DIY: Stone Patio Fire Pit

Designing a Patio with a Fire Pit

• The designing and planning stage is critical to the success of any DIY project. Plan the patio to scale using graphing paper and actual measurements from the desired area of the installation. Take into consideration any other landscaping details: proximity to trees, bushes, flower beds and shrubs, a water source (for safety purposes) and the main family home. Plan the size of the fire pit to be appropriate for the size of the patio to avoid having a large patio and a small fire pit, or vice versa. The shape of the fire pit does not really matter as long as it is proportionate to the patio. Round fire pits are the generally accepted shape, but square and rectangle fire pits will do as well.

Lay Out the Patio and the Fire Pit

• The next major hurdle in building a stone fire pit in a patio is to lay all of the measurements out on the ground on-site. Use marking paint and follow the planned dimensions used when planning the patio and fire pit on paper. Prepare the ground where the patio and the fire pit are to be installed. If the site is grassed, remove it with a sod cutter. If it is bare dirt, level the ground within the dimensions of the patio. Mark the site of the fire pit with marking paint once the patio site is prepared.

  Building the fire pit out of large stones like river rocks or retaining wall blocks will keep the fire from spreading outside of the fire pit itself. Begin laying the desired stone type in the pattern specified in the design plans. Round shapes are the easiest to build. When building the fire pit out of retaining wall blocks, plan to build at least two levels high. If you recess the fire pit into the ground the height of one of the retaining wall blocks, raise the height of the fire pit two layers above the patio and ground level.

  It is also very possible to build a very safe fire pit out of castle wall blocks. Castle wall blocks are not as large and as heavy as retaining wall blocks, so they will be easier for most people to use. They are thinner than retaining wall blocks, so instead of installing two layers as with retaining wall blocks, build a castle wall fire pit three layers high.

Adding a Fire Pit to an Existing Patio

• It is easy to add a fire pit to an existing patio. A heat barrier must be installed over the existing patio so the patio surface will not be ruined. Use 12-inch-by-12-inch or 16-inch-by-16-inch flat patio pavers as the heat barrier. Place them directly on top of the patio. Then use either retaining wall block or castle wall block to build a circular fire pit at least two levels high. This kind of fire pit is nice because it can be moved from place to place on the patio.