My favorite way to bring my family together is gathering around a blazing, warm fire pit. I don’t know what happens around a fire pit but it almost seems magical. Fire has a way of bringing people together. Anyone can have a fire pit for enjoyment. You don’t need a patio designed by a landscape architect to enjoy one. You can build your own backyard fire pit using free materials from the great outdoors.
We had experience…
Several years ago we built a fire pit for our backyard for around $50 just using blocks from our local home improvement store. It is actually the most popular post on my blog because it’s thrifty and super easy to build. (See image link below).
The Epiphany…
Last fall we went on our annual vacation to the family mountain homestead. One source of entertainment for us has been building a fire in the evenings. Traditionally the fire was built from stacking wood in an old metal barrel. After building our own fire pit at home we had a epiphany. We thought it would be great to build a decent pit at the homestead that everyone could enjoy and was more permanent.
The house is rather rural so we needed to build it without having to run to a home improvement store. We got resourceful and found large stones at the creek behind the house and just stacked them in a way that created a fire barrier as well as had a way for air to get into the pit.
Tip 1: Unlike our pre-formed block firepit, we were using rocks of different shapes and sizes. These rocks probably shouldn’t be stacked higher than about 2 levels. If you build your own pit out of rocks, remember to keep safety and physics first. Never build anything with unstable walls or foundations.
Safety- Remember, we are not fire pit professionals. These are just ideas for you to use in making your own fire pit. Be sure to contact your local fire marshall and find out about what size pits are allowed for recreational use in your area.
Tip 2: Work as a team. My husband built this with the help of several other people. Don’t go lifting giant bolders by yourself! When making a pit out of rocks, get someone to help you carry them.
Tip 3: Use proper lifting techniques so you don’t injure yourself moving rocks around.
Tip 4: The key is stack the rocks around your selected area in way that makes the sides sturdy and stable. It’s a little like playing Tetris. We made sure to position a few rocks with gaps so we could get airflow at base.
This pit cost us nothing to build and now we all have a fun place to hang out in the evenings to chat, roast marshmallows and enjoy the great outdoors.
What Happens Around a Fire…
Now we have a nice looking, permanent, naturally built firepit at our family mountain house. Having such a nice pit in the backyard means we have far more times of laughter, memories and story telling. More importantly when we gather together in this special place, the tablets, the phones and other devices are left quietly hidden away as the human interactions guiding our time are far more fun that any virtual reality could ever offer.
Have you found any creative ways to build a fire pit out of supplies you had around? Do you have any annual traditions that include gathering around a fire? Please share your fire pit building adventures in the comments section below!
PS- If you want to see how to build your own backyard fire pit using supplies from your local home improvement store, check out this video my husband created showing you how we built ours!
 
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[…] Two summers ago my husband decided to build a super simple backyard fire pit. It cost us right around $60 to build. Check out my Easy Inexpensive DIY Backyard Fire pit tutorial for supplies, step by step instructions and diagrams. If you want a more natural fire pit that you could build for free, check out my post on Building a Backyard Firepit with Free Materials. […]