Outdoor Fire Pit & Patio

Outdoor Fire Pit & Patio

Hi everyone! This is Phil and I want to walk you through this outdoor living space project. This is a warm inviting fire pit patio area that sits about 250ft off of the back of the house. We begin with a slate chip stone pathway that's coming right in through here as an entrance path.  We've got it lined with really nice landscape lights over from Volt Lighting which are available online. It's just a great quality lighting fixture that's less expensive than some of the premium manufacturers. They eliminate a lot of the sales and marketing and sell direct.  So you can buy them directly from Volt Lighting.

We wanted a natural and rustic feel, so we selected large Tennessee fieldstone step treads to look irregular and give it the feel that those stones were found on the property and were placed here.  We've got the stack stone seating. All the Tennessee stacked stone are hand chipped. If we get a close-up on the surface look, you will notice that the stones actually have a very chiseled look.  This is done by a stone mason who basically takes his time and hand chips every one.

LED Lights

We've got L.E.D. landscape lights tucked up underneath the cap of the columns as well as underneath the cap of the wall.  We have a 30ft diameter Belgard Paver Patio, so from this side all the way over to this side is thirty feet in diameter. This is a three piece Belgard double in Kabul interlocking paver patio. So you can see the various three pieces. There's a rectangle, a square, and a small rectangle.  Then we added in the optional fourth piece.  It is a large square, and we only use it in one spot we use it right here along the edge. You will see this large square creating what we call a soldier course or border course just for added Look an added aesthetics.

This fire pit has a 6ft diameter outside diameter and 4ft inside diameter. It's quite a large fire pit.  You're going to be able to burn a lot of logs and create a pretty nice sized fire. We've got it lined with fire brick. These mortar joints are made up of a fire clay mortar, so it can tolerate very, very, high heat. If we were to go inside with just a natural stone, those stones would eventually crack. If we use traditional Type-S mortar like we use on knee joints, that would eventually crack as well.

Clay Mortar

So, using a fire clay mortar with a fire break is going to sure that this really does last a lifetime. We do have a drain in here, so everything here is pitched to that during location so excess water can drain out. It drains out into that natural area so it can be rinsed out.  You're still going to have to periodically scoop out some of the larger debris before you can effectively rinse this. If this line ever becomes clogged, you can use a pressure washer and clear out that line because it doesn't extend about 20ft out.

We've also selected three very large natural stone boulders to serve as seating boulders and another decorative element along the edge of this patio. I've got one right here and another between these landscape lights.  That just adds another element of a look and a feel and an ambiance in this area to kind of help soften it and just give it a natural sense. I love how this space is nestled into this very natural area. This property is huge, roughly about 70acres. There's no inbuilt light sources, street lights, or no lights from the house so these lights really show off the space at night.

Tiki Torches

The homeowner selected some tiki torches and tiki torches can be a real pain to put in the ground.  So we've anchored these galvanized pipes in concrete. At the end of the season, they can just remove the torches and place them back into these pipes.  They always stay in straight.  They don't have to sit out here and try to pound them into the ground.