Fire Pit Help

[OffRoad322]

Hi All,
I'm new here so hopefully I'm posting in the right area. I have an existing wood burning stone fire pit that the previous owner of my house had built.

I am looking at converting it over to propane and I read by code and for safety I need a vent on two sides of the fire pit.

Here comes the question...how do I cut through cleanly on rocks/stone? I am already halfway through because the inside is brick...that part was easy. How do I do the outside with clean cuts for my rectangle vents?

Please see attached picture.

 

[firefighterjake]

Concrete saw?

 

[Batman]

How big do the vents need to be? It is pretty easy to drill or cut through mortar. Would a couple or three 1 inch holes answer? If instead you needed, say 4" rectangular or round holes, then knock out a rock or two. Smooth things out with a little mortar after as needed.

A hammer drill and a diamond bladed angle grinder would come in handy here, but you could kick it old school style with just a hammer and chisel. Good luck.

 

[saewoody]

^^^^
All seem like good ideas


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[begreen]

I like the knock a rock out idea. I'd probably work on completely removing this stone by chipping away at the mortar. Install vent and use a smaller stone to fill any large gaps around the vent if necessary.

 

[OffRoad322]

Thank you all for the help and ideas...

Begreen, not sure if you can see but I'm working on that stone and made a hole from the inside next to it. It's a full sized rock...not halfed as you would expect. Any ideas on softened mortar or if the angle grinder would be a good idea in small areas like this?

 

[begreen]

I'd probably keep pounding away at the mortar surrounding the stone with a star chisel on the sides and a flat chisel on the bottom.To accelerate the process you could rent an electric jackhammer with those bits.

 

[OffRoad322]

Not sure if anyone is still following my thread, but I managed to remove the stones like BEGREEN said. Any suggestions on framing/install the vent covers? They are flat vent covers so I am just looking for something to screw them to and the mortar around and add small rocks to blend in.

Attached picture is before I removed the rocks...just so you can see what my vent covers look like.

Thank you!

 

[begreen]

That vent cover doesn't seem like it's meant for this application. It might be easier to fit a round vent cover or to fit in some stainless 1/8" mesh screening inside the hole.

 

[My_3_Girls]

Totally wrong application, but would work. You could put one on the inside, and one on the outside, but you would have to replace often, as they're made of aluminum. The good news is they are cheap, and you could spray paint them to match or accent the situation:

https://www.midgetlouver.com/