Jim's Idea On How to Build a Fire Pit

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What I am doing here isn't showing you how to lay brick or how to set a footing. I suggest hiring that part out and if your good enough to do it then you don't need my advise on that anyway. What I want to convey to you is the fundamental basics of constructing a fire pit. The drains, air circulation, cleaning- just a mess of simple basic options that are easily forgotten and when they are forgotten it could make having a fire pit a pain. If your fire pit is a pain and a pain to maintain your not going to use it as much as you would if it was basically maintenance free.

The first thing I suggest is who ever is laying the fire brick uses the proper mastic for the job and make sure they know whether or not you use a grout joint or not. This is not like building a fireplace in ones home. It's outside and will be expose to much more heat then an indoor fireplace. MORTAR AND CONCRETE DO NOT LIKE FIRE OR HEAT. IT COULD EXPLODE.

THis picture is showing a fire pit using the safety features we suggest such as the screen. In our opinion a spark screen is not an option and chances are where you live it probably county code,

If you notice the yellow fire brick goes up the height of the fire pit, Then you can see that the flagstone coping on the top butts up against the fire brick but the coping is about a 1/4" taller then the fire brick. This will give a nice place for the screen to sit and the 1/4" will help the screen from moving around. And when the screen is made it made to fit the outside diameter of the fire brick. THis way when you place the screen on the fire pit the screen will cover the fire brick and it'll look like it was made as one planned unit.

Something else this design does is it keeps any mortar joints out of the fire area. If this style wasn't implemented the most common style is to have the flagstone coping lay over the fire brick and hang into the fire pit an inch or so. The problem with that is this overhang is into the fire area. When you crank this pit up you'll see what I'm talking about. It's the Brother-in-law theory Once you turn your back - it's time to filler up with wood and have a fire and you can have a damn good fire going in a hurry.

I'm updateing this page as we speak so call me if your needing anything until it's finished.