There’s something very rewarding about building something yourself. The excitement of the planning, the concentration when building and that sense of achievement when you’re done. It’s great! One of the most satisfying things to build in your garden is your very own fire pit. It’s the perfect centrepiece to any outdoor space, and the ideal location to gather friends and family around a warm cosy fire.
There are plenty of guides to building your own fire pit online. Some are more complicated than others, but for us, we like to keep things simple.
So, to that end, we’ve put together a guide to building your own fire pit that you will be able to do in a day. Easy!
Later in the article we also have something for the more adventurous DIYer too!
Let’s dive straight in…
Building Your Own Fire Pit – Keep It Simple
If you’re looking for a quick solution to your DIY fire pit then this is the one for you. Here we take advantage of a readymade fire pit bowl and build a nice simple wall around it to give it that sense of permanence and hand-built.
Let’s dig in:
What you need:
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Stones
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Shovel
How To:
As we’ve said, the key here is keeping things as simple as possible, so let’s break this down into 4 easy steps:
1. Outline your fire pit area
First, let’s choose where to build the fire pit. You want to make sure that there is plenty of space around it with nothing flammable close.
Once you have the perfect spot then you’ll want to mark out the size of the hole you want to dig. The easiest way to do this is to use the base plate or the fire pit bowl as your guide for the perfect size.
2. Dig a shallow hole
Next, we want to dig out your marked area creating a nice hole for your fire pit to sit in. It doesn’t have to be too deep, 4 to 8 inches should be fine, though this will depend on the height of your fire pit, and how high you want to build your stone surround.
3. Place your base plate and fire pit
Once your hole is dug and levelled at the bottom then you can place it in the fire pit base plate in the bottom. If it feels unlevel at all then take it out and level out the ground below a bit more.
Then you can add the fire pit on top of the base plate.
Build the surround
Our last step is to build the surround. All we’re doing here is building a small stone wall around your fire pit. Take your time to lay each stone, layering to add stability, working your way around the whole fire pit. There’s no need for any cement or adhesives here.
The design, shape, and height are all up to you. We recommend not building much higher than the top of your fire pit, just to make it easy to fill and clean out, but other than that the world is your oyster.
The full self-build
As we’ve said, there are a lot of guides online that cover building your own fire pit from scratch so for this, we won’t go into the step-by-step details of the build but give you a quick overview of the process and what to look out for.
How to Build –
The basic principle is very similar to above – we’ll mark out an area for the fire pit, dig a hole, level it out and then build the surround. The main difference is that you won’t use a readymade fire pit bowl but will instead concrete the base and build a permanent brick wall.
There is a fantastic guide that takes you step by step through the whole process here.
Some Key Considerations -
Fire Bricks – you want to make sure you line the inside of your fire pit with fire bricks. These can be found at most good building merchants. For those of us in the UK, we’ll need to use severe weathering bricks that can stand freezing and thaw cycles.
Don’t forget draw holes – when you’re building the fire pit don’t forget to include draw holes (or air holes) around the fire pit. Ideally, you want four air holes spaced evenly and opposite one another in the circle of fire bricks. These draw holes are important for feeding air to the fire to keep it burning nice and hot.
Concrete form tubes – you can buy these in a variety of sizes from any builder’s merchants, and they are essential to getting a nice clean finish to your concrete footing. Trust us, it makes life a lot easier!
Bioethanol Fire Pit Kit
If you’re wanting to go all out and build a fire pit that turns on and off instantly, is much better for the environment, runs on clean sustainable fuel, and still gives out more than enough heat, then you should consider building your own fire pit using a bioethanol fire pit kit.
What is a bioethanol fire pit kit?
Simply put, it’s a burner system that comes in either round (ideal for small fire pits), square, or rectangle (perfect for fire pit tables), and can easily be integrated into any layout or build that you want.
The flexibility and versatility this offers are fantastic as you will be able to build a custom fire pit that matches your exact wants and needs that runs off the most efficient and environmentally friendly fuel source on the planet.
Our number one choice for anything bioethanol is EcoSmart Fire, and they have a great range of kits on offer.
Final Thoughts
We like to keep things simple here at firepit.co.uk, especially when we’re getting our DIY tools out. This is why we love the idea of building your own fire pit but taking advantage of a ready build fire pit bowl to make your life that little bit easier.
If you’re a dab hand with a trowel, or like a bit more of a challenge then the full self-build or even using a bioethanol fire pit kit would be a great option.
Whatever you decide to do, we’d love to hear (and see!) how you get on!
Post Code Checker
Using a wood burner outside is legal; being a nuisance with an outdoor fire can cause problems with the neighbours and the local council. Here is our local council checker for their guidelines.
This is currently for postcodes in England and Wales. It will soon expand to Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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