How to Build a Fire Pit in Your Backyard
If you’re someone who is interested in how to build a fire pit in your backyard, you’ll soon realize that building a fire in your yard can be done safely. Building a fire pit won’t take more than an hour or so, and you’ll be able to have cookouts and campfire hangouts with your friends and family. Kids love weenie roasts and cooking marshmallows over an open fire, so build a fire pit that is going to be safe and cozy for those chilly spring and autumn evenings.
Location Is Everything
When building a fire pit in the back yard, location is important. You don’t want to build a fire anywhere near your home or garage. You don’t want to build a fire near trees, tall grass or brush. Therefore, deciding where not to build a fire pit lets you decide on appropriate locations, but process of elimination.
You want your fire pit somewhere accessible and somewhere aesthetically pleasing, since you’re likely to have family and neighbors come over occasionally for cookouts. You also want the fire close enough to the house that you can run a water hose all the way to the fire, though you can alleviate that problem with an extra hose. Make sure you have enough room to fit chairs around your fire pit at least 2 feet away in every direction.
Finally, keep in mind what wind access is like where you build the fire pit. Fires require a little bit of a breeze to pick up, but you don’t want it too breezy, either because wind makes it a little harder to get started, and much harder to control once a fire is started. Also, keep in mind which way the wind is going to blow smoke, especially in the windy months early and late in the year.
Choose a Size for Your fire pit
How to Build a Fire Pit in Your Backyard
One way to help choose a spot in your yard for the fire pit is to know how big the pit is going to be. Two to three feet across is good for most cookouts, and gives you a cozy fire to collect around. A four-foot firepit is going to accommodate a large fire.
Is your fire pit mostly going to be yard decoration, or do you intend on have a place to grill food? Depending on these questions, decide the size of your fire pit. This helps you find a better placement for your flame, once you know the dimensions of your fire pit.
Dig the Fire Pit
Dig a hole in your yard where you want the fire pit to be. This hole should be about 1 foot to 3 feet deep, depending on the size of the fire pit.
Ring the Fire Pit with Rocks
Next, ring rocks around your fire pit, to create a barrier against flames spreading, and a barrier against people stepping into the fire. If you want extra safety, put a double ring of rocks around the fire pit. I recommend this for families with small children.
When I saw a rock ring, I mean taking good-sized rocks and building a ring around the pit comprised of those rocks. These rocks should be secure in place. Rock rings make your fire pit look better, while also keeping embers inside the fire pit.
Add a Grill
Span the diameter of your fire pit with a pair of buried bars along the upper hole and you can add a grill to your fire pit. This lets you grill food over a wood-fired cooker. Grilled foods are great for cookouts, so you can get there with a couples of rebars. “Rebar” means “reinforcing bar” – the kind of steel used to reinforce concrete and other such materials.
Add Sand for Better Drainage
Add sand to the bottom of your fire pit, to better aid with drainage after a rain. If you do this, you might want to dig your deep fire pit holes a little deeper, to account for the extra space the sand takes up.
Building a fire pit in Your Background
Most of the time you spend building a fire pit is going to involve shoveling out your pit, at least after you decide where to dig. Leave some time to add rebars and bring in your stonework. Learning how to build a fire pit in your backyard takes no time at all, so if you’re having a cookout tonight, you still have time to build you a fire pit for the evening’s get-together.