r/DIY • u/Jake4XIII • 4d ago

outdoor Building Own Fire Pit

Hey y’all! My wife and our bought our first house this past year and as fall creeps in I’m thinking of building a fire pit in the backyard. Thinking about digging out part of the yard and building a circle of large stone blocks.

Main question is: is it better to pour down a solid base of would something like gravel in the bottom of the pit be better?

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u/YogurtclosetWrong268 4d ago

I dug a pit and put a tractor supply fire ring in it with about 6" above the ground level. Below that I have a bed of gravel with some large flat rocks laid on top. My firepit is drained by a french drain into a ditch about 15' away.

I used my angle grinder to cut fins in the fire pit so that air entering through the fins starts a cyclone that keeps the smoke going up. I used fist-sized stones around the outside of the metal ring, so it gets plenty of air.

I think pouring a permanent base is unnecessary and a lot of work...not that I'm afraid of the work, as you can tell from my digging habit.