i am building an outdoor BBQ island and i live in an area that snow will fall for a couple of months. i have been researching cement backer board and i cant find any recommendations on snow fall and what type of tyle is best for this application. dont want to make this investment untill i know what i am getting into. any suggestions
I built a tile inlay on my deck for my grills. It's held up through 3 Wisconsin winters so far. I used pressure treated plywood for a base, then installed Durock over the plywood. Use Flexbond thinset for adhering the tiles. My neighbor owns a flooring store, and he set me up with an epoxy grout. You have to work it quickly to avoid a mess, but it's very durable. Hope this helps. EDIT: I would recommend using the plywood to give the Durock additional support. If you can enlarge the opening enough to wrap the Durock around the edge, you should be good. The tile and Durock should provide enough protection to keep the plywood from burning. If that will be an issue, you can screw some pressure treated 2x4's along the length of the metal frame, spaced every 16 or so, and then screw the Durock to that. This will give the top support so it won't deflect under the weight of the tile and snow, and keep the tile from popping. Good luck.
