I’m very interested in getting one of those Cal Flame bbq islands, but I have a few questions due to our Colorado soils.  Now, when they build a driveway or a basement here in Colorado, the builder asks you to wait at least one year before adding walls and finishing the basement or else doing any close-by brickwork or landscaping by the driveway.  This is due to our clay soils “heaving,” which means that it holds water and swells more than most soils do.

So if I were to get a nice outdoor kitchen, what effect might this heaving have on the barbecue unit?  What I mean is, if I have a nice brick barbecue, can the heaving from underneath lift it and crack the mortar?  Can it become un-level and therefore not work as efficiently? 

And what if I have a gas hook-up straight into the house instead of a propane tank?  Can the heaving cause a breach in the gas line?  I would guess that they’ve got a lot of the problems solved without my asking.  But I just would like to know whether there’s some rule of thumb sort of wait-time like there is for basements and driveways.

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