Looking to build the perfect backyard fire pit that looks great, works great – and can last for years and years without worry – all without costing a small fortune to create? And even better, one you can cook all kinds of incredible meals on? Then today’s article (and video) is just for you!
There is simply nothing quite like having a backyard fire pit. We built our very first fire pit some 14 years ago at our original farm and we still talk about all of the fun evenings and meals we enjoyed around it today.
Fire pits are the perfect place to gather around for great conversation. Whether it’s with family, friends and neighbors, or just the two of us enjoying a beautiful evening, it makes an evening outdoors that much more special.
Check out our finished fire pit in the video below!
At our new farm, we have several fire pits all around the property for folks to enjoy. But by far, our favorite is our in ground stone fire pit in the courtyard – and was it ever easy to build!
What really makes it even more usable is the addition of a removable homemade cooking bar. It basically turns the pit into an outdoor kitchen – whether for making huge pots of vegetable or chili soup, or for smoking all kinds of meat.
How To Build The Perfect Backyard Fire Pit – Simple, Inexpensive & Elegant!
Building a fire pit really can be simple, inexpensive and elegant. Although there are all kinds of expensive fire pits on the market today, they just don’t have the ambiance and functionality of a homemade pit. Especially when you build in a few key features that make it truly special!
The secret to success starts by employing a few basic fire pit building techniques that make it strong, beautiful and functional. Then, by using natural and locally available materials, you can give it an incredible look that also happens to be quite economical.
For us that means using stone. Stone is forever. And it doesn’t have to be expensive either. In fact, as you will see below, we used inexpensive limestone “D” rock to build ours – for a total cost under $60. And that includes the installation and creation of a removable in ground cooking bar!
Here is a step by step look a the building process, including a few key tips that can make a huge difference in keeping your costs down – and your fires better than ever!
Step 1 – Build Down!
The first key to building the perfect fire pit is to keep it slightly below the soil line. Burying the pit a bit under the ground has several big advantages when creating and maintaining a fire.
First, it helps to keep your fire pit safe by preventing the embers of a burning fire from jumping out. It also helps keep the wind from becoming too much of an issue. Both when starting, and for keeping smoke out of your eyes.
But by burying your fire pit into the earth, it also helps to insulate it. That means your wood will burn slower and have a more even heat across the fire. As you will see later in the article, that is not only great for sitting around the flames, but also for cooking as well.
Creating The Outline – How To Build The Perfect Backyard Fire Pit
The size of your fire pit really depends on available space and need. For building a good fire, it’s best to have a fire pit that is at least 24 inches wide. That is a good size for two up to six people. We went a little larger to 60 inches wide to accommodate more people and allow for a large, removable cooking bar.
So how do easily outline a circular fire pit? With a piece of string and a round center post! We created our circular fire pit layout using a 30″ long piece of string tied to a round rebar post. We began by driving the rebar post into the ground where we wanted the exact center of the fire pit to be.
Using a spray can, we then marked out a perfect circle by spray painting a line on the ground as we walked with the string around the post. It makes quick work of what can be a difficult task for measuring an exact circle.
Digging Down – How To Build The Perfect DIY Fire Pit
Once the lines were marked, we removed 16 inches of the soil inside of the line. For best results, we like digging our fire pits down to anywhere between 12 and 18 inches. By using the 30″ string, we ended up with a hole that was 60 inches in diameter and 16 inches deep all the way around.
The 60″ diameter may sound large, but stone will be going inside of this to form the fire pit circle. It also allows enough space for our cooking bar base to go in. Of course, you can create your circumference any size you wish. Just keep in mind you will lose some space as you stack the stones to form the circle.
The Cooking Bar Install
So now on to the cooking bar. Although this is not necessary for a fire pit, if you plan on cooking over your fire, this is the way to go! It’s far easier and cheaper than purchasing costly triangle supports.
Our cooking bar is created with 1″ common black iron threaded iron pipe. This can be found at any hardware store, and creates a strong, sturdy cooking bar.
Using two 90 degree angle threads, we create a “U” shaped bar. Our bar measures 4′ across and 5 high. The bar then slides down into two slightly 1.25″ larger pipes buried in the ground in the bottom of the fire pit. We used post hole diggers to dig down and bury (2) 20 inch pipes (one on each side of the pit), leaving the pipe tops a few inches above the base of the fire pit floor.
This allows the cooking bar to go down in the ground deep – providing plenty of support to hold soup pots and more. The cooking bar can easily be removed when not in use. When not in use, we use two threaded iron pipe caps to cover the holes.
Creating The Base – How To Build The Perfect Backyard Fire Pit
A strong base is a key to a sturdy, long lasting fire pit. Especially one that will use stacked stone to create its walls. For our base, we use inexpensive limestone screenings. They can usually be found at a quarry or small gravel and sandlot locations.
At around $15 a ton, a small pick-up load usually runs around $7.50. Some places will even allow you to take the screenings in 5 gallon buckets for about $1 per bucket.
Screenings are made up of small bits of limestone and the dust from the limestone rock. The limestone screenings pack down strong and give a firm, level base for a fire pit.
We use a two inch base of limestone screenings at the bottom of the fire pit to create a great base for the stone layers on top – and it also makes a great base for the fire area too.
Building The Stone Wall
With the base complete, we then built the stacked “D” rock stone wall. Although you can purchase rock at a stone center, it can be unbelievably expensive. One of the best ways to save is to purchase your rock at a local quarry instead.
For our fire pit, we used Limestone “D” rock from a nearby quarry. D rock is very inexpensive and comes in sizes varying from 6 to 12 inches. It is the perfect material to stack for a fire pit. We have about $45 in D rock for our fire pit – which is a small investment for stone!
You can use whatever is available for the stone, but the D rock option is easy to install and can even be power washed to clean every so often. For us, it looks great and is incredibly economical and durable!
Finishing Up – How To Build The Perfect Backyard Fire Pit
For the sitting area around our fire pit, we used limestone screenings again, and then covered with inexpensive pea gravel. It not only looks great, but drains well after any rain.
First, we sprayed the sitting area with high strength vinegar to kill off the grass. Next, we put down a two to three inch layer of limestone screenings to form a strong, hard base.
Once we had a level and firm base, we followed with a 2 inch top coat of #8 pea gravel. We have used this combination of a limestone screening base/pea gravel top coat with great results to inexpensively build walkways as well. It looks great and lasts forever!
The limestone screenings form a near concrete-like base, and can be applied right over the existing soil to level it out and create the walkway.
It’s fast, easy and long lasting. It’s also easy to keep completely free of weeds with a few applications of vinegar spray a year. In square footage cost, it runs right around 5 to 10 cents per square foot, and that’s hard to beat!
Here is to creating your own amazing DIY stone fire pit in your backyard this year! Happy Gardening – Jim & Mary.
Old World Garden
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
As always, feel free to email us at thefarm@owgarden.com with comments, questions, or to simply say hello! You can sign up for our free email list in the subscribe now box in the middle of this article. Follow us on Facebook here : OWG Facebook. This article may contain affiliate links.