Masonry and glue walls with gas concrete – install bar counter and windows in the new garden kitchen.

After the base of the new garden kitchen was set and aligned with the gas concrete blocks, I could now start building the walls with the Ytong blocks. A special feature here should become the bar counter of the pool bar, in addition to the window on the south side.

Building garden kitchen with gas concrete – basic form

The garden kitchen should get the shape of a U. The back side to the east should be completely closed. I would like to install my Napoleon Phantom P500 gas grill here later. Across the street on the west side, the bar is to be built.

The bar counter will later serve as a spatial separation and at the same time provide sufficient storage space. To use as much sunlight as possible in the outdoor kitchen, a large window opening is planned for the wall on the south side.

Under the work surface running in rows, various built-in cabinets should provide ample storage space. A refrigerator is also planned. For this purpose, I already have niches with the base which are to be bricked up to the final height of the countertop.
But everything in turn…

Ytong masonry or glue?

After I have installed the gas concrete blocks of the 1st row, i.e. the base, had been set full in mortar, all bricks from the 2nd row to be glued. For this I resorted to the thin-bed mortar method.

In the thin-bed method, the mortar, or adhesive, is applied only thinly over the entire stone. Then the new stone is placed and aligned. The bearing joint is very thin here and can hardly be seen visually.

Nevertheless, due to the special glue, the stones are extremely glued together.

To further increase stability, the individual Ytong blocks should of course be glued in an offset pattern. The following formula applies: Stone height x 0.4 = minimum offset. My stones have a height of 25 cm.

The minimum offset is now as follows: 25 cm x 0.4 = 10 cm. The offset must therefore be at least 10 cm.

At the corners, I alternated the overhang of the bricks to the other side of the wall. In the base, the stone of the short wall laterally adjoins the stone of the long wall.

One row up, I did it the other way around. Here, the stone of the long wall laterally adjoins the stone of the short wall. This creates an offset at the corner which increases the stability enormously.

I built the same offset at the junctions of the niche walls to the kitchen walls behind them. In the lower row, the niche wall has abutted the long edge of the outer wall.

In the second row, the stone lies flush on the outer wall at its outer edge. Towards the inside of the niche, this overhang is then naturally missing in length and must be pieced with half a stone.

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I have now filled the first stone of the base with the Ytong glue and the notched trowel. Then, since I started at the corner, I put in a masonry connector and laid the next brick on top. The new stone was then aligned.

Due to the thin-bed method, there is practically no possibility to compensate the balance of the stone. But since my base was almost perfectly bricked, then of course the following rows of bricks fit very well.

I inserted the masonry connectors at each corner and at the transitions to the niches. These are about 30cm long, perforated, metal strips that stiffen the connection between the different stones.

The gluing of the stones then proceeded relatively quickly. I only ever applied the glue for each subsequent brick. Thus, I had no risk that this dries too quickly and no longer holds.

Things got exciting at the corners. After all, the corners should be built with alternating overhang. Therefore, I set the row of stones only up to the penultimate stone and then first installed the corner stone of the other wall.

Actually, the gap from the penultimate stone of the first wall to the cross stone of the second wall should have been exactly the length of a whole stone. But due to the glue between the stones, the measurement did not open.

I have therefore always measured the gap for the last stone and sawed me the stone to fit. So that the glue between the stones had as much adhesive surface as possible, I always cut off the side with the nose or spring.

Now the glue was applied to the top of the lower stone and to the faces of each adjacent stone. I then placed the stone I had just cut into the gap and aligned it.

A little tip from me: Before applying the glue, the stone should be placed dry in the position to test whether it actually fits.

Video masonry and gluing gas concrete

While building my outdoor kitchen, I kept my camera running. I then published the individual stages in various films on my Youtube channel in a separate playlist for the construction of my garden kitchen.

If you want to see more of me and my projects, feel free to check out my YouTube channel.

Tools for working Ytong aerated concrete blocks

For the processing of Ytong or aerated concrete blocks in general, various tools are required. The stones must be shortened and ground. There are also special tools for gluing.

Since the aerated concrete has a low density, it is relatively easy to process and cut. Initially, I sawed the stones with a special foxtail saw for aerated concrete. The saw has strong cutting teeth, is solid and wears slowly.

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The disadvantage of the saw is the high force required. Provided that only one or two stones need to be cut, this can be done without any problems. In my case, however, there were over 20 stones. Sawing by hand becomes very exhausting and, above all, time-consuming.

I therefore bought an electric reciprocating saw and a special saw blade for stones. Working with the electric saw is much faster and less energy-consuming.

Initially, however, there were major problems with the saw because the saw blade got stuck in the middle of the Ytong block and could not be pulled out. Since the stones were a bit damp, the sawdust had collected at the recesses of the saw blade and clumped there.

The solution now lay in either sawing dry aerated concrete blocks or continuously removing the abrasion from the saw gap by large back and forth movements of the saw.

To remove the noses or the springs of the stones I used a gas concrete planer. This grinding board has a sharp-edged underside with which the stone can be ground very quickly and effectively. This allowed me to not only sand down the noses of the bricks, but also to level out the protrusions on the edges of the walls.

Tools for masonry with Ytong aerated concrete blocks

For the bricklaying or gluing of the bricks, you first need a bucket and a powerful stirrer to mix the glue. I already had both at hand.
Furthermore, my trowel, the notched t rowel and also my new adhesive trowel could not be missing.

This trowel is a mixture of a scoop and toothed trowel with which the adhesive can be applied directly to the stone. With a little practice, you can work quickly and effectively with it, even though I got along much better with my old toothed trowel.

A spirit level as well as a rubber mallet made my tool selection perfect. To align the stones, I used a straightedge which I could attach directly to the stone with special clamping blocks and align.

Bar counter masonry with Ytong gas concrete

The garden kitchen bar counter will double as a pool bar. It was important to me that the shelf extends beyond the wall so that one could later sit or stand comfortably at the bar.

At the same time, everything had to be stable enough to support the superstructure or a person leaning on the counter.

In my opinion, the solution was as simple as it was effective: I installed the 17.5 cm wide and 25 cm high bricks lengthwise, lying on their sides. The overhang was now 7.5 cm and provided a stable starting base for the final countertop.

I did the side gluing of the stones in the same way as the “normal” gluing. Only at the corner of the bar it became a little more complicated.

Since I wanted to have the overhang of 7.5 cm on both sides of the bar, I had to shorten the long side accordingly so that the adjacent stone of the short side also overhung 7.5 cm.

To do this, I laid out the stones on the short side and took the measurement to the next stone on the long side.

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Preis inkl. MwSt., zzgl. Versandkosten

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Video: Building bar counter and window opening with Ytong gas concrete

I also had my camera running during this construction phase. I then published all the individual stages in various films on my Youtube channel in a separate playlist for the construction of my garden kitchen.

If you want to see more of me and my projects, feel free to check out my YouTube channel.

Building windows in Ytong gas concrete

The window on the south side of the wall was relatively easy to implement. The top of the window opening should be bridged with a 150 cm lintel. Such a lintel requires a lateral support of at least 12 cm. The clear dimension of the opening was thus limited to max. 126 cm limited.

I first drew the depth of the two side countertops on the wall and then determined the center between the countertops. From there I drew 63 cm left and right the mark for the beginning of the support surface.

Now I only had to let the stones which I put on the left and on the right end at exactly these markings. The second row was then set with a half stone offset from the window opening to the outer sides. With the third row, a whole stone was installed again and so on.

I was thus able to complete the shell of the garden kitchen in a few days. Once I got the hang of the saw, the build went very quickly. In total, I used a good 140 kg of Ytong adhesive and about 80 wall connectors.

I have already measured the roof and the material is ordered. But before the wood is delivered, some time may pass. So in the meantime, I will prepare the electrical system in the new garden kitchen.