Pit Barrel Cooker ok on a deck?

[fzxdoc]

I have two cement/fiber mix pads under my PBC on my Trex deck. They are large enough that any flying cinders land only on them--so far, anyway.

In addition to not wanting to catch your deck on fire, you also want to protect it from damage due to chronic heat exposure. That's why I like those cement board mats. I can even set the empty hot chimney on it with no worries. I get them at Lowe's for around $35.

One mat would probably do the trick, but I often let my PBC burn down with the lid positioned half or completely off, and that fire gets hot, so I took the extra precaution of stacking two of them.


Kathryn

[JimLinebarger]

Cement board is a lot cheaper, but doesn't last. Need to replace it every 6mos. or so. I should have replaced mine at least 6mos. ago. I only use it for my Weber but there are holes in 3 places, one is getting rather large. These mats look like they will last years. So, really cement board isn't cheaper in the long run. The one under the PBC will last longer but will break down from the heat.

[fzxdoc]

Yeah, JimLinebarger , I've used these mats for at least 4 years and they're still new-looking. One nice advantage is that they have a handle slot cut into them so when I go to use my PBC, I use that slot to pull the PBC/pad combo a bit further away from the house. Easy peasy.

[N227GB]

Even using a compact Weber chimney, I've found that trying to dump the coals into the basket while inside the barrel to be somewhat clumsy in my PBC Jr.

I do the whole lighting procedure on the pavement, then move the JR over to where I have pavers.

[Bathgate]

Good stuff here people. I've picked up 9 12" concrete pavers to give me a 3'x3' pad and put a grill pad over that. I expect that I'm good to go. Appreciate all the good input.