Actually Using a Fire Pit on a Deck, Not Just Owning One
Ask ten people whether you can actually put a fire pit on a deck and you’ll get two answers, both delivered with total confidence, both slightly wrong. Half of them…
A Portable Fire Pit and a Wood Deck: Easy to Move, Easy to Get Careless
Portable fire pits have a reputation as the responsible choice for a wood deck. The story goes something like this: an in-ground fire pit or a heavy stone ring is…
Fire Pit on a Deck: Where the Heat Really Goes
I was out on the deck at seven in the morning, before work, doing the least glamorous task known to homeownership: sweeping ash off the boards with a dustpan that’s…
Under a Chiminea: What Protects the Ground
Okay so here’s the reputation chimineas have, and I bought into it completely for about a year: they’re basically decorative. Clay pot, cute silhouette, throw some wood in, done, it’s…
Chiminea on a Deck: Rules Worth Knowing First
I bought my first chiminea because a colleague at school posted a photo of hers on a Friday afternoon in October, looking extremely pleased with herself, glass of wine in…
Fire Pit on Grass: Protecting the Lawn
I own six separate things whose entire job is to stop my fire pit from murdering my lawn. Six. A heat resistant mat that lives folded in the shed for…
What Goes in the Bottom of a Wood Burning Fire Pit
Seven. I own seven wood burning fire pits, which is a sentence I did not expect to type with a straight face when I started writing this, and yet here…
Fire Pit on Concrete: What Goes in the Bottom
My dad stood on my patio in Charlotte, coffee in hand, looked down at the fire pit I’d just assembled on the bare concrete, and said, “You’re gonna crack that…
Putting Together a Fire Pit Gift Basket
My sister walked into my kitchen back in November, saw the counter covered in birch bark bundles, a box of long fireplace matches, two flasks, and a wool blanket still…
Making a Fire Pit Area Somewhere People Actually Sit
Four. Four fire pits, three houses, one very confused insurance agent when I called to ask if a “pit” counted as a permanent structure. I’m not proud of the trajectory…