Outdoor kitchens in Dubai

The same words cover three different purchases, and the price gap between them is mostly the ground and the services, not the grill. IKEA's UAE site, for example, lists outdoor kitchen islands in its GRILLSKÄR range alongside a charcoal barbecue, and NÄMMARÖ and BÅTSKÄR units that include one for a sink. That is a sensible answer on a terrace that is already level, shaded and near a power point.

A built kitchen is a different job. It has a carcass built on a base, a grill built into it, a gas supply, a power circuit, water in and waste out, and often a roof. None of that comes in a box, and all of it has to be planned before the counter is.

Gas is the first decision, because it fixes where the kitchen can go and how the carcass is ventilated. Part K of the Dubai Building Code says LPG cylinders are not permitted indoors except where there is no other option and as Dubai Civil Defence permits, and where Dubai Civil Defence agrees an indoor cylinder is unavoidable, Part K sends the installation to Table 11.2 in Chapter 11 of the UAE Fire and Life Safety Code. An outdoor kitchen on cylinders keeps them outdoors by design, and the enclosure they sit in becomes part of the build.

Which way the gas moves decides where the vents go. Blaze's use and care guide for its built-in grills says LP gas is heavier than air and settles to the lowest levels of the island, so cross-ventilation goes low, while natural gas is lighter than air and rises, so it goes high. If the cylinder sits inside the kitchen, the guide requires a plenum wall separating it from the rest of the island, and ventilation for both the cabinets holding gas appliances and the cylinder.

• Never store a cylinder that is not connected near the grill, or indoors
• Test every connection for leaks with a soap solution, never a flame, and leave leak finding to a professional
• Keep the hose, regulator, cylinder and shut-off valves reachable once the kitchen is built
• Do not install the grill near a window or a vent that leads into the house

The code does not set barbecue clearances for villas; the grill's manual does. Part H of the Dubai Building Code, written for buildings other than villas, requires permanently installed cooking appliances, barbecues included, to be approved by the Authority and installed in accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions. Part K has no barbecue clause, so on a villa the manual for the grill you choose is the document that sets the distances.

Blaze's guide shows what those distances look like. The grill goes in a non-combustible enclosure only, and the whole outdoor kitchen structure should be non-combustible. It keeps at least 18 inches, about 460 mm, at the sides and back from combustible material, and the guide lists wood, gyprock, paper and plants. Wind coming into the back of the grill can push heat behind the control panel, so the guide asks for protection from wind and rain.

The roof over the grill has rules of its own. The guide names pergolas as partially enclosed areas that can be hard to classify, and says the grill shall not be located under overhead construction. Where it is, it asks for at least 6 feet, about 1.8 m, between countertop and the overhead structure. Under combustible overhead construction it requires a vent hood larger than the cooking area and rated at 1,200 CFM or more; under a non-combustible roof it still recommends one. A timber pergola over a gas grill is the case that paragraph describes.

These are one maker's figures for its own grills. The manual for the grill you choose is the one that counts, so ask for it before the counter is drawn, not after it is tiled.

Part K's electrical rules follow the British wiring standard, and several of them apply outdoors. Switches and socket outlets used outdoors have to be weather protected to IP55. An electric hob, oven or grill fixed in place is a stationary cooking appliance, and Part K gives every one in a home a cooker control switch to BS 4177, fitted apart from the appliance and within 2 m of it, on its own final sub-circuit from the distribution board through a 100 mA ELCB. The code's kitchen layout keeps sockets at least 300 mm from the edge of the sink and puts none above a gas or electric hob, which is as true on a terrace as indoors.

Heat matters more outside. Part K requires electrical equipment to perform at a maximum outdoor ambient temperature of 48 °C in the shade, and wiring near fixed heating appliances to have heat-resistant sleeves and cables rated for at least 85 °C. A fridge, a rotisserie motor and lighting under a grill hood all sit inside that.

Water is simpler. The code caps a kitchen sink tap at 7 litres a minute, and the sink needs a drain run as well as a supply. Both are cheapest where the house's own pipes are close, and both are easiest to lay before any paving goes down. The landscaping page covers ducts under paving and how the garden around the kitchen is watered.

It depends on whether it has a roof and walls. The Dubai Building Code's built-up area, in A.5.2.2, excludes non-covered outdoor landscape and hardscape surfaces and lightweight outdoor shading structures such as pergolas, and counts covered spaces and any other permanent structures on the plot. The code does not name an open barbecue counter either way, so on a tight plot ask the consultant how it is being counted.

A roofed and walled outdoor kitchen is easier to place, because the code names it. Part K lists external kitchens among the uses of a villa annex, and an annex comes with four limits: at least 1.5 m from the main villa unless it is a townhouse, either against the plot boundary or behind the setbacks, no more than 60% of the main building's gross area, and no more than 5.5 m high. An annex also counts in plot coverage, which a pergola does not. The villa extension page covers annexes in full.

That leaves two different jobs. An open counter under a pergola stays outdoor work. A kitchen with a roof and walls is a small building, and it is designed, approved and priced like one.

Most outdoor kitchens in a villa garden end up in one of three places, and each has its own constraint. Against the house is closest to the gas, power and water, but the grill cannot sit near a window or a vent into the house, and smoke has to go somewhere other than indoors.

Beside the pool is where people want it, and the Dubai Building Code asks for a continuous and unobstructed deck at least 1.2 m wide round the water, so the counter stands beyond that strip, not on it. The swimming pool construction page gives the fence and deck figures it has to fit around.

Under a pergola gives shade, and brings the overhead clearance rules above into play. Lighting over the counter has to be aimed or shielded so it does not light the night sky or the neighbouring plots, which Part K asks of all exterior landscape lighting.

It is worth it where it will be used, and in Dubai that is a question of shade and hours more than money. The Dubai Building Code designs a villa's cooling for an outdoor dry bulb temperature of 46 °C, with a daily range of 13.8 °C on the design day. A counter in full sun at the far end of the garden is a summer showpiece nobody cooks at.

The kitchens that get used share three things: shade over the cook, a short walk from the house kitchen, and services close enough that a sink and a fridge were cheap to add. If a plan cannot give all three, a freestanding grill and a good terrace may serve the household better, and the partner can say so at the visit.

In public, in the barbecue areas of Dubai's parks; at home, your community's rules decide what can be built. Dubai Municipality says there are more than 190 parks in Dubai, and lists barbecue areas among the facilities they include alongside sports fields and playgrounds.

At home, a built kitchen is still an alteration to the villa, so the community's rules apply before the grill does. Emaar Community Management requires any alteration to a villa in Emirates Living and Arabian Ranches to be approved by Emaar through Home Modifications, and its Arabian Ranches guidance says external modifications that change the look of the villas are not permitted. On Palm Jumeirah and in Jumeirah Village Circle, Nakheel's access permit rules decide which NOC the contractor needs. The partner contractor makes the applications, and the renovation approvals guide sets out who applies for each one.

Dubai Renovations does not publish outdoor kitchen prices. The prices in the shopping results for this search are for units and grills, and they leave out the base, the gas, the power, the water and the shade, which is where a built kitchen's cost sits.

The cheapest outdoor kitchen that works is usually modular units on a terrace that is already sound and shaded, with a charcoal grill or a cylinder rather than a new gas line, and the sink left out unless the water and drain are close. Everything on the list below moves the number up from there:

• Length and layout: a straight run, an L or an island
• The grill: charcoal, a gas grill on a cylinder, or piped gas
• The carcass: masonry, steel or modular units, and the worktop over it
• The base, if the terrace is not level or sound
• Gas enclosure, ventilation panels and the plenum wall where a cylinder sits inside
• Power: a cooker control switch on its own circuit, IP55 sockets and switches, lighting
• Water and drainage for a sink, and how far they run
• Shade: a pergola, and a vent hood if the roof is combustible
• Community NOC and the contractor's access permit
• VAT, charged in the UAE at a standard rate of 5% since 1 January 2018

The services go in before anything you can see, which is why an outdoor kitchen is hard to change once the counter is up. Groundworks are outdoor work, and the UAE midday break stops work under direct sunlight in open places between 12:30 pm and 3 pm from 15 June to 15 September.

• Choose the grill and read its installation manual, so the clearances are known
• Community NOC, with a drawing showing the kitchen's position
• Setting out, and the base or slab
• Gas, power, water and drainage run to the kitchen position, before any paving
• The carcass, with ventilation openings where the gas type needs them
• Worktop, grill, sink and appliances fitted
• Shade and any hood
• Gas leak test, electrical testing and handover

Two quotes for the same length of counter can describe very different kitchens underneath. These questions bring the difference into the written quote.

• Which grill is this designed around, and can I see its installation manual?
• Where does the gas come from, and where are the ventilation openings?
• What clearance is there to the roof above, and is the roof combustible?
• Is the carcass non-combustible, and what are the worktop and doors made of?
• Is the cooker control switch on its own circuit, and are outdoor sockets and switches IP55?
• Where does the sink drain to?
• Does a roof over this make it an annex, and how is it counted on the plot?
• Who applies for the community NOC and the access permit?