is the low profile continuous vent which gets concealed by a cap course of shingles. All of the framing is still secured with metal hurricane ties. Here we have not only the wind loads you speak of, but snow loads on top of that. Another reason to consider some venting near the top is to lesson the uplift forces your roof will see. Some of the wind will go under the roof and try to lift it from underneath. Venting will also help heat escape out from under the roof on a hot summer's day. If you don't have a gable roof, but have a hip roof you might be able to install some inconspicuous vents on the four sides of the roof near the peak.

Bottom Line: I think with the wood sealed the smell will not be an issue as much as the wood darkening over time. This will be an issue with or without venting, but will be worse if the smoke collects up there every time you use it.

markem

thank you, @jfm0830.  I have considered using my red ez-up but room is scarce back there.  I could get some sail cloth and set up a deflector for the smoke as when the weather is bad enough to use the shelter to smoke, I won't be sitting out there.  Didn't consider the darkening effect, but will have to - have a nice light stain on the interior that works really well with the shade the pavilion produces.

Lots of things to consider.  Thanks to everyone so far and those yet to post.

tksmoke

+1 on the discoloration of your roof. I doubt the smell will be an issue, but the smoke will definitely darken the wood. Ask how I know...