Today I’m building a brick fire pit. This is a small project that can be built in just a few hours if you have the right materials.

 

This is our current fire pit. It looks bad, is in rough shape, and full of holes.

There is a great spot in our back yard that is perfect for a fire pit.

The previous homeowner had a fountain based on the old pump we found.

We began by cleaning up the area. Pulling up the pavers showed what was underneath.

I grabbed the weed-whacker and fired it up. I cleared out the area of the grass and weeds.

After raking, I laid down a section of a weed blocking fabric to minimize anything growing up through the pit.

We swept off the pavers and then laid them back in place.

These were the bricks we’d be using to build the fire pit.

It only took a few trips to bring enough over to the project.

At this point we still didn’t know how we wanted the fire pit to look. We experimented putting bricks down in different configurations.

Interlocking the bricks strengthens the structure.

We built up several layers, and eventually, liked the way it looked.

This was just a mock up since the standalone bricks don’t have a lot of strength.

I pulled everything back down to the bare dirt and completely leveled the ground.

I put the weed-block and pavers back on and made sure they were level.

Once the site foreman was satisfied, I could continue.

I bought the cheapest bag of mortar from the Home Depot and poured about half of it into a mixing tub.

I added water little by little. I mixed up the mortar until it was a peanut-butter consistency.

With the mortar ready, I laid out the bricks and then buttered them one by one. I smashed each one in place and wiggled them so there was a little mortar squeeze-out.

Before moving up I made sure the first layer was completely level. You can use your hand or a mallet to pound the bricks so they are all flush.

As I went, I cleaned up the excess squeeze out.

I continued stacking until it was at its final height. In our case it was five layers.

Once all the bricks were in place I did a little fine-tuning to make sure the walls were flat. I also cleaned up the rest of the squeeze-out and swept up my mess.

I added a bunch of red rocks in the bottom for a more finished look. I threw in a couple logs and capped it with the wire cover from the old pit.