It can be tempting to put your grill up against your vinyl fence as a method of protection from the elements.
We all know it’s not a great feeling when you’re outside grilling and the wind picks up, threatening to take your sausages halfway across the garden while you finish off the burgers, right?
But with that comes some concerns. How close can your grill be to the vinyl fence? Will the heat from the flames cause damage to your fence?
These are all important questions when it comes to grill placement, and today I’m going to tackle them all to help you decide whether placing your grill by your vinyl fence is even worth it.
Ready? Then let’s get started!
Quick Answer: Generally speaking, the best place for your grill is on level ground, with a clear 2ft radius of space around it. That’s because your grill will smoke, get hot, and produce flames. Read more below for tips to improve this safety aspect of grilling!
The Problem With Vinyl Fences
To kick off today, I thought it’d be a good idea to look at the problem with vinyl fences. Do they look great? Of course they do!
That’s why so many people choose to have vinyl fencing at home. But there’s no denying that there is one major problem with them: they’re quite flammable.
And even if they don’t go up in flames directly, they still get damaged by heat much easier than most other types of fencing.
That presents a problem for us grill enthusiasts, though, because we all know that our grills operate much better when they’re protected slightly from the wind.
Using your fence for that is normally a good idea, but as you can probably already see now, using a grill too close to your vinyl fence isn’t the best idea at all…
Will My Vinyl Fence Catch Fire?
Yes, your vinyl fence could easily catch fire if you use a grill too close to it. The problem is, grills don’t just have hot flames – the whole device gets hot too.
Then there’s the smoke to contend with on top of the heat – all of which can easily damage your vinyl fencing.
Even if the fence doesn’t go up in flames directly, black scorch marks are not uncommon for unsuspecting grillers who haven’t realized the danger of using their grill close to their vinyl fences.
So yes, your vinyl fence going up in flames is a possibility, but even if it doesn’t, the heat alone will damage your fence and the only way to make it look great again will be to replace it. Which, of course, you want to avoid.
How Much Space Does A Grill Need?
Before we talk about how far your grill should be from a vinyl fence, let’s just talk about good placement of grills.
Generally speaking, the best place for your grill is on level ground, with a clear 2ft radius of space around it. That’s because your grill will smoke, get hot, and produce flames.
A vinyl fence will melt at 900 Degrees Fahrenheithttp://That’s because your grill will smoke, get hot, and produce flames., BUT, it can warp and get damaged at much lower temps.
It’s standard safety procedure to leave this amount of space around the whole grill to stop it from getting hot and causing damage to other things near to it.
But that’s general advice for everything, but does it apply to vinyl fences?
How Far Should A Grill Be From A Vinyl Fence?
Unfortunately, the 2ft advice doesn’t apply to your vinyl fence. Even with a 2ft gap between your grill and the vinyl fence, the heat will probably still damage your fences. Instead, the advice is 10ft.
Now, that’s going to be absolutely fine if you have a large garden and the way your garden is laid out allows for that kind of space between your grill and your vinyl fence.
But what if you don’t have that luxury? Are you supposed to just change your garden fencing to something more suitable?
Or be destined never to grill again? Well, maybe it doesn’t all have to be so doom and gloom…
An Alternative Method Of Protecting Your Vinyl Fence
If the 10ft clearance isn’t really practical for you, then there’s another way around it that will mean you can still grill outside close to your vinyl fence.
With this, you will still be keeping it protected from the heat, smoke, and flames of your fired up grill.
Of course, you’re not going to be able to leave your vinyl fence bare, or else it’ll just get damaged. So, you’re going to need a shield to protect it.
The best thing you can use for this is a 4 by 8 panel of fireproof drywall. And trust me, it isn’t even that expensive to buy.
By using the protective drywall as a shield, the vinyl fence will be protected because the heat won’t be able to damage it.
At the same time, your grill is protected from the wind, so really it’s a win-win solution all round.
You don’t even have to ruin the aesthetic of your vinyl fence either. I know a lot of you will be thinking if you wanted to put up fireproof drywall, you’d have just used a stone fence all around your yard.
But this drywall solution isn’t about permanently installing drywall instead of your vinyl fence.
All you need to do is prop it up against the fence, leave a 2ft gap between it and your grill as is standard safety procedure, and Voila, you’ve got yourself a vinyl fence saving solution!
And the best part is, once you’ve finished grilling, you can just take the drywall down, store it somewhere out of the way, and then take it out again next time you want to grill.
In many ways, this solution is better than leaving a 10ft gap between your vinyl fence and grill, because you won’t be forced further out into your garden and further into the mercy of the elements.
So if you’ve got vinyl fencing at home and you want to grill, I’d definitely recommend investing in a cheap bit of drywall to fireproof your fences and keep them safe when you’re grilling! It’s that easy!
Takeaway Message
Keeping 10ft of distance between your grill and your vinyl fence is advised if you’ve got nothing to protect your fences from the heat, smoke, and flames that will almost certainly damage them.
However, a great fix is to simply use a 4 by 8 panel of fireproof drywall against the fence to protect it.
That way, you don’t run any risk of your fences being damaged.
So remember, pick up some fireproof drywall and you’ll definitely be safe to grill within 2ft of your vinyl fence!