I thought this might be the perfect time of year to come up with some sort of plan for building that backyard fire pit I'd been dreaming about for so long. And this has been the biggest challenge I've run up against so far: choosing the kind of fire pit I can build myself in my yard that won't blow my budget and is also going to be very safe.

Even though some of the pre-fab designer pits I've seen lately are awesome, I didn't necessarily want to buy a manufactured one right off the bat. First of all, I have a lot of room. I like being outside, and I like to work with my hands. Secondly, I had an idea of doing my own thing by designing a more permanent backyard fire pit which I could eventually expand out into a whole outdoor entertainment area. For the present, it could just be something simple, low-cost, with nothing to move around or break. What could be easier?

This idea or that idea...

Unfortunately, as soon as I started talking to people and looking around online, I found there seemed to be about as many ideas and approaches on how to construct a home fire pit as there were people who enjoyed them. I also noticed that there were an equal number of individuals online who think they can tell you how to do it yourself cheaply and safely, but whose means and methods seemed to me, for want of a better word, questionable. I've probably reviewed the entire gamut of do-it-yourself backyard fire pit schemes in the past couple of weeks. There are some as primitive as an old washtub or loosely thrown-together circle of rocks, all the way up to something as extravagant and palatial as one of those outdoor living rooms complete with fire-spitting fountains. But having a little of my own experience with materials and making things, in the end, I concluded that there isn't any such thing as a cheap, homemade fire pit that is truly safe, or a simple, homemade fire pit that is truly inexpensive. Whatever your budget is for your pit, count on adding at least $50.00 or more to the cost because in the end it's never as simple as it seems, and even with that you may still find yourself having to make some compromises.

It may seem like a pain in the neck, but when planning a fire pit it's better to look at it from every angle ahead of time. It can be something of a balancing act but don't be discouraged. And as the saying goes, it's OK to take risks as long as you're not hurting anyone but yourself. By that I mean, if you're a weekend warrior living outside the city limits and beyond the prying eyes of a neighborhood association, you can probably build a fire pit any way you like and it probably will work just fine. But if you're like me and live in a slightly more urban area where there are ordinances to consider, and you have small children, pets, and lots of combustible things around like trees, neighbor's houses, underground cables, and whatnot, then a little more planning is involved when you start burning things. An ounce of prevention is then truly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cure.

So where do you start?

If you want something a little more sophisticated than just an empty oil drum or a burned-out hole in the backyard, then you might consider an old-fashioned brick fire pit. But first, if you're foregoing a safety-inspected, manufactured fire pit delivered to your home in favor of building your own, and you want to save a few bucks to put towards that first backyard shindig, then the last thing you want to do is to go down to the local Home Depot and ask them how to do it. Contrary to the commercials you see on television, it's not in their best interest to save you money. Likewise, that dude on YouTube who's showing everyone how he made a cheap, neat-o fire pit in his backyard for under a hundred bucks? He's making money off of links and advertisements. Not only is he unconcerned, but he's also completely oblivious to the fact that super-heated moisture trapped inside one of those rocks or bricks he's using can cause one to explode in your kid's face. You can even see that Mr. YouTube Expert hasn't even used his fire pit long enough to explore this possibility for himself. Think it through. Do as much research as you have to.

Agreed, a mortar and flagstone fire pit can be very attractive, and even the contoured cinder blocks they make now days make a good-looking fire circle. However, even ordinary brick, paving stones, and cinder blocks are no longer cheap materials to use these days, to say nothing of flagstone and flexible, fire-resistant mortar. Bricks and pavers can be shockingly heavy, too, so you might have to figure in the cost of having them delivered if you don't have extra people around to help you, and you're not up for a lot of heavy lifting. The advantage of using a mortar and flagstone fire pit is that you can have a gas burner installed in your fire pit. Warming Trends makes great ones that are guaranteed for a lifetime. You can check them out here.

Planning That Backyard Fire Pit Part 2