Fire pits create an atmosphere in your landscape.
The cozy pleasure of sitting around a fire pit in the evenings or on cool days can bring family and friends together in your backyard. Although many commercial fire pits are available, you can build a fire pit and seating with flagstone in a weekend. Once your fire pit and seating are constructed, you'll be ready to light dried limbs and wood for many gatherings to come. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Insert a garden stake or piece or rebar into the ground at the exact center where you want your fire pit. Tie one end of a 9-foot string to the stake. Hold the other end of the string, and pull the string taught. Walk around the stake, holding the string, and mark a circle on the ground with flour or landscaping spray paint.
2. Remove the sod layer of grass from the 9-foot radius surrounding the stake or rebar, using a shovel. Remove 6 inches of soil in the circle 3 feet out from the stake or rebar.
3. Spread 2 to 3 inches of gravel over the entire soil area, including inside the fire-pit depression. Set a metal fire pit-liner in the depression, and nestle it into the gravel. Make sure the liner is level across the top, and adjust as needed.
4. Mix mortar with water in a bucket or wheelbarrow to a thick, paste-like consistency. Fill the space along the outside of the liner with mortar. Place a ring of flagstone pieces in a single layer around the outside of the liner to form a circle. Press the flagstone into the mortar as you set each piece.
5. Apply a half-inch-thick coat of mortar over the top of the flagstone with a masonry trowel. Layer a second ring of flagstone over the first, staggering the pieces as you go in a brick-like pattern. Continue to spread mortar, and stack the flagstone in circular layers until it is as high as the metal liner.
6. Measure 4 feet out from the outermost edges of the flagstone ring, and drag your shovel through the gravel to mark a larger circle around the outside of the pit. Mark a second larger circle 2 feet out from the fresh line.
7. Determine inside this marked 2-foot-wide ring where you want your seating to be. Leave at least one 3-foot gap in the ring for entering the fire-pit area. Dig the areas where the seating will be to a depth of 6 inches, similar to the fire pit. Fill the bottom 2 to 3 inches with gravel.
8. Fill the depression with mortar, and stack your first layer of flagstone for the seating. Repeat the process of spreading a half inch of mortar and placing staggered flagstones to build up the seating areas until it is about 20 inches high. Allow all of the mortar to set for up to 48 hours before you allow anyone to sit on the stone or use the fire pit.
Tags: feet from, around outside, circle feet, circle feet from, fire seating, larger circle, mortar stack