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Build Fire Pit In Backyard

A Fire Pit Made Out Of A Recycled Washing Machine Drum

Building Your Perfect Fire Pit on a Budget

Believe it or not, this awesome-looking fire pit was made out of a recycled washing machine drum. It would be great if you already had one but you could also check used appliance stores or ask around.

Apart from that, youll also need an angle grinder, a wire brush, a sanding disc, some steel, and heat-resistant black paint. Everything else that you need to know about this unique DIY fire pit project can be found on houseandfig.

Level And Compact The Hole

Once you have the area cleaned out, level the bottom of the hole as best as you can. Lay your level across the bottom of the hole along the edges and multiple diameters of the hole.

Fill in or dig out the area as needed to level it. The closer you get the bottom of the hole to level now, the easier future steps will be.


When youre satisfied with the hole, compact it. The best way to do this is with a hand tamper. However, if you dont have one, you can walk around in the hole, pressing down with each step, until the ground stops sinking.

If you dont compact the dirt now, your fire pit may settle later, throwing it out of level.

Lay The Remaining Courses

This was the easiest part of the entire process I’d say.

It’s also the most fun, since this is when you start seeing all the hard work taking shape.

To get started on this step, apply a bead of landscape adhesive in a zigzag form where you plan to lay the next stone of the next course. Make sure to stagger the stones over the previous layer . In the second layer , I intentionally left a gap between two of the blocks to allow for oxygen flow. Keep going until you’re done with all four courses of stone, and Boom! Fire pit!


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Latest Design Trends For Fire Pit Ideas

While several of the designs in our inspiration gallery are customized and costly, creating an outdoor fire pit does not need to be. With a bit of imagination, as well as the usage of upcycled materials like shattered tempered glass, outdoor metal canisters, or stones, setting up a fire pit is able to add an attractive look for your yard, irrespective of finances. Just be sure you take safety into account when executing your outdoor fire pit ideas. Select materials which are durable and fireproof, and verify the region surrounding the fire pit is totally free of fencing, dry brush, and every other flammable material prior to use. You will find numerous kinds of fire pit gas options, including wood logs, propane, gas, gel, and eco briquettes. While gas requires expert installation and permits, the other energy alternatives might not. Wood logs and eco briquettes produce much more smoke and heat. Thus, make a summary of the cons and pros prior to determining what you would like most before building a fire pit to your lawn.

Ice and Fire The word is coined for fire pit designs which use shattered glass parts as being a gravel alternative. Glass is heat resistant and also gives a fascinating, ice-like design element to the fire pit. Add geometric patterns or colorful glass to the fire pit for an innovative take on the fire & ice concept. Contact a neighborhood glass dealer and get them for any shattered tempered glass discards to work with inside your pit.

Step : Add Weed Block Fabric To The Fire Pit Seating Area

33+ Simple DIY Fire Pit Ideas for Backyard Landscaping

If youre putting in a walkway and seating area around your DIY fire pit, then youll want to use a weed block fabric to deter weeds. But just so you know, this wont entirely stop weeds! Youll still get some weeds that will grow in your fire pit seating area, so there will definitely be some maintenance and weed-killing each season!

Depending on the size of your fire pit seating area, be sure to get a roll that will cover the entire area.


I stretched several pieces out over the entire area. Since my fire pit was already built last summer, I worked around it. If youre putting in a fire pit at the same time as the seating area, you can still just work around the area where your fire pit bricks will be. You wont need to put weed block fabric under the fire pit directly. NOTE: Keep in mind that weed block fabric really only prevents weeds from growing up. It does nothing for preventing weed seeds from settling on the gravel and growing on top of the gravel. Essentially, youll still need to do some de-weeding during the spring and summer, into the fall.

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Build Some Crude Campfire Benches

You need a place to sit while you bask in the radiant warmth of your backyard campfire. I wanted some simple wood plank benches, so I looked online for some plans. I found plenty of sophisticated ideas but they required handyman skills above my pay grade. So I just decided to wing it. I drove over to Home Depot, looked at the various types of lumber, and came up with a plan in my head right there on the spot. I was pleasantly surprised with how my impromptu benches came out. Heres how to make them:

Gather Materials

18 4x4s, 40 2x4s, 48 2×10, drill, 3-inch screws, wood glue


Materials for One Bench

  • 20 3 wood screws

Because I was just going to leave these out by the fire pit, I tried to make my benches with pressure treated wood in order to prevent termite and fungal damage. Unfortunately, Home Depot didnt have 2X4s that were pressure treated.

Create Bench Base

Apply wood glue on one end of 4×4.

Place one end of the 2×4 onto the glue on the end of the 4X4. Screw in two 3 wood screws. Repeat process on the other side. Thats one side of your base. Create the second side of your base by repeating the above process.


Screw the two sides of your base together so you get something that looks like the above. I used four 3 screws in the 2x4s. Two on each side.

Attach Seat to Base

Apply wood glue to the tops of the 4x4s. Place the 2×10 on top of your base. Screw down into each 4×4 leg with two screws.

Finished product. She aint purdy, but shes sturdy.

Super Easy Stacked Stone Firepit

If you have a sandy or muddy ground that you want to convert into a place for a fire pit, all you need to do is dig a hole and place a few big stones around it. If you want to give your fire pit more height, you can also stack the rocks one on top of the other. You dont need to use concrete to set these in place, though it would help if you want to keep this pit for a long time.


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Do Smokeless Fire Pits Keep Mosquitoes Away

To a certain extent, yes, smokeless fire pits could keep mosquitoes away. However, this is mainly due to the heat. Since smokeless fire pits produce minimal smoke, they wont work as well as traditional fire pits. Adding different herbs to your burning fuel will help reduce the number of mosquitoes hanging out in your backyard.

Build The Fire Pit Gravel Base

Backyard Fire Pit Building Tips – DIY Network

Adding gravel on top of the compacted dirt will create a base for your fire pit.

  • Pour a generous amount of crushed gravel paver base into the hole so your finished base will be approximately 5 inches thick.
  • Wet the gravel thoroughly with a garden hose, and then use the hand tamper to compact it into a hard layer a couple of inches below the surface.
  • Check the base at several points to be sure it is level and make adjustments where necessary.

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Manual Labor + Leveling The Space

After the measurements, we got to work removing the old red pavers, red mulch, and cutting into the sod in our backyard. We still used our pieces of wood and sticks as a guide, but you could get fancy and use landscape spray too.


This took a lot of effort, and both Berty and I were exhausted at the end of these days!

Go With A Paver Patio

Flagstone gives you the natural beauty of real stone, but it costs $15 to $30 per square foot for patio flooring and $25 per square foot for flagstone pavers.

Unless you’re making a one-person pit , that’s gonna add up. A paver patio looks manufactured, but it costs $6 to $10 per square foot. “Concrete pavers are a good way to cut costs and still have a good-looking patio,” says Ted Essig of Sky Valley Landscape.

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Easy Diy Fire Pit Kits

A fire pit kit with metal fire ring and circular precast stones or cinder block makes it so much easier to build your own fire feature. Below is the video tutorial from Lowes Youtube channel.

You can use the same technique to make a brick fire pit. Because bricks have different shapes than these retaining wall blocks, you may need mortar to help fill the pace in between the bricks.

Things To Incorporate In Your Fire Pit

49 Gorgeous Outdoor Fire Pit Decorating Ideas For Winter

Introduce a social environment around your fire pit. Humans are attracted to the warmth and attractiveness of fire for hundreds of years. A fire pit is usually the most used site in a yard, particularly once the sun sets. Make your fire pit the centerpiece in a spot deserving of relaxing with your company. A number of methods to include class seating for guests include built-in seating, a grouping of ottomans, chairs or sofas, a group of logs or floor pillows, or a group of dangling bubble chairs.

Next, create your fire pit to be multipurpose. By buying a fire pit containing modular features, the fire pit becomes more than an area to loosen up and relax. Several ways a fire pit can turn into a multipurpose piece include: It has an area close to it to function as an impromptu coffee table or maybe a place to bring up feet. It is big enough to be utilized as a dining area, known as being a fire pit table. It can be gorgeous when not lit, because of the option of decorative gravel, glass, or stones. It has built-in lighting to light up the area.

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Inset With Decorative Pebbles

There are generally two types of fire pit: inset and ones that stand above ground. Inset is very popular but requires digging and flattening the earth so that the fire pit sits evenly. If you want an inset fire pit, then there is nothing quite like doing one with . Though they are just stones, there is a high-end look and feel to adding decorative pebbles.

Encircle Pit With Rocks

To keep your fire at bay, circle your fire pit with rocks.

The woods behind my house are filled with really hard, yet porous, Oklahoma sandstone rocks. I wanted to use what nature made available to me, but Ive heard urban legends about campers getting killed by exploding campfire ring stones. Before I gathered my wife and kids around the fire pit, I wanted to make sure the sandstone rocks I planned to use would not assassinate them.

My research on the internet brought up surprisingly little information on exploding campfire rocks. I did find an article on ehow that suggested sandstone and other porous rocks like limestone werent safe for fire pits. From the article:

Air- and water-permeable rocks are much more likely to explode than dense non-permeable rocks. 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 . If there is a high enough volume of water in a hot, porous rock, the rock will explode when the force of the expanding steam gas inside is greater than the rock can contain.

Well, that put a damper on using my bounteous sandstone supply.

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Stylish Deck With A Fire Pit

One of the most popular patio fire pit ideas is to build a deck with a fire pit. This idea will add a touch of style to your outdoor living area and provide you with a cozy spot to enjoy fireside gatherings.

If you’re looking to increase the sensory appeal of your plot, there are plenty of to choose from.

Build Your Own Concrete Block Firepit

How to Build a Fire Pit | This Old House

You can also create own concrete block fire pit using a few tools and materials. All you need to do is trace out the shape of the fire pit that you want to construct and go on from there. Stack up a few concrete blocks on top of each other and you will have a neat little fire pit ready for use.

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What Stone Is Best For A Diy Fire Pit

Almost any type of rock can explode, particularly porous and moist rocks. When wet rocks become heated, the trapped water and air expand rapidly and violently shatter the rock, occasionally causing it to explode.

River rocks, gravel, pumice, limestone, and sandstone are all examples of rocks that should be avoided when building a fire pit due to their porous nature and proclivity to retain water.

Due to the density of hard rocks , they are less prone to absorb water and burst when exposed to heat. Additionally, fire-rated brick, poured concrete, lava rocks, and lava glass are all safe to use around and in your fire pit.

This is one place where lava rocks can be used to ensure the safety of a fire pit. If your fire pit contains or is surrounded by rocks, exercise caution when igniting flames after it has rained.

Wet rocks have a far greater chance of exploding than dry rocks. If you use your fire pit frequently, you may want to consider covering it during inclement weather to keep it dry and to keep yourself safe.

Old School Stone Fire Pit

Going with a stone fire pit is a great choice but you dont have to go with something that has been smoothed over. Getting rough stone can provide a certain rustic appeal to it. That rough stone fire pit can give you the unique aesthetic of a fire pit but without having to spend too much to get that appeal. It isnt the most high-end look but it has its own appeal.

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Lay The First Course Of Stones

Now that the sand is level and packed, lay the first course of stones,alternating trap, min,trap, mini, etc. and checking for level often.

This was the most time-consuming part yet. It wasn’t hard to get the stones set necessarily, but ensuring that each stone was level was much more difficult and aggravating than I could’ve expected.

After the stones were finally set and level, I added one more bag of sand over the course of stones, then using a shop broom pushed the sand in between the stones. I’m honestly not really sure if this part was needed, but it seemed like a good idea, and I had one bag left, so in it went. Also, it’s really important to brush the stones with the broom to ensure that there’s no sand on them for the next step.

Step : Neatly Line Your Edgers Around The Diy Fire Pit Seating Area

35 Easy DIY Fire Pit Ideas for Backyard Landscaping in 2020

When putting in the edgers for the walkway and DIY fire pit seating area, I didnt use a level, but instead, gauged by eyesight and my hands to see if one was significantly higher or lower than the one before it.

These Pavestone edgers actually locked together nicely because the edges were rounded out with a crescent shape.

They sit on top of the weed block fabric, holding it in place. You can also use weed block pins/metal stakes to hold everything in place. As I mentioned before, some folks said I should have used paver sand under these, but I honestly didnt feel I needed it. My soil is very clayish and compact and in the past, I have had success with edgers staying in place without paver sand, so I felt I didnt need it.

Heres an important tip: Make sure that you measure the size of the edgers youre using when planning your DIY fire pit seating area because you want to make sure you have an exact number of edgers for the space youre completing. It is possible to cut bricks to trim them to fit, but honestly, who wants to do that? If you know the length of the bricks, you can determine how many bricks youll need so that each junction fits perfectly.

Here is what the fire pit seating area looked like when the edgers were all laid out!

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Whats Easiest Way To Build A Fire Pit

  • Step 1: Plan Location and Layout. A fire pit should be built at least 15 feet from any structure and close to a water source.
  • Step 2: Determine the Size.
  • Step 3: Dig a Hole.
  • Step 4: Line Hole With Sand.
  • Step 5: Add Base Row.
  • Step 6: Place Metal Ring.
  • Step 7: Insert Bricks into Fire Pit Floor.
  • Step 8: Add Pea Gravel.
  • Is it cheaper to build or buy a fire pit?

    #4 Dont Do Custom Anything Most offer prefab, modular units that cost at least half as much as a custom build. Ive put in custom fire pits that cost as much as $7,000 just for the pit, Rogers says. That means the patio cost even more. Yowsa!


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