Fire pit

[murphy1244]

A lot like mine

 

[DuckSlayer1017]

Wish I'd of seen this thread before I built mine. Had plenty of stone, but no wheel for a liner, so I wonder how long the mortar is gonna hold up?

One thing I'm glad I did was dig a trench from the center over the edge of the hill for drainage. Had some perf pipe left over from another job, and just filled washed gravel into the bottom of the pit to keep it from melting.

View attachment 410333

Nice fire pit. I made one similar to yours about five years ago. I lined the inside of the pit with fire brick to avoid issues with the mortar and stone.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

A lot like mine

Knock it off, Murph. Yer makin' me home sick

But then I remember all the shovelin' I did back there this time of year and I don't feel so bad

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

A lot like mine

Nice picts guys, a lot like mine too,

SR

 

[murphy1244]

Be glad you ain't here this year. I must of put 25 hours on my Ventrac blowing snow. You're welcome.

 

[murphy1244]

Wish I'd of seen this thread before I built mine. Had plenty of stone, but no wheel for a liner, so I wonder how long the mortar is gonna hold up?

One thing I'm glad I did was dig a trench from the center over the edge of the hill for drainage. Had some perf pipe left over from another job, and just filled washed gravel into the bottom of the pit to keep it from melting.

View attachment 410333

Is that rock and sand around the pit?

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Is that rock and sand around the pit?

The walls are built from stones I found on site. The locals call it shale, but it looks more like limestone to me. There is an old lime kiln below the property situated on a big vein of limestone. My understanding is that it was used to make cement early in the last century.

Surrounding the pit is a 10' ring of 3/4"- road base, crushed gravel with a lot of fines. It packs down pretty hard and'll stay put pretty well. Then I spread out a gold colored decomposed granite as a general ground cover/mulch. It'll get soft when wet, but dries very hard. All the landscape plants here are on drip irrigation, and since we're in a wildfire zone, it's important that whatever mulch is used isn't flammable.