Building A Fire Pit With Natural Rocks

This is one area where you can use lava rocks for fire pit safety.

Building a fire pit with natural rocks.

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. 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. Air and water permeable rocks are much more likely to explode than dense non permeable rocks.

Pack the dirt solidly all the way around with a hand tamper. 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. Snag my book. If you build your own pit out of rocks remember to keep safety and physics first.

Create the first tier of the fire pit by forming a circle alternating the large and mini bricks to create a pattern. When selecting and building your diy fire pit make sure you avoid using wet stones. Using a level make sure the bricks are relatively even all the way around. If you have rocks in or around your fire pit be cautious when lighting fires after it has rained.

Continue building the wall of the fire pit by alternating layers of face stone and fire brick until desired height is reached. 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 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. Apply a bed of mortar on top of the previous layer of stone or fire brick and then set stones and bricks.

And if your fire pit decides to explode don t say i didn t tell you. 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 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 re wondering how to build a fire pit we ll show you how. 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. Especially when great professionally made fire pits are available for purchase on the internet.