outdoor firepits

Gotta agree with BB, burning in an open pit on a wood deck sounds like a recipe for disaster.

micaaronfl said:

two years

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Heads up to you micaafonfl, you can hit the edit button on your post and edit it after you post it.

for the most part i agree with everyone, keep the flames off the deck. One alternative would be one of those gas firepits with the glass rocks. I see them at lowes and HD. I think those would be acceptable on a deck, its just like a grill. The big thing, no sparks and most have a tip over shut off.

I'm using a Jotul Combifire copy, the one that looks like an Easter island statue. The door flips down and slides to the rear so you can have an open fire.
I got it off Craigslist for $75. It works great on the patio.

I'm practically a Neanderthal . . . just a bunch of rocks in a rough ring shape in a corner of my yard.

In

micaaronfl said:

might be off topic but i wanted to see what everyone uses for an outdoor firepit. Right now i am using a low to the ground home depot firepit and my wife complians about being chased by the smoke,. We were thinking about a chimnae as i assume most of the smoke goes up the stack.

Anyway any recommendations would be great. btw burning on a wooden deck

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Invite me over and your wife's smoke problem will be solved. I have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that whichever side of a fire I sit on is where the smoke will go. It's aggravating but has gone on for so long now that I no longer get upset by it.

Otherwise, your Chiminea sounds like a good idea. Get a little draft and the smoke will go overhead.

firefighterjake said:

I'm practically a Neanderthal . . . just a bunch of rocks in a rough ring shape in a corner of my yard.

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I recently made a new one, big enough to hold pallets that are too rickety to stack firewood on anymore. Big enough for about twenty chairs to sit around

When we say fire pit that is exactly what we have - a low spot with rocks. The fire burns the weeds back, and some day I'll empty the ashes. The boys are all in scouting and so we camp enough to get our fill of campfires while we are out in the woods. We don't have many fires in the backyard.

firefighterjake said:

I'm practically a Neanderthal . . . just a bunch of rocks in a rough ring shape in a corner of my yard.

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+1

firefighterjake said:

I'm practically a Neanderthal . . . just a bunch of rocks in a rough ring shape in a corner of my yard.

Click to expand...

+1

Maybe just a "bit" more elaborate for me - small clearing @ 100' from the back of the house -- I spread out a couple inches of gravel (in @ 6' circle), placed a few 4" cinder blocks on their sides (butted together) in the center of that, and an old truck tire rim on top of the blocks. Leftover parts from past projects, the truck repair center (parts graveyard) at the edge of town, etc.

We had a chiminea at our old house on our wooden deck. The darn thing cracked at some point and the bottom fell out...we have a scorch mark on the deck from it still.

Currently we use the firepit that was here, I think there are rocks there somewhere, but we tend more towards bonfire than campfire outside, lol. When we build our patio I'd love to kick the temco out and use it out there, and replace that with an old parlour stove inside (occasional use). DH really likes the temco though so I doubt that will happen. More likely I'll find an old parlour stove for the patio. We were originally going to keep the fisher that was here for that but sold it instead so it wasn't in the way for the few years it'll take to get to that point.

Or the spendy Maverick firepit....

A coworker just had a neighbor's house burn down two weeks ago. Started on the deck, after grilling dinner over charcoal, and then turning in for the night. Everyone got out of the house in time, only because one family member stayed up late reading, and got everyone up just in time to run out as the fire really took off.

Our fire pit idea. Made with old keystone blocks. cost was "0" came from a job at Mcdonalds....

We use several large stones that came from the foundation of an old farm. We have cookouts a few times and year and burn our paper and cardboard trash in it year round. When we moved several years ago, we brought them with us. I almost forgot what my yard looked like last March. All of the wood is now split and stacked. I'm burning now but saving this stuff for cold weather.

I would like to get something from this company - the moosehead looks great.
http://www.precastoutdoorfireplaces.com/outdoor fireplace.htm

My neighbor gave me an old BUS rim...Works great...Put some rocks around it and I'm good

Right now I've got a big pit in my back yard where a huge poplar came down during Irene; it broke off largely below ground level. We've been burning in there, moving the fire around a bit as we burn the roots away. Got a neat old stone fireplace behind the cabin, maybe I'll take a picture of that when I go back up there next week.

We bought one of those big box store cheapie pits that look like a dish just to see if we really would use it enough to justify building a more permanent pit in the back yard... the verdict is that I'm going to have to get digging in the spring Not sure how exactly I'm going to do it, lots of ideas though, but the general theme will be hole in ground, gravel base for drainage and stone of some sort around edge to keep dirt back... If I can figure out what I'll use as a grill on top first that may fix the dimensions somewhat although that keyhole design shared here seems brilliant.

As to the deck - I would never consider burning on my deck unless perhaps I put down a hearth pad and conformed to appropriate CTC. Not sure that I'd do an open flame at all though. My deck isn't large enough to get that far from the house. I seem to recall that my town has a minimum distance from the house requirement for open fires as a matter of fact - which seems to make good sense. I too like my house the way it is.

I'm still working on it. Haven't grilled on it yet, but I will soon.