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When we moved into our house, we had all of these plans. I have loved watching them slowly fall into place! Two years ago we spent a few weeks making a fire pit in our backyard.
Our ground isn’t exactly soft, so lots of work and a few giant boulders later, we had a circle dug out.
My now almost four-year-old was only 18 months and loved helping dad <3
It’s amazing how many trips to the store a project like this takes…
Coming together… after a bit of a struggle figuring out the bricks what with our yard being slanted.
We have loved having a fire pit in our backyard. We have people over all the time in the summer. We roast lots of hot dogs and make lots of s’mores. The barbecues may cost a little money, but the fire pit is a fairly cheap and enjoyable way to spend our evenings close to home.
Tips for Making a Fire Pit
- Plan Ahead: This seems obvious, but there are certain things to keep in mind. If there are certain chairs or a certain number of seats you want to fit, make sure you allow for enough space. Decide whether you want a built-in fire pit or one you can move. Check out the different options for edges. Some bricks are bigger than others and it never hurts to have as much information up front as possible.
- Consider Using a Tiller: Depending on where you live and how hard your ground is, a tiller can be very useful. Our ground is hard. We dug it out in March (it snowed during the process). It was quite a process to get all the dirt out.
- Count Your Bricks: It may sound strange, but make double sure you get all of the supplies you pay for. We took a load of bricks home and started placing them only to need more. When we headed back to Lowe’s for more, we were surprised that fewer bricks looked like the amount we got the first time. I went back through pictures and counted the bricks we actually took home on the first run and were shorted a ton! Luckily the store was awesome and worked with us to sort it out.
- Consider Your Options: I originally wanted to place the bricks on end. I saw the look on Pinterest and liked it. However, our backyard is slanted and we needed to stack up the back of the pit. We eventually came up with the idea to do the bricks flat and love the look. Don’t get stuck on one idea or look. Be flexible.
- Space Your Bricks: Another maybe obvious tip, but just because you love the size of your pit and your bricks doesn’t mean it will measure out perfectly. Lay all the bricks out and make sure there is equal space between each brick. You don’t want to just start sticking bricks down only to end up with a random-sized spot when you get back around.
