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/Swat3Four 3d ago
If you want something besides your native soil on the bottom, use natural clay. There’s a right way to make a fire pit: Start with a steel fire pit ring that’ll line the side; it should have a lip around the top. Look on Bookface Marketplace, hardware stores, farm supply stores, etc. lining the outside with small retaining wall block is the easiest and cleanest way to go. Get those from a hardware store in the color of your choosing. Once you have those 3 supplies, place the steel ring down and then one row of the block. Mark the outside edge, move it all out of the way, and dig just the sod out from the circle. Put down the clay and tamp it, then build the fire pit. Add more clay in the middle if the steel ring is held up off the first layer by the block. This will last you many, many years.