We want an outdoor kitchen, but who do we call first?

Q:

We want an outdoor kitchen but we are having trouble deciding who to call to have it designed and installed. Do we call a landscaper, a kitchen maker or do we call a contractor?

A:

The answer to your question is that you will actually need to call all of them.
Since you need to call all of them you should be calling a general contractor first. One of the main jobs of a general contractor is to organize everyone involved in the job.

An outdoor kitchen designed and installed in the appropriate way involves almost every trade that you would need to have a kitchen installed inside your home. The only trade you don’t need outside is the drywaller, but you do require different people like landscapers and depending on what you want you could end up needing a whole host of other specialty trades.

Outdoor kitchens require permits; this is one reason that you need a proper design and plan. Your contractor will help you work with the designer so that you get a proper design, a fair price and also ensure that you get a permit so that you don’t have problems later. Your contractor will be able to recommend a landscaper that is suited to the task; also they will be able to have a proper kitchen maker to supply and install it.

Building a kitchen outside requires some different thinking, thinking that requires you to use materials that will withstand the damaging weather that the kitchen would not face if it was inside.

So in conclusion you should hire a general contractor and let them worry about all the other sub-trades, designs, permits, plans and specialty materials.

Thanks for the questions, keep them coming.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.