Monthly Archives: May 2017

Orange County Barbecue Island

Orange County Barbecue Island

Get your summer started off right this year with the addition of your very own custom outdoor barbecue island. Whether you’re hosting your sons next little league party or just trying to get the family together for a weekend barbecue, a custom made barbecue island is the best way to go. Our barbecue islands are built according to customer specifications and requests. The TRU Landscape team will help create and custom build any type of design features our customers choose to integrate within their newly designed outdoor kitchen area. We’ve built and designed islands varying anywhere as small as 8′ long all the way to 32′ long. No island is ever too big or small for us to design and build. The barbecue island serves to have multiple functions rather than just being an area where one cooks. We design an area where families can gather and lounge without being limited to the constraints of their own homes. This is beautiful Southern California we’re talking about, no need to be confined eating indoors when you can enjoy the gorgeous weather outside while still dining in class.

Barbecue Island in Fullerton,Ca

Custom Barbecue Island

The design staff here at TRU Landscape services want to make the process of designing your very own Orange County barbecue island as effortless and simple as possible. The design process begins by locating an area outside the customers back patio that can best serve as the future site for the newly designed outdoor kitchen. The area needs to be relatively close to the kitchen located inside the home to allow for easy access of food prep utensils, plates, dishes, etc. Determining location of future island site is essential since this is a permanent structure that can’t be adjusted once installed. Once the area of the barbecue island is determined, we then begin drawing up dimensions based upon the customers overall vision of what the structure is intended to look like. The customer dictates to us what they foresee the final product looking like so we design and adjust accordingly. The first coarse of block is then installed and built up to bar height. Many times our bar heights are a standard 36″inches high while our counter-tops step up an additional 6″inches to give you a final seating height of about 42″ inches. The islands we typically design have a (PIP) poured in place colored concrete cap with either a squared edge finish along the sides or a bull nose style finish. We’ve done granite installations in the past but as granite is a rather porous stone, it tends not to as well outside as our poured in place counter tops do. Customer has the option of either applying a stucco textured finish to the sides of the barbecue island or installing a stacked stone veneer along the sides and stucco on the back.

 

BBQ Island in Fullerton,Ca

Special BBQ Island Features

The customer is presented with our standard design package and given all of the various options to take your Orange County barbecue island to the next level. Installing a stacked stone veneer panel along the front face of your island can definitely separate you from the rest but why not take it a step further and incorporate that fire feature you’ve so desperately been desiring right into your newly designed  BBQ island. This can easily be accomplished by dropping in a 19″inch or 27″inch fire bowl right into your poured in place counter top. Customize your new fire feature with a tumbled fire glass within the center to give it that bonus appeal factor. Ignite the flame from the convenience of your cellular telephone with the convenient app provided by the manufacture.

 

Polished Concrete Counter Top

Polished Concrete Counter Top

The latest and common trend in barbecue island designs is the polishing of the concrete counter top. This is performed by pouring a concrete counter top and spraying a retardant as the concrete is drying. The retardant allows the aggregate to make it’s way to the surface eliminating all of the cream color in the concrete. Once the aggregate has exposed itself, we take a variable speed grinder and attach multiple polished blades and begin to polish the counter top till we have achieved a nice smooth surface. The concrete is then sealed and ready to shine. A polished concrete top has very similar traits of a granite top with a fraction of the cost.