If you’ve ever wondered how you can quickly and affordably elevate your backyard, you’ve come to the right place! And if you like smores, that’s just an added bonus. To help guide you on the right path to build your own fire pit, we’ve consolidated several YouTube videos, Reddit posts and articles into a single place so you have everything you need to get building (or digging) tomorrow.
To start, you’ll want to make sure you have all the right materials:
Once you have acquired all the materials, you’ll want to go through the following four stages of building your fire pit:
1. Prep
Determine the size, shape and location of your fire pit area.
Unfortunately our first location choice was directly above the leaching field so we had to find a new spot. For this reason, we highly recommend looking at a plot plan for your backyard first thing.
If you choose to do a circle, the easiest way to ensure a near perfect circle is to place a stake (we used a croquet stick) directly at the center. Next, attach a string and measure half the diameter of your desired circle size. Then, walk around with the string (keeping it taut) and spray paint the grass.
For reference, these are our dimensions:
- Fire Pit Diameter: 44 inches outside (30 inches inside)
- Total Area Diameter: 15.5 feet
2. Excavate
Get ready to dig.
To dig up the turf, start by outlining and loosening sections of the pit area with a flat shovel. Then use the flat edge of a pickaxe to separate the grass from the ground.
Continue digging until your larger seating area is 6 inches below the surface and the smaller fire pit inner circle is 12 inches below the surface (second part not pictured).
Cultivate and rake until the ground is completely even and level.
Tamp down the surface.
Finally, spray the circle generously with weed killer to prevent future issues.
3. Build Fire Pit
Prepare the fire pit stones for building.
Apply one layer (approx. 3 inches) of crushed stone at the bottom of the inner circle’s hole. Fill the hole with sand, but leave about three inches between the sand and the surface. Then, tamp the sand down and level it.
Next, apply the first layer of the pit’s stones (as seen in first photo) and ensure each stone is level (check often).
Add one more bag of sand over the top of the stones. Brush the sand with a broom until all the cracks are filled and the sand is level with top of first layer of stone.
Apply construction adhesive to the top of the first layer of stones and layer the 2nd layer of stones atop the adhesive.
IMPORTANT: As you layer stones, make sure you leave a few gaps for airflow (as seen in the 2nd photo). Disclaimer: this is unnecessary for the first layer of stone, as we later realized, since the gap will be covered by the layers of crushed stone and pea gravel in the seating area.
Repeat the process for the 3rd layer of stones or until your total height is about 12-14 inches off the ground.
To finish the fire pit, add a layer of lava rocks inside on top of the sand. This will serve as the base for your fires.
4. Finish Fire Pit Area
Final stretch.
Lay down a layer of landscape fabric to the outer circle (as seen in the picture above). Once that is complete, you can begin filling in your seating area with 2-3 inches of crushed stone. It doesn’t matter the color of this stone, because you’re going to cover it with pea gravel later. You’ll want to leave 3 inches to the surface to ensure you have room for the pretty pea gravel.
Next, you’ll prepare for the edging pavers that will outline the circle. But first, put down a layer of sand around the perimeter and extend it about 6 inches from the edge, then tamp it down. Now you’re ready to place the edging pavers around the perimeter and use the construction adhesive to glue them together.
Finally, you can fill the seating area in with 3 inches of pea gravel to top it off. I chose a white pea gravel because I love the coastal look and I wanted a stark contrast with black Adirondack chairs, but there are many different options.
Now for the most fun part… it’s time to decorate!
This post would be remiss if I didn’t give a hearty shout out to my amazing husband for building this fire pit in just two weeks time in the dead of summer. It took a lot of manual labor and unseen planning to make it all come together, but in the end it was so worth it! And now we get to share the process with all of you so that one day soon you can feel empowered to build your own fire pit too.
Happy digging.
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