Anyone can buy a Fire Pit, there are so many great ones on the market to choose from. But if you have the room why not build your own stone fire pit? It’s easy, fun and cheap: you get a nice sense of accomplishment and a great place to gather on summer evenings with friends.
I’m not talking fancy here, I’m talking functional.
To be honest, my stone Fire Pit was a bit of an afterthought. After laying out my flagstone patio I still had a ton of stone left, which I have used in a variety of ways around my patio. One of those uses was building a stone fire pit.
I built this stone fire pit in one afternoon and it’s going strong after 5 years. I was still in the process of building the flagstone patio when I decided to put a fire pit in an open area between the patio and garden.
For tools I used the basics: a shovel to dig with, a wheel barrel to haul away the dirt, a trowel to shape the Fire Pit and remove loose dirt, a rubber mallet to set the stone, a knee pad to kneel on and work gloves and stone.
I gave some thought about what type of fire pit I wanted, how people would sit around it and how traffic would flow at a party, Patio Feng Shui, if you will. I did not want large fires so I dug a circular hole about 3 feet in diameter and 10 inches deep. I kept it on the smaller, shallow side to keep the fires small.
After I finished smoothing out and shaping the basin of the fire pit, I laid a couple of inches of gravel on the bottom for drainage. Then I constructed the fire pit by arranging flagstone on the gravel bottom and lining the sides with longer, flatter stones that I had previously hand-picked. I pounded the vertical stones into the dirt with a rubber mallet and then packed sand around them to give the fire pit stability.
You can see in the picture below how I laid out the longer stones used for lining the inside of the fire pit around the edge of the fire pit. This way I could choose the perfect stone as I made my way around the inside of the fire pit.
Once the basin was complete I wet the stones and packed more sand into any gaps. Next, for both safety and aesthetic reasons I built a stonewall around the fire pit. I left a gap of 5 inches between the fire pit and the stonewall so I could fit a grill over the fire pit. I filled this area with gravel. On the bottom of the Fire Pit I placed 2 long thin stones about 2 inches high and about 7 inches apart. I start my fires between these stones. Then once the fire is going (see How to Build a Fire) I’ll place wood logs across these stones so air can flow underneath and oxygen can feed the fire.
And there you have it. By evening you’ll be gathered around your fire pit with your friends enjoying the warm glow of the flames.
Update: I’ve re-constructed my fire pit for open flame cooking.