Summer and warm weather are just around the corner making it the perfect time to build your fire pit. A beautiful and functional fire pit can easily be built with patio pavers that will have your guests giving compliments and asking how it is done.
Have you envied those beautiful fire rings seen in magazines and online? It is not difficult to create your own fire pit. From planning to completion, we will take you step-by-step in creating a fire pit using patio pavers.
How to Build a Fire Pit Using Patio Pavers
The best thing about making a fire pit from patio pavers is that it is easy and inexpensive.
There are a few steps that need to be done to achieve a beautiful fire pit. These include:
- Planning the fire pit placement
- Collecting the materials
- Building the fire pit
Let’s get more into the details of each step below.
Planning the Fire Pit Placement
When planning a fire pit, follow the steps outlined below.
Make Sure You’re Allowed to Have a Fire Pit
Check with city and county ordinances as well as your homeowners association (if you have one) to ensure you are allowed to have one and if there are any restrictions on how large or deep it can be.
Locate Where the Fire Pit Will Go
Once you have the okay you will need to find the right place in your yard to build your fire ring.
There are a few things you’ll need to consider when locating where your fire pit will go:
- You should take safety into consideration when constructing your fire pit. Keep it away from vegetation and at least ten feet away from any structures.
- You should also consider where foot traffic will most likely be. For example, don’t build your fire pit in a pathway from a house door to a gate, or to a playground structure. You don’t want people aimlessly walking through the fire pit area because it is easier to get to another location in your yard.
- Be aware of wind-blown areas as well, because the wind can easily pick up hot embers and carry them into trees or homes igniting a fire out of control.
Now, let’s move onto the next step.
Draw a Blueprint of the Fire Pit
Once you have taken safety precautions and explored the best locations in your yard you will want to draw a map of your yard including the fire ring.
This doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just a visual rendering with some notes for reference. It will help you see any potential drawbacks of the location you chose.
Collecting the Materials
You don’t need a lot of tools to build a fire pit, but you will definitely need a few items.
Here is a list of materials you’ll need:
- Patio Pavers, alternatively you can buy Trapezoidal moulds or cobblestone paver moulds that you fill with your own concrete mix. This will take more time as you wait for the concrete to set and dry.
- Carpenters level
- 2×4 piece of lumber
- Square Nose Shovel
- Sand or gravel
- Tamper
- Fireplace mortar if making a permanent fire ring
- Fire ring insert
- Fire ring dish (optional)
- Grout bags
- Trowel
When buying pavers, keep in mind the style of firepit you want to build. Do you want to make a round fire pit or one that is square or rectangular? The pavers can be rectangular or trapezoidal. The best ones to use are cement retaining wall pavers. They are heavy and will not move easily when in place.
Building the Fire Pit
The steps to building the fire pit are below.
Decide What Shape Fire Pit You Want
The easiest way to build a round fire pit is to use trapezoidal pavers. These will fit together snuggly, creating a smooth eye-catching ring. A fire pit with an inner ring of 36 inches will require a thirty-six-inch fire ring insert to protect the pavers from the heat.
When building a square or rectangular fire pit it is best to use rectangular patio pavers. Again it is important to use a fire pit insert to protect the patio pavers from the heat.
Prep the Area
Here’s the steps to prepping your area for building a fire pit:
- Take your firepit insert to your chosen destination and set it up if it is not pre-built.
- Place one layer of the pavers around the firepit insert. This will also help you visualize what your fire pit will look like.
- Using your square nose shovel, mark out the inner and outer dimensions of the firepit. Move the ring insert and the patio pavers.
- Dig out the interior of your fire pit, making it about three inches deep. Try to keep the ground fairly level while digging.
- Once the pit is dug out, pour some of your sand or gravel into it and smooth it out.
- Replace the fire pit insert and center it. You may want to shimmy it or tap it into place using a rubber mallet. This will ensure it is sturdy and there is a seal between the ground and the insert.
- Check to make sure your ground is level using a piece of 2×4 with a level attached to the thin edge.
- Spread the sand and gravel to low spots and use the tamper tool to compress the layer of sand.
Now that you’ve prepped the area, let’s move onto building the fire pit up with pavers.
Build The Fire Pit
Here are the steps to building up your fire pit with pavers:
- Replace your pavers around the fire pit insert.
- Lay down the first layer of pavers.
- Check the first layer of your wall to ensure the pavers are level. Continue to check the wall as you build each layer.
- If you are building this to be permanent, you will want to use your high-temperature grout to join the next layer on top. However, this is not a necessary step. The pavers should be heavy enough to stay in place.
- As you build the walls of your fire pit, adjust each layer of pavers so they stagger over seams of the lower level pavers. This adds strength and durability to the fire pit wall. If you do not stagger the layers, the seams become weak spots and the pavers are likely to fall over.
- Now you can place a fire ring dish over your pit if you like, or just use the pit without a dish. Either way works. The advantage to having a dish is in the ease of cleaning out the cold ash build-up between fires.
Now you’ve gone through each step to building your fire pit.
Conclusion
Purchasing an already-built fire pit may be more convenient for those looking to use it right away without needing to put much work in. However, building your own fire pit is more advantageous because you can customize it to your liking and it will last much longer.
