Outdoor Kitchens: Design Elements for Stainless Steel Cabinets

Outdoor kitchens are an excellent way of utilising the patio, garden or outdoor living space in your residential or commercial facility. It helps you take on grilling and other activities without a significant investment in artificial ventilation and smoke management systems. Moreover, an outdoor kitchen allows you to maximise the indoor space for cash-generating activities, such as restaurant setups.

Most people are not familiar with what goes into fabricating fittings for an outdoor kitchen. The following piece is an excellent read for you if you happen to be one of those people. It focuses on one of the essential sections of your outdoor kitchens, the storage. Here is all the insight you need on the design elements:

Strength and Stability

Having kitchen cabinets in your space means that they can double up as countertops for other activities. Additionally, the cabinet partitions will be used to store items of different shapes, weights, and sizes. Both cases require a strong material that can stand up to the demanding nature of their job. Steel works, but you need to choose the type carefully to avoid disappointment.

Usually, the safest bet would be something like an eighteen-gauge stainless steel panel designed for heavy-duty applications. The gauge assures you of excellent performance for multi-purpose kitchen applications.

Corrosion Resistance

The outdoor environment is often harsh on many fittings, and your outdoor kitchen cabinets are not an exception. Specifically, coastal environments present a unique challenge because of elevated temperatures and high humidity levels. Your material should capably withstand these challenges without compromising the quality of your storage and countertop spaces. When buying, go for grade 304 stainless steel for typical environments and marine-grade 316L in coastal setups. Grade 316L is the best grade for highly corrosive environments and crevice corrosion when pitted side by side with other steel grades. The presence of molybdenum makes it unresponsive to corrosive elements such as halides and chlorine. You can also opt for powder coatings to enhance corrosion resistance.

Air and Water Tightness

One of the primary design focuses of an outdoor kitchen is to make it resistant to intrusion by air and water. Keeping the storage space free of intrusion by air and water guarantees that your items will not go bad while in storage. Foods such as cereals will benefit highly from this.

Manufacturers can use silicon-based rubber gaskets around the openings of drawers and cabinet doors. The gaskets keep moisture and air from entering the storage space.

Contact a company that installs custom steel outdoor kitchens to learn more.

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