With the increased interest in amenity spaces, multi-family developments are adding outdoor living spaces for value and appeal. These spaces include attractive features like pools, seating, fire tables, and outdoor kitchens.
When designing an outdoor space for your multi-family property, long-term investment value is important. The best ways to improve your investment are by reducing costly maintenance and choosing high-quality outdoor products.
In this article, we discuss the considerations of masonry structures and stainless steel for outdoor kitchen cabinets. Read on to learn why Danver Stainless Outdoor Kitchens will achieve the best result for your multi-family property.
Masonry Outdoor Kitchens
Masonry outdoor kitchens are constructed with materials like brick, stone, stucco, and concrete. When building the structure, the installer will include cutouts for appliances and cabinet inserts.
One advantage to using masonry structures is that brick and concrete are non-combustible. They are also natural materials that add a rustic look to your space. You can find them in a variety of colors and textures, making them a popular choice for backyard outdoor kitchens.
Stainless Steel Outdoor Kitchens
Stainless steel is an iron alloy that is available in different grades, depending on the use. Stainless steel contains at least 10.5% chromium, which is an important element for hardness and resistance to corrosion. Because of these properties, it is a common material for many applications, including appliances and kitchens.
Stainless steel can be powder coated in any color, texture, metallic finish, and wood grain look on the market. Because of its durability outdoors, it is the most popular material for outdoor kitchens.
Masonry Structures vs. Stainless Steel Cabinets
Project courtesy of J Michelle Designs/Backspace Builds. Located at The Victor Seattle.
If you desire a multi-family amenity space, consider the pros and cons of outdoor kitchen materials. The most important considerations are durability and maintenance, installation, and expense. Keeping these considerations in mind, let’s look at how masonry structures fare against stainless steel cabinets.
Durability and Maintenance
Brick and concrete are durable construction materials, but they are porous. Over time, the soaked in liquids will invite staining from food spills, mold, and damage during freezing weather. Long-term outdoor exposure can cause breaking or cracking as well.
The result is a product that is difficult to clean and that has a marred appearance. Especially in multi-family environments, masonry outdoor kitchens will require constant upkeep and replacement.
Stainless steel is non-porous, so you can easily wipe away spilled liquids and moisture. Stainless steel is heat resistant and will not crack, even when exposed to temperature fluctuations. Although stainless steel can rust outdoors, regular and proper maintenance will help it stand up to the wear and tear of multi-family spaces. Adding a powder coat color will reduce maintenance to a bare minimum and add a vibrant wash of color.
Regardless of material, outdoor cabinetry is prone to critters and pests making their way inside the cabinets. Keeping the cabinets clean, sealed, and free of food debris are great ways to mitigate this activity. With even the best laid plans, masonry structures have open cavities, especially behind access doors. As mentioned, masonry materials are also difficult to clean – making them major attracters of mice and spiders.
Although Danver’s cabinetry is not critter-proof, you can easily keep it clean of food debris with mild soap and water. We also install gaskets around doors and drawers and magnets to keep the doors closed when not in use.
Installation
Despite the appearance of easy installation, masonry outdoor kitchens are best left to professionals. A professional will build the structure to support the weight of countertops and appliances. This process can be messy and time consuming, requiring expert skills and precision. Overall, installing a masonry structure may require weeks on the job site.
By contrast, Danver ships our preassembled cabinetry directly to your job site, with installation instructions and resources available. Keep in mind that our kitchens are not a DIY project and will require professional installers. A professional installer can install a small kitchen within a couple of days, rather than weeks.
Expense
For up-front expense, masonry materials are less expensive than stainless steel cabinets. In this case, looking at long-term value is important. As mentioned, the maintenance requirements of masonry outdoor kitchens vs. stainless steel are vastly different.
The installation, maintenance, and replacement of masonry structures can eventually surpass the cost of one stainless steel outdoor kitchen. Consider that you will have to hire a professional every time the structure needs something replaced.
A stainless steel outdoor kitchen, on the other hand, can last a lifetime with regular and minimal maintenance. When choosing a stainless steel kitchen, you are investing in a high-performance, made to order solution. At Danver, we have over 20 years of quality and expertise to meet the needs of even the most dynamic spaces.
Why Choose Stainless Steel Cabinets?
If you are still on the fence, consider that masonry structures were the standard until better solutions became available. As outdoor kitchens increased in popularity, outdoor living brands evolved by engineering luxurious products with many more options available.
Today, outdoor kitchens have become a work of art, requiring the keen eye of designers who take projects to the next level. We highly recommend semi-custom stainless steel cabinets to bring all design ideas to life.
Danver’s 304 and 316 (marine) grade cabinetry is available in hundreds of sizes and dozens of styles (base, wall, grill, sink, trash). Our cabinetry can house almost any outdoor appliance available with a seamless fit. Complete your space by selecting from a variety of award-winning color options and signature door styles.
Our cabinetry requires limited maintenance, with durability that is unrivaled in the market. We engineer our cabinets to last in virtually all climates. We also offer a variety of products specifically for multi-family applications that meet ADA compliancy.
Masonry structures are not as durable and are difficult to clean. Most importantly, they will not give you that elegant, superior quality that will elevate your space. Choosing stainless steel over masonry will give you the best return on investment for your multi-family property. We make our products to order with your job specifications, with assistance available from planning to installation.
Our in-house team is ready with the resources and design tools to bring the outdoor kitchen of your dreams to reality. Call us today!
This article is based on industry knowledge and research by outdoor kitchen design professionals, including our in-house experts and engineers with decades of experience.Our goal at Danver is to provide factual information on relevant topics to help readers make informed decisions about their outdoor living spaces.
This article uses trusted sources with references hyperlinked to the source material.
