Grill cab rehab

My Big Green Egg rests in a cabinet built by Custom Built in probably 2010. A half-slab of granite cut into a semicircle, of course with a supporting structure, finished with stucco to survive the elements, and casters. Not that I can actually move it anymore...

Side note, when I asked the granite supplier what was going to be done with the cutout for the grill, I got the shrug of "um, ????" So I asked for that piece to get the same edge treatment as the big piece.

 You see, I knew the Egg was then-currently living in the nest, which would make a stout support for the granite, and an elements-worthy companion table for the grill.

Thus, the table, created because hey, I paid for that part of the slab, right??? 

 But ten years went by, and then five more, and suddenly in 2025 the ensemble needed a refresh. So I bought some stucco for the exterior, some GitRot for the interior, found a bit of lumber, and some paint, and used up a fair portion of late July, half of August, and then up to Sept. 20  working on the project.

Step one, remove the Egg and assess the damage: 

 Well, yuck. I probably could have done some maintenance over time, but stucco (in my brain)?. It's cement, right?

But when I grilled, soot would collect on the granite and that little shelf inside the semicircle, and rain would wash it down, and it was joined by plant matter and such, and so I got this ugly black-and-green look (above).

Past due for cleaning, Hecker. 

Also, and more concerning, was water was entering the interior of the cabinet, via the doors, and rot was setting in, mostly on the lower cabinet floor, which makes sense as water obeys the laws of gravity, so I'm told (thanks Jim Kaiser!). 

So, Step Two, use mold remover as directed to clean the exterior:

 

Step Three, mix up some stucco (note in passing, the hardware store can needed a lot of water, I think it was at the end of its shelf life) and putty-knife it into place. Then, the first of many such interludes: wait for it to cure.

 

A momentary step back, if you're wondering whether I had to stop grilling throughout this process, oh hell no:

Step Four, apply the exterior-grade house paint all over the exterior of the cab. It took a mere three trips to the hardware store, and one false purchase (non-refundable), but I had Linda to step in and solve the mysteries of color. I do believe she chose wisely:

The tarp up top covered the whole she-bang while the paint dried. The disk to the right is a pizza pan that I employ when it's time to de-crud the cooking grate... let it sit in Easy Off for a bit, then hose it down.
 

Intermission: We did take two weeks at Burt Lake... this is shot from our cottage driveway, looking toward the owner's cottage, dock, and the lake:

 

OK, back to the cabinet work. 

Just to show the second big challenge (exterior R&R was the first), here's a shot of the bottom shelf of the cabinet as destroyed by water:

In this view you are looking down at about a 75-degree angle. That's rotted plywood. 

I did shoot (and narrate) a phone video of the Grand Chasm  (click to view)

And while I didn't save them, I had to collect the shards for the show and tell:

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Step Five: After cleaning up the wound, I applied the Git Rot product which called for a curing time of four days at 75 degeees, or two days at 85 degrees ambient. But it's supposed to stop the decay.

I was left with a channel about twenty inches long, two inches wide, and an inch and a half deep. My hillbilly carpentry skills took over, and I cut pieces of 1X2 rigid plastic fiirring strips and Alien-taped them into place (thanks Nick Prass!). Then I covered them with masonite pieces to end up with a more or less smooth cabinet floor. 

An order of Gorilla plastic wood from Amazon was used to finish the fix to an almost-smooth state:

 

I chose to not order another tub of plastic wood. My target was surface integrity, which I achieved even as you can see I left some hills and valleys.

 

Step Six: While all the above was going on, I cut other trim lumber to act as gutters, or water diverters, to keep the interior dry. This was a tricky task, as the gutter pieces had to be angled just so such that water would run down the faces of the cabinet doors, rather than run into the cabinet:

After the first two were installed by me alone, I needed help to install the long one on the bottom door... thanks Linda!!!

 

Step Seven: I had to paint the interior of the cabinet with some sort of maybe waterproofing paint? Just in case my gutters didn't work... so I rummaged around in my garage and found a gallon of Olympic Seal-Zall problem-solving paint... for just this sort of application!!! The price tag on the can reads $8.96. So, 25 years ago??? Who knows...

 

It was lumpy but had way more liquid than I needed, so I cut it with some paint thinner and finished the sealing of the cabinet interior. And, bonus, drying time was 20 minutes!!! And double bonus, no paint leaked through to the deck!

 

Step Eight: Give the final project some end-of-work pictures, then reload all the grill crap back into the cabinet... and I did it before we got rain!!

 

POST SCRIPT; As I said, I reloaded all the stuff back into the cabinet...  I left a shop towel in the lower storage space where the water damage was the worst. Then, overnight, as expected, we had rain. 

In the morning  I saw rivulets of water running down the cabinet door faces... could it be my gutters/water diverters actually performed as planned? That was strong evidence, but when the rain abated, I went out to check the towel.

Bone dry.

Hoo boy!!!!