How far should a grill be from the house?

At a detached house, a grill goes as far from the house as its own manual says. For a Weber Spirit gas grill that is 24 in (61 cm) from anything that can burn. For a Kamado Joe it is 10 ft (3 m). The 10 ft that every guide repeats is a real fire code rule, but it is written for apartment buildings. Its first exception is one- and two-family dwellings. So at a house the code sets no distance, and the manual is the rule. At an apartment or condo, the 10 ft applies, along with a ban on combustible balconies. Ten manuals are compared below, with the rest of the patio in outdoor room dimensions.

What "clearance to combustibles" means, and what counts as combustible#

A grill here means any outdoor cooker with a fire in it: a gas grill, a gas griddle, a charcoal kettle, a ceramic kamado or a wood pellet grill. A kamado is a thick ceramic egg-shaped charcoal cooker, such as a Big Green Egg or a Kamado Joe. A pellet grill burns wood pellets in a small firepot, fed by an electric auger.

Clearance to combustibles is the gap a manual sets between the grill and anything that can burn. It is measured from the outside of the grill, not from the burners. Weber is explicit about the faces: its 24 in "includes the top, bottom, back and sides of the grill".

Combustible means able to burn. Around a house that is timber framing, wood or vinyl siding, window frames, the eaves and the soffit under them, a wood deck and its railing, fences, cushions and plants. Traeger's list is a good one to keep in mind: "wooden railings, home siding, window frames, furniture, trees, and trash receptacles".

Combustible construction is the fire code's phrase for building parts that can burn. A brick wall is not combustible, but the timber eave above it usually is. That is why the roof edge, not the wall, often decides where the grill goes.

The fire code and the manuals use the same idea, but they set it for different buildings. The next two sections take each in turn.

The 10 ft rule, word for word, and the three exceptions#

The rule everyone quotes is section 308.1.4 of the International Fire Code (IFC). The IFC is a model code: states and cities adopt it, sometimes with changes. The 2021 text, as Colorado adopted it, reads:

"Charcoal burners and other open-flame cooking devices shall not be operated on combustible balconies or within 10 feet (3048 mm) of combustible construction."

Then come three exceptions:

1. "One- and two-family dwellings."
2. "Where buildings, balconies and decks are protected by an automatic sprinkler system." That is a fixed system of water pipes whose heads open on their own in a fire.
3. "LP-gas cooking devices having LP-gas container with a water capacity not greater than 2 1/2 pounds [nominal 1 pound (0.454 kg) LP-gas capacity]." That is the small green camping bottle.

A one- and two-family dwelling is a detached house or a duplex, a building with two homes in it. So the 10 ft rule does not reach the most common place people grill. West Metro Fire in Colorado, which enforces the same section, adds that townhomes are exempt too. Check your own fire marshal's reading on townhouses, because that is a local call.

The code does not define open-flame cooking device. It names charcoal burners, and West Metro Fire applies it to propane grills. It says electric grills have "no restrictions".

This is why the 10 ft persists on every page that ranks for the question. The number is real, and it is in the code. The pages that repeat it leave out the exception list, and the first exception is the reader's own house.

Ten manuals: from 7 in to 10 ft#

With the code out of the way at a house, the binding figure is the one in the manual. These are the figures as printed. Each is measured from the grill to combustible material, unless the note says otherwise.

Three patterns stand out.

Gas grills sit close. The gas grills and griddles run from 7 in at a Napoleon's sides to 36 in at a Blackstone. Three of the five gas models print 20 to 24 in (51 to 61 cm) at the back. Napoleon adds a caution for two materials: "Additional clearance of 24" (610mm) is recommended near vinyl siding or panes of glass."

Charcoal spreads out. The two Weber charcoal grills differ by a factor of two and a half. The Summit Charcoal Grill says 2 ft from "any structure, combustible material or other gas cylinder". The Master-Touch kettle says "within five feet of any combustible material". Kamado Joe asks 10 ft, the largest figure in any manual read here.

Big Green Egg prints no home figure. Its safety page says to "keep combustible items away from the Egg" and to avoid "placing the Egg on or near any combustible surface", with no number. The 14 in and 36 in come from a label headed "Commercial use requirements", which also requires an exhaust hood. They are not a home clearance, so do not borrow them for one. Ask the maker for the figure for your model.

Char-Broil prints two figures in one sentence: "at least 3 ft. from any wall or surface" and "10 ft. clearance to objects that can catch fire". A house with wood or vinyl siding can catch fire. Where one manual gives two figures that could both apply, plan to the larger. That is our rule, not Char-Broil's.

Never under the eaves: the overhead rule is stricter than the side gap#

The side figure is the one people look up. The overhead rule is the one that moves the grill. Every current manual in the table forbids a combustible roof over the grill, and some forbid any roof at all.

• Weber (both gas and charcoal): not "beneath overhead combustible construction", nor in a breezeway or "any other enclosed area".
• Napoleon: "Do not operate unit under overhead combustible construction."
• Traeger: not "under a combustible ceiling or overhang".
• Blackstone: not "under overhead combustible construction".
• Char-Broil: never in a "carport, garage, porch, covered patio, or under an overhead structure of any kind".
• Kamado Joe: never under "roof coverings, carports, awnings or overhangs", and 10 ft from overhead construction.

So a metal or concrete patio roof does not pass every manual. Char-Broil and Kamado Joe rule out any overhead structure, whatever it is made of.

There are two exceptions in the documents, and both are narrow. An older Traeger assembly guide, for the Pro 575 and 780, allowed a grill under overhead combustibles with "a MINIMUM of 40 inches (102 cm)". The current Pro Series and Silverton manuals drop that and say no combustible ceiling at all. Blackstone's 6138 drop-in griddle may go under overhead combustible construction only with a UL 710 or ULC S646 approved heavy-duty vent hood. That is a built-in cooker in an outdoor kitchen, where hood sizes are covered in outdoor kitchen dimensions.

A timber pergola is overhead combustible construction. So is a fabric awning, and so is a parasol. A grill does not belong under any of them, by these manuals.

Worked through: one patio, three grills, 4 to 12 ft from the wall#

Take a concrete patio behind a detached house. The wall is vinyl siding, and the eave sticks out 24 in (61 cm) past it, with a timber soffit. The fire code sets nothing here, because it is a one-family dwelling. So the grill's manual decides.

A Weber Spirit gas grill. It must not sit beneath the eave, and it must be 24 in from combustible material, "top" included. The eave edge is combustible and overhead. Our reading is that the grill's back should sit 24 in beyond the eave edge, not just past it. That is 24 in of eave plus 24 in of clearance: 48 in (122 cm) from the wall.

A Weber Master-Touch kettle. It must be 5 ft (1.52 m) from "any combustible material", and the eave counts. Add the 24 in of eave and the kettle's edge sits 7 ft (2.13 m) from the wall.

A Kamado Joe Classic. It must be 10 ft from walls and 10 ft from overhead construction. Measured from the eave edge, that is 24 in plus 120 in: 12 ft (3.66 m) from the wall.

Same patio, same house, and the answer runs from 4 ft to 12 ft. The type of grill moved the answer by 8 ft. The code moved it by nothing.

On a patio 12 ft (3.66 m) deep, the kamado cannot sit on the paving at all under its manual. The gas grill sits 4 ft out, near the house, and the rest of the paving stays free for a dining table. That is a reason to choose the grill before you pour the patio, as the layouts in patio sizes and layouts assume.

Apartments and condos: when 10 ft is the rule#

In an apartment or condo building of three or more homes, the code applies. Unless one of the exceptions fits, a charcoal grill or an open-flame gas grill:

• may not be used on a combustible balcony, one built of timber or other material that burns, and
• may not be used within 10 ft (3,048 mm) of combustible construction, which can include the wall, the balcony above and a timber railing.

On a timber balcony, the first line alone rules a grill out. The balcony sizes and loads that frame this are in balcony dimensions and furniture.

The exceptions open three doors.

• A sprinklered building. If the building, balconies and decks have automatic sprinklers, the 10 ft rule lifts. Your building manager can say whether the balconies themselves have heads.
• A 1 lb gas cylinder. A gas cooker on a cylinder of no more than 2 1/2 lb water capacity is exempt. That is the nominal 1 lb (0.454 kg) camping bottle. A full-size grill tank holds 20 lb (9 kg) of propane, Char-Broil's stated maximum, twenty times as much.
• An electric grill. The rule covers open-flame devices. West Metro Fire says an electric grill "has no restrictions".

Watch how the second exception gets retold. West Metro Fire's page says you may use a propane grill "if it is utilizes a small 2 ½ pound tank". The code says 2 1/2 lb of water capacity, which holds about 1 lb of propane. A 2 1/2 lb propane bottle would hold more than twice the limit.

The manual can be stricter than the code, and then it wins. Blackstone's griddles say "do NOT use this appliance on or under any apartment or condominium balcony or deck", sprinklers or not. Char-Broil tells apartment dwellers to check with management first, and if allowed, to "use outside on the ground floor with a three (3) foot clearance from walls or rails. Do not use on or under balconies."

Which figure applies: house, apartment or condo#

This table restates the rulings above. Each row points to the source behind it.

Where these figures stop applying#

The figures here are for the models named, from the manuals linked. Another model, or another year of the same one, may print a different figure, as the two Traeger documents show. Your grill's own manual and label decide, and where a figure here differs, follow the manual. The IFC is adopted locally and can be amended. Your city's fire code, a homeowners' association, a lease or a condo's rules can all be stricter than the model code. None of them is quoted here.

This page does not cover built-in grills in a masonry island. They follow their own installation manual and may need an insulating jacket, as Blackstone's drop-in does in a combustible cabinet. It does not cover fire pits, which have their own code distances in fire pit clearances, or patio heaters, set out in patio heater clearance. The code does not say whether a pellet grill counts as an open-flame cooking device. At an apartment, ask the fire marshal before assuming it does not.

Gas cylinders have their own rules. Char-Broil says never to store an LP cylinder "in enclosed spaces such as a carport, garage, porch, covered patio or other building". Weber's Summit Charcoal Grill must never run within 25 ft (7.5 m) of any flammable liquid. No figure here covers a grill indoors, in a garage or in a tent: the Weber, Char-Broil, Napoleon and Traeger manuals all forbid it. Metric figures are the manuals' own where they print them, and conversions otherwise, as imperial and metric dimension systems explains; check your own with the unit converter. Terms such as combustible follow the code's usage, set out with others in the glossary. The codes this site draws on are indexed under standards and codes.