TRADITIONAL SMOKEHOUSE SMOKE YOUR OWN MEAT AND MORE.

Choose a well-drained location for your smokehouse, ideally in an area that can handle foot traffic. You’ll be walking to and from the smokehouse a lot while it’s in use, so you don’t want the area to turn into a sloppy mess.

There are many ways to build a structure as small as a smokehouse, but traditional pole construction offers a number of advantages. It’s simple, long lasting and quicker to build than anything else. You can even cut rot-resistant trees from your back 40 to make the frame if you’d rather not buy ready-milled lumber. The 6x8 size is easy to handle and doesn’t require any building permit.

STEP 1

INSTALL THE POSTS

Start by setting over-length posts into holes dug down below the frost line, then plumb them with temporary angled braces. Cut the posts to length afterwards so the tops are all level, but don’t fill in soil around the holes just yet. Trimming 6x6 post tops to length after