I’ve always wanted a firepit, but I wanted one made out of stone rather than one of the ones like the big box stores sell. I’ve never laid a brick, block or stone in my life before this project. This is my first attempt at any type of masonry construction. This article from DIY Network was my inspiration for this project. Here’s how I built my firepit:
1. I hammered a pipe into the ground in the center of the future firepit. I tied a string to the pipe and held it on the nozzle of a can of spray paint as I marked off the interior of circumference of the pit. Then I used a moved the spray can further out on the string and marked of the exterior circumference of the pit. In the photo, you can see black and blue paint lines – after laying it out the first time, I noticed that I didn’t have the pit exactly where I wanted it, so I moved the pipe and repainted the layout lines in a different color.
2. With my daughter’s help, I dug out the foundation of the firepit. All we removed was the dirt between the layout lines. The center remains dirt.
3. The foundation needs to be under all of the stone and brick that’s going to be laid, but it doesn’t have to look perfectly round, no one will be able to see it after it’s finished. I was surprised at the number of bags of quickrete it took to fill up the foundation. I let the foundation sit up for a couple of days before I began laying the stone.
4. It took a lot of stone for this project. I found mine at The Stone Center off Hwy 70 in Greensboro. The large pallet is the one that I used on the firepit. It is Pennsylvania fieldstone. I believe it was around $200. The other pallet is river rock that will be used for our garden pond project. I also had a scoop of sand in the bed of the truck. The drive home took awhile. I don’t believe my trailer was made to carry that much stone.
5. Those are fire bricks on the inner circumference of the firepit. The only place I could find them locally was Scott Sand & Stone in Mebane, NC. They are kinda expensive at a couple of dollars apiece.
6. At this point a couple of courses have been laid. I was already exhausted.
7. Nearing completion. You can see the hole in the background where I was also digging for our garden pond. It filled with water from a bad rainstorm right after I finished digging, but before I could install the pond liner.
8. Almost finished!
9. It’s finished! We poured a couple of bags of pea gravel in the center.
I have a newfound respect for men who work in masonry. I could hardly move when I finished this project. By the time it was finished, I figured that I carried and mixed close to 1,000 lbs of concrete and mortar, and shaped and laid around 2,000 lbs of stone and brick.
