Love entertaining, and enjoy having people over for a cookout? Having an awesome firepit in your backyard is a great way to relax and have a good time. It also serves as a fantastic conversation starter the next time you have people over to relax.
While a professionally-done firepit may look better, it will cost a lot more than making your own. This DIY firepit can be had for around $50-$75 and few a hours of your time. Get ready to construct and soon you’ll be enjoying tasty grilled steaks around a fire with your closest friends and family.
Materials
For this fire pit, we used concrete paver blocks from Home Depot. Each costs about $1, depending on your local store – some can be had for less, and some for more. That’s a real bargain, considering how good they look! The pavers come in several different colors – River Red, Firestone, Carolina Blend, Buff. You’ll probably want to get somewhere between 40-50 pavers; we’ll be making a firepit 10-12 pavers around and 3-4 high. No need to get any mortar to hold them together; we’ll be stacking the bricks on top of each other. But do grab a stake, some string, and a can of spray paint.
Building The Fire Pit
The ideal spot to build your fire pit will be at least 25 feet away from the house, any buildings, or trees. You want as much space as possible between the flames and anything flammable.
After you’ve chosen your spot, stab the stake into what will be the center of the firepit. Then, tie the string around the stake; you’ll be using this measure the radius of the firepit, all the way around. The firepit, using the pavers we selected, will be about 36” across, so tie the string at about 18” long. Leave a little bit extra to wrap around the can of spray paint.
Then, pulling the string and spray can taut, walk in a circle around the stake and spray the marker paint; this will leave an outline of the firepit in a (nearly) perfect circle. Once that’s done, take a shovel and dig out a few inches of the ground all inside the circle you’ve just marked. We’ll be filling it with gravel or sand for burning the fire on.
Now, grab some of those concrete pavers, and start stacking. We’ll start by simply arranging them in a circle around the outline of the pit, which will take about 10 blocks. For the second level, center the bricks over the cracks of the level below it, and do this with the layer above it, too. You could add some mortar or glue if you’re inclined, but this is easier.
Once you’ve done 3 layers, you’re done! You could do a fourth if you’d like a particularly deep pit, but it isn’t necessary. It’ll be somewhere between 12 and 16 inches tall. The last step is to pour in your gravel or sand, creating a safety layer between the embers and the dirt below.
And that’s it! You’ve now got a perfect DIY firepit in your backyard that looks great and works even better. Toss in some logs, grab some s’mores, and kick back with some campfire songs and good conversation.