Fire Pit Ring

Judy
by Judy
4 Materials
3 Hours
Medium
After having a sad little fire pit from the store and it rotting after 2 years, I'm making my own.
Seeing what you all have done, I am
inspired.
We were lucky enough to have a 48" ring given to us. You need a rounded shovel to break the sod, a flat one to pick up the dirt. It gives a larger area to pick up and does not dig down. A rake to level the ground, a level and place to put the sod and dirt. We have a trailer on the tractor.
Place the ring in a level spot away from trees, your home and break the sod and soil with the shovel.
I could not believe how easy this was. I removed the ring to make it easier to dig the grass out.
Once it's started it pulls up quite easily. Place the sod in your barrel to either replant where needed or the pile of yard junk.
It's a circle and I dug just a bit so the ring doesn't move during the frost and winter. So, my husband and I had a discussion. Ya know those discussions where you think he's nuts and it doesn't make sense? Yeah, that discussion.
So, the discussion was to place pea gravel which we had left over from another project over the dirt. My ground was level so I could not understand why I would put little rocks under my bricks. Well, I told him I was not going to say he was right but his suggestion was helpful. I know your laughing now. What this did was help level out the bricks and keep them even. The stones were leveled out. I have no clue how a level piece of dirt became unlevel placing bricks upon it. Maybe the bricks were not even. Anyway, it ended up even and level in the end. And I still didn't say my husband was right. Lol. He did say the bricks laying on the ground would get muddy with the rain. I know a lot of people use sand in between the bricks but we used what we had. I might add sand from the back yard later on. I did use our giant levelsjown above during each step. Can you believe the first try, it was level!?
Now to place the bricks we had for the base. When we did our test run, my son laid out the bricks so we just transferred the bricks over to the new spot. If it was not level I just put more or less gravel under it. It really helped a lot! Don't tell my husband! I added gravel on the outside of my pit since I didn't want it to move. I want to add paver stones on the outside at a later date.
Here we are all finished, almost anyway. Adding gravel to the empty spots filled in nicely. Now the pit is ready for the finishing touch of the outside layers of paver stones. Everything has been left over from other project and the ring was given to us. It's really great to make something totaly repurposing and free. The paver stones will be added later on as the budget allows or I find them for free. Then I will use other materials we have to finish around the outside of the fire pit.
Look closely, you will see my old extra oven rack for a fire pit rack, allowing air to circulate under the logs. We cut down two trees today so we will have lots of fall bomb fire's!! Remember to get your fire burning permit and have water or a hose handy with safety always in mind. I really wanted to post a finished fire pit but since this will be a work in progress, I'll update as I'm done. We have a fall family reunion so I wanted this done now. I did this all all by myself and I'm so pleased with the results.


We want to help you DIY, so some of the materials in this post are linked to sellers. Just so you know, Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.
Suggested materials:
  • Used bricks   (Our house.)
  • Oven rack.   (Left over from an old stove.)
  • Pea gravel   (Left over from a project last year.)
See all materials
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 22 comments
  • Debbie Debbie on Oct 22, 2017

    i know , but you said bomb fires which is wrong

    • See 1 previous
    • Mary Mary on Oct 23, 2017
      Good grief! Who cares!? Bon fire, bomb fire, camp fire ?? We all know what the intent t was! Chill! Job well done Judy! YOU are the bomb!
  • Joanie Joanie on Oct 23, 2017

    It is nice and you will have some good times........whether you call it a bomb or bone fire.....WE always called it a CAMP fire. All the same girls!!!! Put your dogs on and rock and roll!!!

Next