Building A Fire Pit With Natural Rocks

Overlaid stone diy fire pit.

Building a fire pit with natural rocks.

Especially when great professionally made fire pits are available for purchase on the internet. Snag my book. Air and water permeable rocks are much more likely to explode than dense non permeable rocks. Apply a bed of mortar on top of the previous layer of stone or fire brick and then set stones and bricks.

If you re wondering how to build a fire pit we ll show you how. Create the first tier of the fire pit by forming a circle alternating the large and mini bricks to create a pattern. If you are building your stone fire pit on top of an existing backyard patio cement the first layer of blocks onto the patio to prevent shifting. Other rocks that are safe to use around and in your fire pit include fire rate brick lava glass lava rocks and poured concrete.

Keep the excavated area level as you work. If you have rocks in or around your fire pit be cautious when lighting fires after it has rained. Avoid wall weakness by staggering the joints between previous and subsequent layers of stone and brick. Flatter and roughly rectangular shaped rocks are easiest to stack but rounded rock can be used to build the low stone walls of the fire pit.

When selecting and building your diy fire pit make sure you avoid using wet stones. If you are using river rocks be sure to give them several days of direct sunlight to properly dry. This is because air or water is absorbed by the rock when it is cool and then the air or water molecules trapped inside the rock expand faster than the solid rock when it heats up next to the fire. Pack the dirt solidly all the way around with a hand tamper.

And if your fire pit decides to explode don t say i didn t tell you. However if i still haven t talked you out of it at least be careful when obtaining the river rocks and building your fire pit. Using a level make sure the bricks are relatively even all the way around. If the circle is more than an inch or two uneven remove the higher bricks and dig out the dirt underneath until they re level with the rest.

If you want a more natural fire pit that you could build for free check out my post on building a backyard firepit with free materials. Continue building the wall of the fire pit by alternating layers of face stone and fire brick until desired height is reached. This is one area where you can use lava rocks for fire pit safety.