One of my very favorite things about summer is roasting marshmallows. When we moved into our house, we had a fire pit, but it was not seated in the ground and very rusty. I knew that I wanted to try to save this old metal ring to try to make it into a better more established area someday.
This fire pit was a quick one day project, and overall very inexpensive to do. It can be done with or without the metal ring and bricks if you have other options available to you to use. Here are the materials I used:
Materials:
- Metal Tire Rim- Mine is larger, and was in the yard when we bought the house. If you wanted to go this route, you can try checking with local junk yards or scrap metal places to see if they have something you can use.
- Metal spray paint- to cover rust
- Shovel
- Ground tamper
- Landscaping fabric
- Bricks or pavers of choice
- Work gloves
Step 1: Sourcing & Prepping the area
The first step is sourcing a fire pit ring. This ring was already sitting in our yard when we bought our home. There are many ideas out there for fire pits, and I loved the idea of this metal tire ring. Im not sure how hard these are to come by, but a quick search at a local wrecking yard could be a great way of finding one of these for a cheaper amount that you might find elsewhere. Something metal or brick is the best material for inside the ring.
Next, you to decide where you would like your fire pit. Our yard is not very private and I wanted the fire pit to be on the side of the house that had the most secluded area so we could hang out around his fire pit with more privacy.
I knew that it would be somewhat close to the outside structure of our house, but since the material our house is made of is stucco and plaster, I wasn’t too worried. If your house is made of a stick frame material make sure that you leave adequate room from your house for the fire pit. (Local codes may vary on this.)
Make sure there are no low hanging branches or things that may easily catch on fire surrounding the area. You want to make sure that it is open, and there is adequate room for the heat and flame that will be coming off of your fire pit.
Step 2: Shoveling
Begin by shoveling out any grass or weeds that may be in that spot. Using my favorite work gloves and a shovel and I started to dig a hole in the general area that I knew that I wanted the pit.
After I had a couple of inches dug, I placed the ring around where I was digging to make sure that I was digging a wide enough hole. The hole needed to be slightly bigger than the ring so the ring could sit inside of it, and just below the surface of the ground.
Previously, this ring was just sitting up on the ground, and ashes and other things would spill out of the bottom. This would also allow grass to grow into the fire pit, making it look unsightly, and not containing any mess.
I dug down about 4 inches in the diameter that I needed to place the ring into the ground. I actually ended up running into a sprinkler line once I got down a little bit deeper and had to move the whole ring over a couple of inches to avoid it. (The last thing I needed was to melt a PVC sprinkler line because my fire pit sat on top of it.) This is what the ring looked like in the hole.
Step 3: Backfilling the ring
After the ring was seated in the hole, I tried to make sure that it was somewhat level before backfilling. I then used some of the dirt that I had dug out of the hole to fill in around the edges of the ring until it felt secure and steady. I only filled in from the outside, leaving the inside how it was. This will make the outside ground sit higher than the inside ground, leaving the pit to be below ground level. I didn’t backfill the outside ground level completely as I knew that I would be adding bricks surrounding it on the next step. I only back filled enough just to help it feel secure.
Next, I used my tamping tool, and packed down the dirt inside of the ring all the way around the circle. I also tamped down the dirt outside of the ring all the way around the circle. I knew that in the next step I would be adding bricks, and I wanted a level surface for doing so. I had to remove dirt in a few spots and continue to tamp down other spots to make it as level as I could.
Step 4: Painting the ring
Since this ring had been sitting in our yard, for who knows how long, there was quite a bit of rust that had developed on it. It was unsightly and not in the best of shape. I cleaned it the best I could, and then applied a rust covering black, matte spray paint to try to ensure coverage for a long period of time. I applied two even coats on the outside and inside of the ring until it looked good.
Step 5: Adding the bricks
I added this next step because I knew that I wanted to help it feel more finished than just having a metal ring sitting in the ground. I use the landscaping fabric to surround the entire outside of the ring before placing bricks down. It did this to try to prevent weeds from growing up along the edges of the ring, which has been a real problem in the past.
I used landscaping stakes to hold the landscaping fabric in place and make sure that I had even coverage all the way around the ring. Next I took my paver bricks and laid them out around the fire pit ring.
I arranged them in a pattern facing outward in a starburst shape. Luckily, with a little bit of arranging and spacing they fit evenly around the ring for the most part. I had a few gaps here and there but you can’t tell once you get all the way done.
Once I had them in place where I wanted them, I began backfilling with fine loose dirt from the pile that I had dug out to put the pit in.
I took lots of time to put dirt in between all of the cracks and gently shook it down by tapping on the bricks to help it settle. I did this over and over and over, and even used a hose to spray in some of the dirt into the spaces letting it dry in between to make sure it was really packed in.
In the end it ended up looking so clean and good and has held up really well. This fire pit will be a great place for a family to create some memories all summer roasting s’mores.
Drop any questions you have below!