If you’re lucky enough to have a backyard that still holds a space for a small fire pit, you should definitely consider building one.
What could possibly be better than sitting around the crackling fire and enjoying your evening with friends and family while making s’mores or frying something up on a skewer? Lovely conversation, cozy and warm environment, the bonfire that brings everyone together, the magic of an early evening that doesn’t want to let you go inside and disappear in the silence of your house… Sounds like a perfect weekend night to me.
If I had a chance to make my own DIY fire pit, I would spend numerous evenings by its side. I would just take my time to think about everything that happened to me during the day and talk to my family about the most ridiculous things that would come to our minds. As the fire warms up our souls and generally makes everything so much better.
So, if you’re thinking about rearranging your patio area, don’t miss a chance to build a DIY fire pit as its focal point. And, even if you already have a patio, you may choose the most natural looking stone fire pit design and incorporate it into your landscape a little bit further away from the actual house and create a quite secluded area in your garden with a place for the fire in it.
Here’re a few fire pit ideas you may use to upgrade your backyard and take your outdoor evening gatherings to the next level. If you’re interested in building one of them, make sure to visit HireRush.com to post a fire pit building task for the local landscapers.
As usual, you may use these brief guidelines to build your own fire pit without anyone’s assistance. It’s just a fire pit, after all. People have been building them since the very start of the humanity.
How to build a fire pit: 5 DIY projects for your backyard
1.DIY wall block fire pit
This amazing DIY stone fire pit doesn’t require any significant construction skills to build. Moreover, you won’t even have to use any cement or other solution to lay the stones.
In order to recreate this design, find a metal fire pit bowl (its size and shape might vary depending on your personal preferences) or use an old tractor rim instead, clear out the area for the future fire pit and install the bowl.
Then, stack 3-4 rows of retaining wall blocks around it, leaving the space between the bowl and blocks, and fill that space with the mix of crushed gravel and sand. It will serve as the heat barrier, which will prevent the blocks from heating up and becoming quite dangerous to touch. And that’s particularly important when you have little kids running around the garden.
2. Simple and elegant metal fire pit
This design might require the welder’s assistance to recreate, especially if you need your fire pit to be a certain size the shops don’t provide. However, you may totally purchase a fire pit ring (whatever shape you like), install it into the center of your gravel-based patio, fill it a little bit with gravel and stone mix and you’re done.
Just be careful not to touch the metal when the fire is burning and make sure to keep the kids away from it.
3. DIY rock bonfire
This fire pit is probably the easiest to build. You just need to clear out the fire pit area with a shovel to get rid of grass, even out the soil, dig a round hole for the fire ring, install the latter, fill its bottom with gravel and surround it with a few rocks.
Frankly speaking, you could even skip the whole fire ring part and just set up the rocks on the grass-free area to create the fire pit’s shape, cover its bottom with crushed gravel and enjoy the fire. Sometimes it’s the beauty of simple things we definitely lack in our lives.
4. DIY masonry fire pit
If you want to build a traditional fire pit, but don’t necessarily like the idea of spending money and effort on making a footing for it, you may go ahead and buy a stone fire pit kit at your nearest building supply shop and follow the instructions to recreate the chosen design at your backyard. It’s like a masonry puzzle.
For instance, this masonry fire pit was built out of wedge-shaped concrete blocks, metal fire ring and crushed stone (for the space between the firepit’s wall and the fire ring). The owner of the house decided to spice up his fire-devoted area and built a couple of half-log benches for people to sit around it. It looks like it could be a bonfire in the middle of the Medieval forest, doesn’t it?
You may visit Popularmechanics.com to see the full tutorial.
5. Flagstone patio with a fire pit
If you’d like to opt for a more elaborate, custom design and incorporate your fire pit into a stone patio, it’s better to entrust that fire pit and patio building task to a masonry contractor. Those who don’t have any brick/block laying experience should probably seek the professional’s assistance as well.
He’ll make sure that the final patio with a fire pit as its central feature lasts you forever. Otherwise, you may throw your money in the air and end up with uneven patio with a bonfire that will fall apart due to the faulty installation.
For instance, this flagstone patio with a built-in fire pit and raised half-circle edge will look marvelous among the trees of your backyard. The flagstones of random size are pushed into the soil to give the patio a natural look, while the fire pit continues the effortless theme, but makes the whole area a little bit more prominent.
