Repair
Outdoor Kitchen Repair
A cracked counter, a burner that will not light, doors rusted through. We fix the thing that broke, and if it is going to break again we say so.
10 years building in Meridian
70+ outdoor kitchens completed
RCE-69511 Idaho registration
Reviewed by Janine Burrows Outdoor Kitchen Designer and Erica Jensen Office Manager, Outdoor Kitchen & Patio Last checked September 2026
A cracked counter, a burner that will not light, doors that have rusted through. We fix the thing that broke.
And if it is going to break again, we say so instead of taking your money twice. Almost everything that fails out here fails for one reason, and it is worth knowing which before anyone quotes you.
What Fails
What goes wrong with an outdoor kitchen?
Water gets in, then it freezes, and everything else follows from that. The cold on its own damages very little. Water that got in during fall and expanded in January damages nearly everything.
Most failures started at the build
An outdoor kitchen that has failed in under ten years did not wear out. Something was wrong at the start, and it is nearly always the footings or the drainage.
That is not a reason to leave it broken. It is the reason we look underneath before quoting anything on top.
- Doors and drawers seized or rusted through. Indoor rated stainless, almost every time.
- A burner that will not light, or lights unevenly across the bar.
- Counters cracked, either from a moving frame or from water sitting in a porous surface.
- Cladding lifting or popping off where there was never any drainage behind it.
- Rust through the bottom of a built-in grill, from water pooling in the base.
- Mortar joints opening along the run.
- The run visibly out of level, which is the one that is not a repair at all.
Grills
Is it worth repairing a built-in grill?
Worth it if the firebox is sound. Not worth it if the bottom has gone.
Grills fail from the inside
Burners, igniters, grates, flame tamers and heat shields are wear parts. They are usually still available, and swapping them gets you years more out of an appliance that cost real money.
What ends it is the firebox. Once the base has rusted through there is nothing structural left to mount new parts to, and a patched firebox fails again in the same place.
The other question is whether the parts still exist. A discontinued grill with no burner available is a replacement whatever its condition, and we tell you that at the visit rather than after ordering.
Find out what your yard allows
We come out and tell you what you are allowed to build before anything is drawn. On site, at no cost.
Or call (208) 856-3233Rust
My grill bottom has rusted out. Can it be fixed?
Usually not, and the reason it happened matters more than the repair.
A rusted out base means water has been sitting inside the grill. Either the cover was not used, or, far more often, the cut-out has no drainage. Water runs off the lid, down inside the surround, and pools in the bottom of the enclosure with nowhere to leave.
Fit a new grill into the same wet hole and it rusts out again. So the repair is the drainage, and the grill is the part you replace once that is fixed. Anybody who quotes you the grill without mentioning the hole it sits in has not looked properly.
What We Do
What we fix
The thing that broke, and the reason it broke
Repairs are the smaller end of what we do. Where a repair will not hold, these are the jobs it turns into.
- RemodelsWhen it is not one failure but everything on top being tired.
- Full rebuildsWhen the footings moved and nothing above ground can fix it.
- WinterizingThe half hour each fall that prevents most of what is on this page.
- Adding a coverThe single change that most reduces what the weather does to a run.
- Design and layoutWhere a repair turns into moving the whole thing somewhere better.
- Fire pits and fireplacesRepairs to the other masonry in the yard while we are there.
Send a photo of the failure and a wider one of the whole run. That is usually enough to tell you which of these it is.
Some failures start with the wrong material
Timber framing is the one we are called out to most often. It moves with the weather, it holds water, and it burns.
Where we find it, the honest answer is usually a rebuild rather than another repair on top of it.
Cracks
What does a crack tell you?
Where it goes matters more than how big it is.
| What you can see | What it means | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| A crack in the counter surface only | Impact, or heat shock. The structure is fine. | Fill, grind and polish. On stone it becomes hard to find. |
| A crack that continues down into the frame | The ground under it moved. | A rebuild. Repairing the top buys one season. |
| The same crack back after a winter | The footings are too shallow to sit still. | A rebuild, and we will say so rather than take the job twice. |
| Open mortar joints, run still level | Water in the joints, freezing and expanding. | Repoint, and fix the drainage that let water sit there. |
Burners
Why will a burner not light?
Nine times out of ten it is the igniter, a blocked port, or gas that is not reaching the burner at pressure.
Three causes cover almost every call, and two of them are cheap.
The igniter
A wear part, and the cheapest fix on the list. Usually a ten minute job.
Blocked ports
Spiders and insects nest inside burner tubes. It shows as one section lighting and the rest not.
Gas pressure
Weak flame across everything, rather than a dead section, points at the supply and not the burner.
An added appliance
A line sized for the original grill gets starved when a side burner or a second appliance is added later.
A corroded valve
Less common, and the one where we stop and check the whole run before relighting anything.
A long winter
Most no-light calls come in the first warm week of spring, from kitchens that were never cleared down.
Gas work gets tested and inspected either way. If the supply is the problem rather than the appliance, that is a different job and we will tell you before starting, not halfway through.
Common Questions
Common questions
Anything where the repair fails again for the same reason. A counter above footings that are moving, a grill going back into a cut-out with no drainage, cladding back onto a wall with no way for water to leave. We would rather lose the job than do it twice at your expense.
The frame and footings should outlast you. Everything you touch is on a shorter clock. Counters last decades if they were sealed or never porous. Hardware goes first, which is why the grade matters at build stage. Appliances are the shortest lived part of the whole thing.
Yes, and it is one of the most common jobs we do. Indoor rated stainless rusting out is the single most frequent failure on the list. New units in the right grade drop into the same openings, and the frame is not touched.
Often yes, if the opening is a standard size and the surround drains. Where the original was an odd size the opening has to be modified, which means taking the counter off that section. We measure before anything is ordered.
Yes, and most of what we repair we did not build. We will tell you what failed and why, including where the original work was the cause, and you get that answer whether or not you have us do the repair.
Clear the water lines before the first hard freeze, cover the appliances, and make sure water has a way out of the frame. That is most of it. The rest is a roof, which is the one change that takes the weather off the whole run.
Get a price for your build
One call, one visit, and a quote that names what it covers.
Or call (208) 856-3233Next Step
How do you get it looked at?
Send a photo, or we come out and look. You get told what failed, why it failed, and whether fixing it will hold. No charge for the visit.
If it turns out the whole run is tired rather than broken, that is outdoor kitchen remodel. If the footings have moved, it is outdoor kitchen construction, and we will say so plainly.
Get a quote for your outdoor kitchen
We measure the space, tell you what your yard allows, and build it so nothing shifts on you in winter. One visit, and a quote that names what it covers.
Get a Free Site Measure