PAGE 31 • June 2020
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Home Improvement by MAX JASPER
How to Make Your Own Fire Pit Constructing a fire pit is thrilling and easy, you can really set one up in a twenty-four hour period or even less if you are already knowledgeable with the procedure. You can even make it look picturesque by employing some fire pit landscaping techniques during the process. Here is a step-by-step guide on constructing your very own fire pit. But first, here are the things you will need: - Sand - Pea gravel - Cinderblocks or bricks - Shovel - Pick axe - Tamper - Rake - Level Step 1: Choose your location. If you are setting up the fire pit in your backyard make sure that it’s at least 10ft away from any other part of the home; implying it is 10 feet
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away from the garage, 10 feet away from the fence... you know what I mean. And watch out for overhanging branches that could catch fire. So it should be in a wide open place. Step 2: Dig a 12-inch deep circular hole in the dirt, generally 4 to 5 feet in diameter. How big the fire pit is depends on your preference but I do not imagine you’d wish to construct something larger than 5 feet. Tip: To make the hole a near perfect circle, drive a stick to the soil where you will construct the fire pit, tie a 2 1/2-foot string to the stick and circle around it marking the ground with spray paint or something that will tell you where to dig. Step 3: Fill the hole with 4 inches of Pea gravel, 4 inches of sand, and tamp the layers level using your tamper tool. The pea gravel behaves as drainage. Step 4: Lay in the first layer of bricks. The first layer should be level and even all the way thus you need the level to assist you with this. Step 5: Place the subsequent bricks and make sure to overlap the bricks on each layer. Place some gaps in between some of the rocks to allow oxygen into the fire pit. In general, 3 to 5 layers of bricks is ideal. Step 6: Wait until nighttime and fire it up. That’s how easy building a fire pit is, some people can even construct one in as little as 2 hours. And once again, if the fire pit is going to be a part of your home, you can deco-
