We spent our Saturday making a DIY fire pit! It turned out just like we were hoping it would and it works great! Here is our step by step process and our first family bonfire. Details at homes.art/firepit
Congratulations on your 'new' year old now, home built firepit! I hope that you and your entire family and friends have enjoyed it over the ensuing months. But beyond that, I salute you BOTH 'Mom and Dad' for your wonderful family - four kids if I have counted correctly - and for doing something with and for them that the WHOLE FAMILY can enjoy. The two of you as parents strike me as couple of good, decent, caring and kind folks. I hope that you stay together forever and grow old over the years with your kids and hopefully their children as well some day. Thank you for sharing your video and a brief insight into your own lives as well. You are really good people indeed. Cheers to YOU and your loved ones!
loved the whole family and the kids helping - made me smile and honestly the music from the neighbors kinda fit the whole video -- nice job and you sir are a great father and dad,the singing at the end was priceless!!!
Just put one of these in for my parents and your video was great! I had to buy a little different vent & we put holes in the dryer tube with leftover rock from the center for more drainage in case of rain. Anyone who has not tried this yet--do it! So worth it and if anyone is wondering how long it took? it was roughly 2-2 1/2 hours. Most of that time was digging, leveling & putting in the vent. My son & brother dug and leveled everything and we all worked on the vent & stacked the bricks (a great workout for this almost to her 50's lady lol) Thanks for putting this together & making it feel like a very doable project--because it is!!
Nice work! I’ve seen a few videos like this, but this is the first one I saw that combined the drainage hole in the middle and the Dakota Fire Hole method. It may have been a bit cheaper/easier to use metal mesh to cover the bottom half of the heat resistant duct. I also saw someone had done this and used a stone, with an enough of a gap to allow air but still cover the intake. Hope your family is lovin’ it!
BEST FAMILY VIDEO ONLINE!! I thoroughly enjoyed watching you 2 working together and each child participating. This was a beautiful family experience and your sons will always remember how hard you worked and how they enjoyed helping you to build your first family fire pit. This is how childhood memories are made that last a lifetime and are shared over and over throughout the decades. One day you parents will be helping your adult kids build a fire pit for their family! Thank-you for sharing this family experience..... and the spinning boy at the end is priceless! (Brother's voice sounds unsure of the outcome!😉)
Good video. I'm going to built a fire pit soon and looking for ideas. I think I'm going to leave some air gaps in between a few bricks on the low levels for air. First time I've seen the air tube idea - pretty neat, but I'm trying to keep it simple!
Awesome build sir! I loved your detail and your explanation as you went. Also loved the break up of work with the fun family time. Made it interesting. I have to say with all due respect, very hot camera lady! That’s the kind of assistant we all need... lol! Seriously though, well done build, I may just have my next project. Thank you!
Pretty easy, dig sorta like a ditch going upwards, like horizontal, then slowly throw the dirt on top of it. Helpful tips: 1)when you throw the dirt on top of the vent, every 4 or so inches compact it a little with your hand. And 2) before putting the vent in the little ditch, you can cut pieces of grey plastic pipe, into little sections of 3 or 4 inches and slide them over the vent so it doesnt get crushed with dirt overtime
I like the way you did it, but it's in almost all bonfire designs, that when the wood go to ashes, it's difficult to extract them, if it's stone or something else on the bottom. I put a wide flat pan under where the sticks and wood go, so it's easy to get rid of the ashes by kust lifting the bottom out and disposing it somewhere... But nice job overall, really! (Sorry for the non-native english, I'm Finnish.)
99xc700sp The dryer hose air vent probably could have been laid on a bed of gravel (like a drain field pipe) with holes in the hose on the bottom to allow rain water to drain out without compromising the air flow. This was a learning experience and a job well done!
as heat rises the bark chips around his pit should not catch on fire but i would have cleared them and added a ring of simple bricks to give a safe ring to prevent any chance of fire.
did the air thingy you installed really make a difference and make it "smokeless" fire pit? i have a mother with COPD, and the though to her being able to join us around a fire pit is amazing... but still not sure how safe that is. anyhow thanks for the great vid.
It's a bit cheaper and easier if you don't add the vent and tubing. Instead you can just leave out a block or two out of the middle for extra air, it works just as good.
Based on what I see in the video, the vent tube is in a "U" shape. What keeps your vent tube from filling up with water when it rains and blocking the air flow?
Nice job. Do you ever make fires in the spring or summer? Do you get haters that say it’s too hot for a fire because they assume the only time to make a fire and sit around it is in the cold seasons? That’s so annoying, I get that often with my fire pit. I make fire in the spring, summer, fall and winter fk em 😂
Fire code says you have to have your fire pit 15 feet from any structure but its ok to build your fire pit on a yard of tinder and kindling. How flammable is that yard?
know this is late for an answer for you--I'm in Michigan and the stones were $2.38 (as of 8/14/2019. We did 4 courses of the brick (48 total). The vent I had to buy was more than they guy in video, 2 bags of pea gravel, 2 bags of paver sand, 1 bag of basic rock & one larger tube of caulk was about $250.00ish. We could have gotten a kit with ring, but it would have been smaller with no rock or caulk (that I'm aware of) for about $219. The cost for us was well worth the little bit extra to have it a little bigger. Plus it was a late Christmas & other celebrations gift for my parents.(mother's/fathers day & birthdays) and they loved it! Hope this helps :)
Great question! Tricky answer: I think so. We've had about 6 decent fire pit sessions since we built it two months ago and absolutely zero problems or complaints with smoke. My mother-in-law can never do fires because of breathing problems, and she actually commented how nice it was to enjoy a smokeless fire last weekend. If I had to do it all over again, I'd try to find a sturdier vent piece for inside the fire. That thing has definitely take a beating under the pressure of the heat and weight of the logs. If I have time to kill at some point in the future I will dig the trench further away from the fire pit all the way to my fence line where I can run power and a small fan out of the way... forced air would be pretty incredible.
Lol cool, I’m trying to build one also. And the digging is unbelievable “ I mean who knew it would be that hard just to dig a hole 😂.. also I don’t think mines is level at all dose it make a difference?
@@mitchescobar1060 The only difference it'll make really is up top on your higher stones, they look a little off. (source - built a fire pit and before setting everything I took it apart and RE LEVELED the first layer because it was crooked as all hell uptop >.
For drainage. The one I am going to build tomorrow will have sand for leveling then a layer of pea gravel for water drainage and then Lava Rocks on top of that to help the distribute the heat and looks nice. It depends on your area, if you live in Arizona it’s probably not going to be a big deal but here in WA it might be a good idea.
Fire pit in the center of a yard covered with wood chips, Yikes! You also don't need the vent at all, just leave a little gap between the lower level pavers.
A fire pit in the middle of a yard covered in wood chips? Brilliant idea! Who writes the building codes here in this area and remind me never to move there.
David G Actually, with the way the fire pit is constructed ad the nature of fire..... there's no hazard of these wood chips igniting. If you knew the facts you wouldn't have made such a foolish comment.
Way too intricate. Cut 1 stone in 4 quarters and have a 2 inch hole, north south east and west of your second layer of stone. Also don’t forget a fire ring, those stones will crack eventually.
Air tubes in fire pit is just a silly redundant thing to do. These bricks are so heavy, you don't need glue to stick them together. You've made a simple task and added 2x more effort.
You do realize that the entire top is open to air right? That tube wasn’t necessary and all it did was waste a bunch of time and money? Otherwise nice looking fire Pit! Should have sunk one row of brick just for wall stability!
Making fun, mocking of the Holy Spirit is blasphemous against the Lord God Almighty.... God is not to be mocked...for what a man sows a man will reap. Those who serve the beast of the devil will suffer the wrath of God and drink from His cup mixed full of indignation.
