So you've decided that you want to spruce up your backyard by installing a fire pit. You can adjust your pits using various materials or by fiddling around with different sizes, but for those who are just starting out, take a look at the instructions below on how to build a fire pit.
Instructions:
- The first thing you want to do is ensure that your fire pit is a safe distance away from your home, other structures (sheds, garages), or any shrubbery. You also want to make sure that your fire pit isn't near any power lines. It's advised that you call 811 to ensure that your fire pit isn't being built over property lines or wellheads.
- Grab yourself some firebricks or pavers in order to mark off a perimeter for your fire pit.
- Once you have the ones you want to use, lay them out in the approximate size you'd like your fire pit to be.
- There are a few ways to build at this point, but an easier way to build a fire pit is to dig a 12-inch deep hole inside the marked off space and pour sand inside. You can pack it down and have that be your base or you can use pavers for the floor of your fire pit.
- A more complex way of making your base is to set your perimeter and then remove the sod about two inches deep. Once you do that, you'll need to tamp the soil down and you can place gravel overtop of it. You can tamp down the gravel and then add your firebricks on top to start building.
- You can build a few levels of pavers if you so choose, though many people just like to build a fire pit with one or two layers high of pavers. Usually, you should stack the pavers high enough so that they're about 12 inches off the ground.
- Once you're all done, you just need to dump some wood logs in the middle and light them ablaze for you and your guests to enjoy!
There are ways for you to build a wood fire pit for under $60.00 as well if you'd like to keep things cheap.
Of course, there are different fire pits that you can choose from as well such as gas or charcoal, though the wood fire pit is one of the simplest ones to create if you've never built one before. We wrote a piece on the different kinds of fire pits, so if you're interested in finding out more about them be sure to check that out! You can also read our other piece on fire pit designs to get some inspiration from what others have done with their fire pits!