How To Build Your Own Fire Pit For Less Than $75!

Spring is finally here and summer is rapidly approaching. So now is the perfect time to create an awesome outdoor fire pit that you, your family and friends will enjoy for many months to come. I know there are many ways to build a fire pit and we are by no means experts. The way we did it may not be the way for you. That being said, after going through the process, we thought we'd share some tips on how Mr. CBD and chickadee number three went about building it.

DISCLAIMER: 

By sharing how we created our back yard fire pit we in no way guarantee the safety of the design we used. The information is shared as an inspirational guide only.

Supplies You Will Need

1. 48 Belgian Wedge concrete blocks

2. 48 Belgian Small Wall concrete blocks

3. Landscape Adhesive (3 10 oz. tubes)

4. Caulk Gun

5. Rubber Mallet

6. Pea Gravel

7. Fire ring insert (optional)

Two types of concrete blocks

Landscape Adhesive

Caulk gun to hold the landscape adhesive

Rubber mallet for gently knocking the blocks into place

Here's a picture of a portion of our back yard "before" we built the fire pit. We actually own an acre, but the majority of the land is off to the side of our house, not in the back. But that's ok, because by putting the fire pit here we can access it more easily from our patio and we can keep an eye on it at all times, even when we have to run into the house. Safety first, people!

We purchased the concrete blocks at a regional big box home improvement store.Lucky for us, along with the blocks, came building plans! The two types of blocks we used are called "Belgian Wedge" and "Belgian Small Wall Block." We bought the wedge in "Autumn Blend" and the small wall block in "Tan." It might be hard to discern from the pictures but there's definitely a two-toned vibe going on.

Here's Mr. CBD hauling the blocks with a wheelbarrow from the driveway into the back yard with our son, a.k.a. chickadee number three, a.k.a. our little helper, in tow. On the whole, the project difficulty level was "beginner." According to my husband,it took longer to load the blocks into the car at the store than it did to actually put the entire thing together!

First you have to lay down your lower, or first, ring, making sure all the blocks come together just right and that they form a good, closed circle. Note that there's been no caulking whatsoever at this point. You know what they say. Measure twice, cut once.

Here's the first ring in progress.

Once your first circle is complete, you need to create circle number two directly on top of it, still without using the adhesive. (You never do glue the bottom ring.) You can use the rubber mallet during this phase to insure that the next level of blocks sits correctly atop the level beneath it. It's easier to use the mallet to gently tap a block or two into place rather than moving a whole bunch of blocks just because one or two blocks were not placed properly initially.
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Once you're sure the second ring matches the first, you take off one or two blocks at a time, slather them with garden adhesive, and place them back again. This method guarantees that the two rings will be identical.

Here's some slathering.

A bit more slathering.

And voila. (Note: this picture shows the ring before the insertion of the pea gravel.) Luckily, we didn't have to buy any because we already had some. My husband placed some over the grass in the bottom of the ring and spread it out evenly before we lit our first fire.

The plans called for (as optional) a steel fire ring insert. It would have cost us another $60 so we opted not to purchase it. The plans also called for a 48 hour waiting period before building your first fire. We, however, built a fire that night and the newly-glued pit withstood the heat just fine. But I would recommend that you wait the 48 hours just to be safe. 

 

Right now most of our outdoor furniture is still under wraps, so we're using two wooden and two all-weather Adirondack chairs. They all could use a little TLC in the way of paint and/or scrubbing, which I hope will happen once the weather really starts to warm up. I also recently purchased two outdoor "poufs" for a really reasonable price at Old Time Pottery. They can be used as seats and/or tables. They'll come in handy when the kids' friends are over for bonfires this spring and summer. It would also be great to add some outdoor string lights for ambiance. 

 All in all we spent just under $75 for the materials to build our new fire pit. We love it so far. The nights are still a wee bit chilly so we simply use some blankets and can still enjoy the fire. 

Well, that's it until next time, friends! 

I hope you enjoyed reading How To Build your own Fire Pit 

For Less Than $75.

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