I have played with various fire pit options in my backyard for 15 years. I have tons and tons of trees and yard waste and try to burn most or turn it into compost. I have grabbed the saucers from trash piles and used those - can't put much on there and wind blows stuff off easy. I have had an enclosed mini-chimney pit I built from stones. This worked great but was harder to clean and I had to break down the wood into pretty small pieces.
So I have happily moved on to an in ground pit. I dug my pit down about three feet into the ground about four feet long by two feet wide. There is one row of stones below ground level and two rows above ground. It was made from neighbors throw away stones - and the neighbors throw their wood in the pit. It is safe, looks good, and I just shovel it out every 3 months.
The example above is pretty close to what I have done except:
- Mine is longer going left to right
- I have one brick removed on the right so that I can get in and out or prop something up without knocking over bricks. So it is more of a horse shoe.
- My pit goes about a foot above ground. This is so that ashes don't hit grass directly and so that someone can't just walk into it (we are picky about which limbs we burn).
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I have played with various fire pit options in my backyard for 15 years. I have tons and tons of trees and yard waste and try to burn most or turn it into compost. I have grabbed the saucers from trash piles and used those - can't put much on there and wind blows stuff off easy. I have had an enclosed mini-chimney pit I built from stones. This worked great but was harder to clean and I had to break down the wood into pretty small pieces.
So I have happily moved on to an in ground pit. I dug my pit down about three feet into the ground about four feet long by two feet wide. There is one row of stones below ground level and two rows above ground. It was made from neighbors throw away stones - and the neighbors throw their wood in the pit. It is safe, looks good, and I just shovel it out every 3 months.
The example above is pretty close to what I have done except:
- Mine is longer going left to right
- I have one brick removed on the right so that I can get in and out or prop something up without knocking over bricks. So it is more of a horse shoe.
- My pit goes about a foot above ground. This is so that ashes don't hit grass directly and so that someone can't just walk into it (we are picky about which limbs we burn).
The internal bowl/barrel of an old washing machine works well for an above-ground solution - the holes around the sides allow the embers to breathe well and help to radiate heat.
You can add legs as this person has, or simply prop it up on a slab or some bricks.
Just make sure that it IS metal - a lot of the newer/cheaper washing machines use plastic barrels, which... don't work.
Looking for some assistance on proper materials and execution. My family owns property where we have a cabin. We currently have a fire pit, but it doesn’t have a ring or stones around it. It’s just an area in the ground about 3 feet in diameter, some brick/stone (yes, the kind that withstands the heat) to demarcate the area. I was looking to get them a ring about 5-6 feet in diameter, but they’re fairly expensive. Any thoughts on how I can make one, buy the materials and have someone do it, or should I just pay the full price and have it made for me? Thanks!
Photo from Fire Pit Screens to depict what I’m describing.
I built a fire pit and at this point, all that I have left is to fill in the fire pit with either gravel, sand or rock, aka the surface for which I will be playing the wood on in the fire pit. I have done some research on what to place but I'm still a little confused as to what to actually place down. I saw a common material is play sand but the drawback with that is it does not drain well when it rains or snows and it needs replacement often.
I also saw that people use a gravel road base. Other people were saying you could use 3/4" granite or even lava stone.
I guess I'm just confused on what to use or what is the best option to use for the inside of the fire pit.
Side question: If a road base is a good option, would I want to use a breeze or would I want to use an explicit roadbase?