Casey and I love spending time outdoors. We have a decent sized yard surrounded by shrubbery. As we sit in our backyard we can almost forget we live within city limits, until a neighbor starts to mow or play their music loudly.
Casey and I have been making friends, and we have been thinking about inviting our friends over for dinner. We decided that a fire pit in the backyard would be great for grilling out! We researched different fire pit blueprints online and came across some intricate ideas! However, our backyard isn’t very big, and we also did not want to spend a lot of money. Therefore the fire pit we built would need to be simple and cost effective.
Our fire pit design was minimal. To describe it plainly, it is a circle of stones with lava rock on the bottom, and a grill grate that could easily be removed. Here’s what you need to build a simple fire pit like ours:
- 33 Curved Stones
- 1 Bag of Lava Rock
- Grill Grate
- Shovel (which we already had)
The total cost for the materials was about $70.
We purchased all our materials from Lowe’s Home Improvement. The stones we chose were created with a slight curve to ensure a smooth circle could be created. We estimated how many stones we would need to form a circle to fit the grill grate on top of, which was 11 for one layer. We estimated we would want to have 3 layers of stones to have the fire the right height from the grill grate. For safety purposes, we also purchased lava rock to cover the bottom of the fire pit.
Before you start digging up grass, layout your fire pit design to ensure you like the location of the fire pit. Then mark an outline of the fire pit so you know where you should dig up the grass. Any grass or other debris near your fire pit is a potential fire hazard, and would be a quick way to end any festivities!
We removed a thin layer of the soil and grass. We wanted the fire pit to remain above ground. We thought about adding a layer or two in ground to better retain heat. However, decided that it would not be necessary for our purposes.
Casey made sure to dig wider than the circumference of the pit. Any grass close to the fire pit would have potential for catching fire.
Once the dirt was dug up, we laid the stones in the right pattern to form the circle. Then poured the lava rock into the bottom of the fire pit.
Three layers for the rock wall was the right height for a small fire. The circumference also fit perfectly for the grill grate. I would suggest adding another layer if you desired a larger fire.
Casey and I are happy with our simple fire pit! We were able to test our our new grill fire pit when our family came to visit during the beginning of August. We grilled brats, hamburgers, and veggie dogs!
There are many different fire pit designs that can be found online. We hope you can take away some ideas from our post about building your own fire pit. Let me know if the comments below of your own fire pit designs. Also, if you have any awesome BBQ recipes to share please leave them in the comments below.
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Very cool fire pit! And I like the simple design.
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