Fire Pit on the Lawn: The Brown Circle Problem
I own three fire pits. Three. For one Boston backyard that is, and I am not exaggerating for effect here, twenty two feet by fourteen feet. That is not a…
Regular Cement in a Fire Pit: Fine Until It Is Not
I own fourteen fire pits at this point, which is a number I only know because I actually sat down one night and counted them off my phone, scrolling back…
Is a Fire Pit on a Deck Actually Safe?
I have measured the distance between my fire pit and my deck railing four separate times this summer, with an actual tape measure, standing there in my socks like a…
Composite Decking and Fire Pits: Melting Is the Worry
I own eleven offcuts of composite decking board right now, sitting in a milk crate in my garage, and every single one of them has some kind of scorch mark,…
Fire Pits on Porcelain Tiles: Tough, but Not Invincible
I torched a two hundred dollar paver with a forty dollar fire bowl, and the worst part is I stood there and watched it happen like it was somebody else’s…
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…
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…