How do you build your firepits?

19 comments

1. > Do you have any suggestions, recommendations, dos and donts?

   THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Use materials that will not spall/explode! Do not use “regular” concrete or bricks, river rock, or any porous material. These can all retain (or have inherently embedded) water and break apart violently. I haven’t heard of any deaths, but have heard of injuries. Make sure to get rock/concrete/brick which is specifically stated as being “fire rated” (or whatever term is used in Brazil).

2. You want a shovel [like this](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTn5zILMtDk4WHrI4BVknW3nh-1mIjjFh4M5g&usqp=CAU) for the ashes, and an iron fire-poker to shift logs and stuff. Basically just scoop out the ashes and dump them at the treeline, they’ll be good for the dirt unless you’re burning trash. Also, don’t clean it immediately after putting out a fire. Wait a few days after you decide to clean it just to be sure any embers put themselves out.

   You should only need to clean it every few times you use it, and you don’t want to go down into the dirt. Having a bit of totally-burnt out ash in the bottom is good to keep down vegetation and keep any fire from spreading.

   Water isn’t a problem unless you’ve got some kind of monsoon season, otherwise it’ll be fine to just let it soak into the ground. If anything, having the dirt underneath slightly wet will make it safer.

   Before you light the fire, take a few minutes to cut down any grass and weeds within a few feet around the firepit if it’s grown in. I mean scalp the lawn, so there isn’t anything that could start a larger grassfire. Once the fire’s done and you’re ready to go inside, take a few bucket’s worth of water and douse the fire, going from the outside in, just until the hissing mostly dies down.

   Other than that, you could use most any rocks you have around to line it [EXCEPT RIVER ROCKS], but bricks/cinderblocks are good enough, too. Just make sure it’s wide enough that there’s a good few inches between the wall and the fire all around, so that the stones aren’t heated up to the point of cracking.

3. Check with your municipality to see if you need a permit to do open fires.

4. You should have a breather trench=less smoke.

5. I just use a clay Chiminea. It’s not affected by rain and doesn’t really need maintenance.

6. My firepit is a metal sleeve surrounded by landscaping bricks, with some sand in the bottom.

   If you going to use bricks, you gotta have the metal sleeve or the bricks will get too hot and burst, violently.

   Also youre sort of over thinking this. Some of the best fire pits are a shallow hole in the ground with some logs for sitting placed around it

7. One really simple way is to get the rim from a tractor wheel or a truck wheel (just any large rim made of steel) and lay it on its side. You might have to block off bigger holes with a rock or two, but the small holes help airflow

8. /r/HomeImprovement or /r/DIY is probably a better forum for you.

   I have 2 galvanized steel fire rings. I dug a 6″-12″ channel in the ground and stuck the ring into it.

   Fire brick is another popular option as well as chimineas and smokeless fire pits like the Solo Stove. Fire brick is not the same as a standard brick, standard brick can shatter at high temps.

   > How do you deal with water after a rain

   I don’t. It drains into the ground.

   > How do you clean it

   I spread them in the bushes nearby

   > Are there any other concerns that I should keep in mind?

   Weather conditions. I live in an area prone to wildfires and I will not have a fire unless the Forest Service has noted that today is a low risk day. Never burn when it’s windy. Only burn paper, kindling, and wood. Do not use the fire as a garbage disposal tool. Never burn treated lumber unless you like inhaling formaldehyde and arsenic.

9. I didn’t build anything. Just started a fire on the ground with some firewood. Never let me down.

10. Go to your local scrap yard (or a shop that specializes in working on heavy equipment) and buy a rim that has a removable hub (the technical name escapes me now) and that should work as a ring. Then dig a slight hole in the ground, roughly 4-5 cm, about the size of the rim. Fill the hole about 1-2 cm with crushed rock or just small rocks. Start a small fire and stay away. You are both burning the paint off of the wheel and removing the moisture from the rocks.

11. A lot of people buy them

12. Your imagination is the limit. It could be as easy as purchasing a premade firepit online, or as complex as fabricating a metal firepit from scratch yourself. You could just have a firepit in the yard by itself or a fully decked out backyard patio area with a firepit seamlessly integrated into it.

    There really is no right or wrong answer. It comes down to how much time and money you’re willing to invest in your firepit project. Look up some images of firepits online, find one that inspires you and figure out what materials you’d need to bring your idea to life. Do you have DIY, landscaping, construction or fabrication experience or will you need to hire someone to do the work? These are things you need to ask yourself.

13. This is a youtube question, not a reddit question. Here’s one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTsmM7parCg

14. I got an old wheel rim from the junkyard, I think it was from a dump truck and cost like $30. Put a couple bricks under it for airflow and stacked landscaping bricks around it.

    I also cleared the grass and put pea gravel down around it, which was a mistake. It looks nice when its clean but after a few years its a pain to keep the weeds down and I regularlly have to add more gravel. If I did it again I’d jsut leave the grass.

    https://imgur.com/a/oGSFtXO

    Inside is filled a few inches with a bit of sand for no real reason other than I had it. I just shovel the ash out when it starts filling up and thats about it for maintenance.

15. Building/making a firepit is situational to you and what’s available to you but there are some basic safety and functional guidelines you really want to follow which are already mentioned here. Do NOT use masonry, like cement, concrete, concrete bricks, or blocks as it WILL explode under high heat, throwing little high speed chunks in random directions. This is seen as “very bad”. :/ The same rule applies to rocks that have been exposed to high moisture/water, like rocks from a river or even certain types of natural stone, they can be “explody”. Not good at all.

    The ground; If your burning is just a ring, exposed to the ground under it and the ground isn’t sand or rock prep the ground under the firepit by digging out a couple of inches of dirt and replacing it with sand or gravel and extend the sand/gravel for 20 to 30cm past the outer part of the ring/pit. “Dirt” is full of organic stuff that will burn off and your fire ring will become a fire hole as the dirt under it burns away.

    Build the pit/ring well away from anything that can be burned, nearby brush or woods or wild land can catch embers and ignite so ideally have at east 7 to 10 meters of open area around the fire. You don’t want fire where it shouldn’t be.

    MY ***easiest ever firepits*** have been simple old style truck tire **[steel split rims](https://bigiron.blob.core.windows.net/public/items/f68d61514ac146b0b14c2762a4943ec7/daytontruckrims_06927734015b470c8ef9c86399e20e41.jpg)** just put in a dug out & refilled with sand or gravel spot. They will basically last forever/decades and can be had for almost nothing at some local truck repair or scrapyards. One good thing about a steel truck rim is that it can be taken with you if you move. New place? Just re-dig the base and toss in your fire ring!

    Also, always have some basic water/fire control supply, the garden hose hooked up, coiled up and ready can be worth everything if everything gets out of control.

    Easy Peasy.

16. Most Americans don’t *make* their own fire pits. The *buy* them pre-made.

    The work they put in goes to landscaping around the pit that they purchased.

17. Get fire bricks that would be used for a pizza oven. Do not have sandstone around it it can explode.

18. Mine is concrete block in a concrete footing and lined with fire brick on the inside and veneered travertine ledge in the outside. Topped with Travertine bullnose.

19. I used the drum of an old washing machine. It’s stainless steel, and it shields the fire from the wind. Very little smoke once it gets going.

    When the drum has too much ash in it, I just wait for it to cool and dump out the ash.