Backyard #3 - Fire Pit Done

Guten Tag - I am on the road again, blogging from Germany. When I am at home, I am too busy either working on projects or doing family stuff, so traveling ends up being a good time to catch up on the blog...

Here is a picture if the completed masonry work on the fire pit (mud on the top is still wet):


I ended up having just enough of the flat stones to complete the top. I probably should have laid them out before hand to make sure - but I could have worked something in if I needed to. This is the challenge / fun of working with left over materials: you don't run to the store if you are a few short, you figure out how to make it work and look nice at the same time.

Here is the real reason I build the fire pit: to spend time as a family around it. We lit the first fire and hung around for a couple of hours, just talking. I don't understand why a fire makes you sit and talk, but I know it's true.




We lit the fire, and after an hour, the area all along the brick wall was really hot. THe concrete brick with the block structure creates a good thermal mass. An unintended effect of this is that the heat reflects off the round wall evenly, so no matter where you stand you get warm. We should be able to cook in this with no problems.

Things left to do:

Dig the dirt out of the bottom and put some gravel in there. There is already a drainage ditch under the pit to get the water out of there.

Build some benches

Put a dedicated hose on the corner of the house (25 feet away) that can be used immediately if the fire looks like it may get out of control.

Review of the Project / Lessons Learned / Improvements
Size:

The diameter of hte pit seems just about right. The inner diameter is 3 feet and the outer one is about 5 1/2 feet. Large enough to put big pieces of wood on the fire, but you are still close to the fire.

Materials:

Using the concrete brick for the inside seems like a good idea so far. I used type-S morter (stonger than normal) to lay the brick and block. The 8" block are hollow, so this give somewhat of a thermal break to the exterior stone, which you really don't want to get hot. After two hours of a fire, the outside was still at ambient temperature.

The cultured (man made) stone worked nicely. Mixing 4 differnt kinds gave the rustic look we wanted. You could make it look very formal by using a single type of stone. I often see a few square feet of stone for sale cheap on craig's list - get a few boxes and your set to go. I used about 35 square feet in total.

Location:

If you can build one with a view, do it. If you don't have a view, I would suggest putting up something like an arbor or wall as a nice focal point.

Material List and Cost

3 60lb bags of concrete for the footing - $10

12 8x8x16 concrete block for footing and base - $12

75 2x3x8 concrete brick to line the pit and top - $20

6 80lb bags of type-S morter - $30

Morter color - already had it. Assume $5.

35 sq feet of stone - already had it. Assume $4 a sq ft (could be more) - $140

3 60lb bags of gravel to fill - $10.

My own cost was $100. To buy everything would be about $250.

Backyard #2 - Progress on the Fire Pit

Here is a picture of the fire pit in progress - it shows the interior construction...



Once the footing set up, I did the following to get to this point:

Drew a 22" radius circle on the footing using a string tied to a piece of rebar in the center.

Set the block (16x8x6) to the circle - this formed the rough radius.

Mortared the brick upright on the inside of the block. I used various thicknesses of mud to get an even radius. These are concrete brick, not clay, which will take the heat of a fire.

Mortared brick across the top of the block and the lower brick. This gave the right height for the fire pit walls.

Here is a cross-section of the design:

Once the base was done, I started to apply the stone. I am using about 3 types of stone to build this, which I had as left overs. As long as they are balanced, I think it looks good. Also, the other stone in our house is a rustic mixture, so this fits right in.

Here is the first bit of stone laid in place. I plastered the top to make sure no water will run down behind the stone once I'm done. I doesn't freeze very hard in Portland, but keeping water out is always a good idea.



In this picture, I have about half of the stone laid. In my stone pile, I have a couple of boxes of flat slate-style pieces, which are shown set on the top. These will be the cap stones. The bottom edge of the cultured stone definately has a factory edge. I will chip these edges back and rub some mud on them to give them a more natural look.


Hopefully, I can get this project done in the next few evenings and have a fire this weekend.

Backyard #1 - Patio extension and fire pit.

Since my son is home and helping me out for a few weeks, I am trying to get a whole bunch of heavy work done in our backyard. Here is my "master plan" for things I want to add this summer:

Extend the patio along the back of the house, and make it about 10 feet deep.

Cover the patio with a roof (asphalt comp) that matches the existing roof - 18 ft wide and about 8 feet deep.

Put an under-deck rain cover under our main deck (10' x 30'), and possibly under our bedroom deck (8' x 14').

Build a fire pit

Build a series of terraced stone walls for a raised-bed garden up the hill to our garden shed.

We started off by pouring the patio, and extending it over to the stairs that lead to the upper deck.


This ended up being about 180 sq ft at 4" deep, which translates to 140 bags of 60# quikcrete. It basically took a full day to mix, pour and finish it all. We are keeping the concrete wet and covered with tarps for a week, so that it cures properly.

Luckily, I have a small cement mixer. Mixing all that by hand would have been way too much work.



Here is the portion of the patio we will cover over. We also tore out the old sliding glass door and put french doors in. The pre-hung units actually go in fiarly easily.


Here is the foundation for the fire pit...


It's not very pretty right now, but its round, level and solid. The rain-drain line that we put in the yard runs directly under this (about a 18" down), and is back-filled with gravel. This will become the drain path for water put, once we dig the cover dirt out and fill the bottom with gravel.

This picture shows where the fire will be located - about 20 feet off the deck with a good view of the woods.


I am still deciding what material to build the fire pit out off. Most likey it will be covered with some extra stone I have from other projects.