Fire Pit Design

KnotRight

KnotRight

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I know that I can Google this and it has been talked about many times here, but I am not sure what I want to do with the fire pit in the back yard. I have attached a picture to what the current owner's used. I would like to have it about 3 - 4 feet in diameter and have the walls about a foot high. The patio out back has a flat rock floor and steps but the garden bulkhead is pavers.

Do you have to put some type of lava rock on the inside of the ring to keep the flat rock or pavers from blowing up?
In both HomeDepot and Lowe's videos, they say to dig out about 4" of dirt and fill with a crush grave and sand for a drainage. Is that necessary?

I am also looking into a big fire pit bowl.

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I built one last October...well, am still building it because that’s how projects go.

I bought some flat stones to stack and make the ring and field stones to use as the seating area. Where I got lazy was not building a good bed for the field stones prior to placing them. I’ve been slowly doing this over the spring/now, but I should have done it at the beginning.

You could dig them out 3-4”, or you can just level the existing ground with sand and build an edge. That’s what I’m doing.
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I had never laid stone/brick prior to this. Just watched some YouTube videos and learned to make mud butter. Bought a trowel and a stone hammer and certified myself as “good to go.” Altogether it was 1 ton of small stones and 2 tons of large field stones. That’s officially a metric crap ton, especially when you move them pretty much all by yourself.
 
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I wanted to do the pit the “easy” way with Liquid Nails or something like that, but none of those types of adhesives can withstand high temps. The best I found was a “gardening” version of liquid nails that can withstand 300 degrees. That’s not enough, in my book. Last thing I want is a fire pit turning all goopy and melts in the middle of a good burn!

So I resorted t getting muddy and messy with mortar. I’ve only had a few stones comes loose, mainly due to dropping a pallet in the pit that caught the edge of some stones.
 
9outof10mms said:
I had never laid stone/brick prior to this. Just watched some YouTube videos and learned to make mud butter. Bought a trowel and a stone hammer and certified myself as “good to go.” Altogether it was 1 ton of small stones and 2 tons of large field stones. That’s officially a metric crap ton, especially when you move them pretty much all by yourself.
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9outof10mms, I just got back from Lowe's and HD looking at pavers thinking there is no way for me to get that much weight to the house in no less than 4 loads. As you said that is a lot of moving by yourself. I would not be doing anything except the pit. The chair can sit on the grass. Yours is very close to what I am looking at doing. What did you use to fasten the stones together?

Going to call some of the hardscape lawn companies this week and see what flat rock cost and if they deliver to where the lake house is.

The big iron fire bowl might be looking better and a hell of a lot easier.

Thanks,
 
KnotRight said:
9outof10mms, I just got back from Lowe's and HD looking at pavers thinking there is no way for me to get that much weight to the house in no less than 4 loads. As you said that is a lot of moving by yourself. I would not be doing anything except the pit. The chair can sit on the grass. Yours is very close to what I am looking at doing. What did you use to fasten the stones together?

Going to call some of the hardscape lawn companies this week and see what flat rock cost and if they deliver to where the lake house is.

The big iron fire bowl might be looking better and a hell of a lot easier.

Thanks,
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I used regular old brick mortar from Home Depot. I forget the actual brand/mix...there was a name for it, like the slang name it’s known by on the job. Mason’s mix or something like that.

The stone was from a local landscape yard. I think we paid $200 per ton (a pallet was one ton). I hauled them one at a time in my Ram 1500, pulling a “Carolina Squat” all the way down the highway...waiting to see leaf spring blowing out the sides of the truck!

If you’re not doing flag stones (the big ones for the ground), then moving the smaller stones was not that big of a deal. The pit took exactly one ton with a few dozen left over. If you can’t get the truck back to the pit, and if you have a riding lawn mower, go buy one of the trailers. I paid like $75 for one at Home Depot and it’s paid for itself numerous times, especially when hauling these stones from the truck to the site.

I dry stacked the pit first to find the right pieces and fit them. Of course, it didn’t go back together like I dry fit it, but it was still better than picking and choosing while I had mortar drying. I took the dry stack apart in a sunburst pattern to make it quick and easy to put it back together.

If all you’re doing is a pit, then you’ve got a fun and relatively easy project. The flag stones are a be-itch!

Mark the circle that you want, take a shovel and scrape the surface down a couple/few inches. I put pea gravel down as a leveling/foundation (bought in several bags from Home Depot). Then just build up to your desired height. Mine is about 48” inside diameter and that’s about the maximum that I’d want it. Any bigger is too big, in my opinion.
 
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Funny you say something about a lawn tractor. The current owner has a Craftman with something like a 24 HP motor that I did buy. When we get moved in I will buy one of those small trailers to haul wood (and now stone) to the back yard. You have no worry about the heat from the fire on the flag stone and pea gravel?
 
Never measured it, looking at it as I sit by my grill, I would say 3ish feet inside circle. It's 13 blocks per layer. Pea gravel and lava rock on the bottom. Blocks are just stacked, it's not like anybody is climbing on them or anything, they shouldn't move.
 
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KnotRight said:
9outof10mms, I just got back from Lowe's and HD looking at pavers thinking there is no way for me to get that much weight to the house in no less than 4 loads.

Going to call some of the hardscape lawn companies this week and see what flat rock cost and if they deliver to where the lake house is.
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Paying for delivery is usually worth it. I have a full sized truck, but I built a fireplace in back that started with a ton of crush n' run as my base, then four tons of tumbled block. Just getting it from the street to the back yard was work enough with three guys.

I can’t imagine if I had to schlep it all from wherever in multiple trips with my truck. Much less getting it in and out of my truck. The landscape supply outfit just dumped my gravel on the curb where I wanted it, and later delivered my block on pallets to the street.
 
Fieldgrade that is what I will do. They will not be able to get it to the back yard. The house is in the middle of nowhere. I just got to make sure they will deliver it.
Will all that rock you used you must have one hell of a pit.
Thanks
 
KnotRight said:
Fieldgrade that is what I will do. They will not be able to get it to the back yard. The house is in the middle of nowhere. I just got to make sure they will deliver it.
Will all that rock you used you must have one hell of a pit.
Thanks
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You’d be surprised how much the stuff you will want weighs.
 
Rock and pea gravel doesn’t give me any worry for heat. The fire doesn’t rest or touch it. It gets hot. But I’d guess not more than a few hundred degrees.

As much as it sucks to haul the rock piece by piece, but it does help you get familiar with the pieces. You can start to sort out the flat ones that’ll make good capstones.
 
We have one like mcdirkale posted. Depending on the soil you have you may want to add something for drainage. We didn’t and just put lava rock in ours with clay soil. It will still be wet two days after a good rain. Cleaning the rock out and adding gravel is my next project after the pergola is finished. Also we haven’t had any block explode but a few have cracked over time.
 
BigWaylon said:
No idea how this would turn out, but I’ve had it saved for 5 years or so...

View attachment 217006
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That’ll be a bear to get to turn out perfect like that! I was going to line mine with brick but decided it wasn’t needed against the stone. And also, “F that” after moving all that stone!!!
 
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