How To Make An Outdoor Fire Pit

How to Build a DIY Fire Pit

Time

Multiple Days

Complexity

Intermediate

Price

$101–250

Introduction

Build a fire pit for not much more than than the toll of a flimsy store-bought fire ring. With tips from a veteran bricklayer, we'll show you how to brand a fire pit in your lawn.

Tools Required

Materials Required

• 120 face bricks
• 25 firebricks
• 36 in. cardboard concrete form
• 48 in. cardboard concrete form (or for less money substitute a 4x8 sheet of hardboard to make both forms)
• 5 fourscore-lb. bags of Type N mortar mix
• One half-gallon bucket of refractory cement (sold at a brickyard)
• Ten eighty-lb. numberless of concrete mix
• Two 10 ft. lengths of 3/8-in. rebar

Project step-by-pace (17)

Step 1

Buy This PDF & Cut List

How to Build a Fire Pit Overview

Getting Started on Building an in Basis Fire Pit:

Advice From a Masonry Pro:

Doug Montzka, of Montkza Concrete & Masonry in St. Paul, Minn., has been in the concrete and masonry business concern for 23 years. He's seen the popularity of fire pits but it'south possible to create a DIY burn down pit. "I started getting requests for brick burn down pits a few years ago. It isn't rocket science, but there are a few tricks to doing the job right. A well-built masonry fire pit is rock solid, rubber to use, and will easily terminal for equally long as you own your business firm."

Set aside several days to complete your fire pit:

First yous'll cascade the footing and let it fix. Then you'll mortar the bricks into place.

Before Digging, Call Utility Companies

Before digging out the space for your in ground burn down pit, phone call your utility companies (dial 811; for more info, go to call811.com) to check the location of buried utility lines.

Also, cheque the fire pit lawmaking in your surface area. Most require a fire pit to be 25 ft. abroad from any structures and overhanging trees. Think about how the prevailing winds blow through your backyard.

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Footstep ii

Mark Out the Fire Pit

The first step to make your own fire pit is to dig out a defended space in your yard for the fire pit base. The following are the fire pit dimensions we used for this projection.

• A three-ft.-diameter in ground fire pit creates enough room for a proficient fire, yet keeps everyone shut enough to chat (and complies with most codes).
  • Pro tip: To brand measuring the pit and pouring the physical basis piece of cake, we used ii cardboard concrete form tubes (purchased from a physical supply visitor).
• You could also make your ain forms by screwing together i/viii-in. hardboard.
• Rip a four x eight-ft. sail into 4 eight-in.-broad strips.
• Carefully bend and screw 2 strips together to create a 36-in.-diameter circumvolve, and use the other two to brand a 48-in.-diameter circle.
• Gear up the larger class in position and spray paint around information technology. Dig a hole nigh 8 in. deep and 3 in. larger in diameter than the course.

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Practise Information technology Right, Exercise It Yourself!

Step 3

Level the Pit

• Shovel out the soil to a depth of 8 in. for your fire pit base. Don't disturb the underlying soil.
• Check the bottom of the hole with a level.
• Remove loftier spots in your in basis fire pit by scraping off soil rather than digging.
  • Pro tip: That fashion, you lot won't loosen the underlying soil.
• Compact the soil with a manus tamper or a 4x4 post.

Step 4

Pour a Sturdy Footing for Your Burn Pit Base: Pale the Forms

• The concrete footing will create a stable base of operations for the pit walls and go on the sides of your pit from cracking as the ground moves over time.
• Stake the forms and mix up ten eighty-lb. numberless of concrete mix according to the manufacturer'due south directions.
• If you're using hardboard forms, pale them so they're nice and round.
• If the forms aren't quite level, raise one end and bulldoze a screw through the stake.
• If the forms aren't completely round, reposition the stakes.

Pace 5

Add together the Rebar

• Bend rebar into half circles for this circle fire pit and necktie them together with wire to make a band.
• Fill the forms halfway.
• Press the ring into the concrete for forcefulness, making sure it doesn't impact the sides of the forms.

Pace 6

Finish the Footing

• Shovel in the remaining concrete until the forms are filled to the top and tap the tubes gently with a sledgehammer until the concrete mix is level.
• Recheck level, hammering the forms down if necessary, and polish the acme of the footer.
• Let the concrete completely set up overnight and then remove the forms.

Step seven

Dry-Ready the Firebrick Liner

• Because regular clay brick can crevice at high temperatures, we're using firebrick (too called "refractory" brick) to line the inside of the easy fire pit walls.
  • Pro tip: Firebrick is a dense brick that's kilned to withstand high temperatures. It'south larger, thicker and wider than regular brick, and you can find it at most brickyards. Firebrick is more expensive, just it volition stand up up to nightly fires for years to come.
• You'll demand 25 firebricks for a 3-ft. diameter pit.
• Because firebrick is then dense, it's tougher to split than regular brick. "Soldiering" the brick (continuing it on stop) minimizes the corporeality of splitting and lets y'all easily adjust the bend of the pit.
• You'll only demand to divide four firebricks (employ the technique shown in stride eleven), which yous'll identify across from one some other around the pit to create depict holes for oxygen for your burn down.
• After you divide your firebricks, dry-set them in place on height of the footing.
• Adjust the spacing between bricks and so you won't have to cut the last brick to fit (cutting firebrick isn't easy).
• Mark the position of every brick on the footing.

Step 8

Mortar the Firebrick

• Firebrick is mortared with refractory cement, which, dissimilar regular masonry mortar, can withstand high oestrus.
• Refractory cement comes premixed in a bucket and has the consistency of peanut butter.
  • Pro tip: A margin trowel makes it easier to scoop cement out of the bucket and butter the bricks. And a tuck pointer is useful for cleaning upwards the joints.
• Work with iv bricks at a time.
  • Pro tip: The cloak-and-dagger is to trowel the cement on thin, similar you're spreading peanut butter on toast, and use the tightest joints you tin can.
• Butter a thin layer of cement on the footer and position your outset brick.
• Butter the second brick and barrel it against the commencement.
• Continue effectually the circle checking level side-to-side and back-to-front as you get.

Step 9

Create Air Holes

• Leave gaps in the firebrick in four opposite points around the ring and and so fill them with one-half bricks. These gaps are "draw holes" that feed air to the burn down.
• Prop up the half bricks until the mortar sets.
• Cheque for level across the DIY burn pit and the vertical level of the bricks equally you become.

Step 10

Complete the Outside Walls with Face Brick

• We used SW ("severe weathering") face brick (likewise called "common" or "building" brick) to line the outside circumvolve fire pit walls. If your climate doesn't include freeze/thaw cycles, you can apply MW ("moderate weathering") building brick. Home centers and brickyards carry a big variety of brick.
• You'll need 80 face bricks for a 3-ft.-bore pit. Confront brick with holes ("cored") is easy to split with a brick hammer. It's easier to form the curve of the pit walls with half bricks. You'll lay iii courses of face brick and mortar them together with Blazon N mortar mix (sold in eighty-lb. bag at home centers, and you'll demand about five bags).
• Because face brick is smaller than firebrick, you'll need to make up the size departure as you lay your three courses of face brick. The difference between the height of your firebrick and the total height of iii stacked face bricks will determine the width of your mortar beds between courses.
• Dry-set the face up brick, marking where each grade of face brick has to hit the firebrick to brand the third course of confront brick level with the firebrick.

Pace eleven

Split 80 Bricks in One-half

• Cup the brick in your mitt, keeping your fingers below the height edge of the brick.
  • Pro tip: Our bricklayer doesn't utilise gloves, merely nosotros advise you exercise!
• Give the brick a solid tap (a very solid tap for firebrick) on the outside border near the eye hole.
• Avoid hitting your paw. Repeat 79 times.

Step 12

Set the Face Brick

• To keep your mortar joints between courses a reasonable width, beginning lay a two- to 3-in.-thick bed of mortar right on top of the footing.
• Permit it fix up slightly (fifteen minutes) and smooth out the summit.

Step 13

Work in Sections

• Working on one-tertiary of this easy burn pit at a time, lay 3/8 in. of fresh mortar on each course of face brick into place, leaving a 1/4-in. gap between the firebrick and the face up brick.
• Cheque the level of each course and tap downward the bricks as necessary.
• Stagger the joints between courses for strength.

Stride 14

Strike the Joints

• After you finish each department of face brick, use a jointer to smooth ("strike" or "tool") the joints before the mortar dries too much.
• The mortar is ready to strike if y'all printing your finger into it and the indentation remains.
• Striking gives the wall a uniform, polished wait.
• Remember to leave the draft holes open every bit you mortar each section of face up brick and smooth out the finished joints.

Step 15

Finish Off the Top Lip

• Mortar the brick caps.
• Finish the pit with a matching "row-lock" cap using regular face brick set on border.
• You'll need about 40 face bricks for this cap, which will:
  • Help protect the wall joints from rain
  • Keep sparks contained
  • Give you a nice ledge to warm your feet on.
• Work with x to 12 bricks at a time.
• Lay a 3/8-in. bed of mortar and lay the bricks on edge, then butter each brick on the outside edge as yous go and press it into place.
  • Pro tip: Nosotros used brick, but you could use natural stone for a dissimilar look.

Step xvi

Fill up Gaps

• Add a small amount of mortar to the joints to fill up any gaps.
• Cheque level often and tap gently with a brick hammer to adapt the spacing.
• Leave a one-in. overhang on the outside to let for rain to drip off.
• Once all the bricks have been mortared in place, strike the joints for a shine, finished look with a concave jointer.

Pace 17

Finished DIY Fire Pit

• Give the cement and mortar a calendar week to cure completely before lighting a fire in your pit.
• Cascade a few inches of gravel on the pit's flooring for drainage and y'all're set up for your outset wienie roast.

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Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/building-a-fire-pit/

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