Building A Fire Pit With Natural Rocks

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.

Building a fire pit with natural rocks.

Overlaid stone diy fire pit. Air and water permeable rocks are much more likely to explode than dense non permeable rocks. If you build your own pit out of rocks remember to keep safety and physics first. Snag my book.

Especially when great professionally made fire pits are available for purchase on the internet. Using a level make sure the bricks are relatively even all the way around. 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. If you are using river rocks be sure to give them several days of direct sunlight to properly dry.

Keep the excavated area level as you work. Pack the dirt solidly all the way around with a hand tamper. 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. Flagstone and crushed stone are ideal materials for the fire pit cap and the stones in the center of the pit respectively.

Apply a bed of mortar on top of the previous layer of stone or fire brick and then set stones and bricks. This is one area where you can use lava rocks for fire pit safety. Avoid wall weakness by staggering the joints between previous and subsequent layers of stone and brick. 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.

If you have rocks in or around your fire pit be cautious when lighting fires after it has rained. 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. Other rocks that are safe to use around and in your fire pit include fire rate brick lava glass lava rocks and poured concrete.

If you do not have access to fieldstone many garden and landscape design centers sell rocks which are perfectly suited for lining the perimeter of a fire pit. 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.