How to Build Your Own Natural Gas Fire Waterfall

Locate the spot on your patio where you want the fire pit waterfall to be installed. Mark its center, and contact a plumber to extend natural gas piping to the location. Use a ball valve, fitted with a double-male threaded nipple at the end of the pipe to serve as the primary gas shutoff for the fire pit.

Lay a ring of 16 retaining wall concrete bricks around the gas pipe outlet, sizing the fire pit and locating its position on the patio. Leave about 1/4 inch between each block to serve as a joint to be mortared. When you’ve positioned the blocks adequately, begin applying mortar to the joints using a mortar box and mason’s trowel. When the first ring of bricks is mortared, apply a layer of mortar across the top of the ring, using a level to ensure the mortar maintains level.

Lay a second ring of concrete bricks on top of the mortar. Offset the second ring by half a brick’s width from the ring below it, so that vertical joints between the rings don’t line up. Once all the bricks are placed and mortared, apply a layer of mortar across their tops, making sure to level the structure in the process.

Repeat Step 3 for the third and fourth layers of the fire pit’s bricks, though don’t apply mortar across the top of the final row.

Drill a 2-inch hole in the center of a 24-inch square piece of sheet iron, and weld a 24-inch piece of 2-inch iron pipe to the metal. Cut 1/2-inch lengths of pipe, and weld them at the corners of an 8-inch square box centered on the pipe’s opening

Drill a 2-inch hole in the center of the fire bowl, then spray the bowl with several coats of rust-resistant black spray paint. Feed the 24-inch iron pipe through the hole for about 4 inches, welding it to the bowl so the assembly sits about 20 inches above the fire bowl. Drill a 1-inch hole in the pipe about 3 inches above the bowl’s surface. Paint the assembly and all welds using black, rust-resistant spray paint. Allow the paint to dry.

Feed flexible gas tubing through the pipe, connecting it to nipple at the gas line below, and set the fire bowl assembly into the fire pit base so its outer lip rests on the base’s top. Place the electric waterfall pump in the bowl. Feed the flexible waterfall tubing into the hole in the side of the iron pipe, and up through the pipe to the platform above.

Affix the flexible natural gas tubing to the fire pit fire box and burner assembly, so it rests on the 1/2-inch sections of pipe on the sheet metal. Dump fire rocks provided with the fire box assembly into the burner.

Fill the fire bowl with 2 inches of water, and provide power to the pump. Use the burner control on the burner assembly to allow gas to flow to the fire pit, and light the fire using a match.