Fire Pits – The Perfect Addition to your Backyard

Fire pits are one of the best projects you can bring into your backyard, creating a feature that brings light and warmth into your yard to be used year-round. Fire pits are great for entertaining, turning your outdoor area into an extension of the home.

Fire pits come in many shapes and sizes, allowing you to pick the best style for your family. Building your fire pit is an easy DIY project that can get the include all the family. In this article, we reveal the best tips for incorporating a fire pit into your backyard. This includes picking your style, safety tips and advice for your newest feature.

Ideas For Your Garden
With many designs and styles available for fire pits, it’s important to think about your backyard and the way you plan to use your fire pit. There are a few things to consider when creating the perfect fire pit for your backyard.

Important Considerations:
1. Location:
Choose the right spot in your backyard, considering space, safety, and how you want to use the fire pit.

2. Family Situation:
Opt for family-friendly designs if you have children or pets to ensure safety.

3. Style and Ambience:
Select a fire pit design that complements your home and fits your backyard’s look and feel.

Our 2024 Fire Pit Guide dives deeper into these considerations, with expert landscaping tips from Jason Hodges.

Family Friendly Fire Pits

There are a range of options available in the fire pit market, but not all of them are created equal. Some are safer and better suited for families with young children and/or pets. Safety practices are essential for all types of fire pits (read more below about this), certain styles can bring more peace of mind and extra comfort by creating a safety barrier around the fire. These are called Family Friendly Fire Pits, they are becoming more and more popular so all family members can enjoy the warmth of an open fire.

How Family Friendly Fire Pits Work
Family Friendly Fire Pits use a steel fire dish and ‘barrier blocks’ to create a fire pit which contains the fire and provides a barrier between the flame and your loved ones. When built correctly with a minimum of 500mm from the flame to the blocks, you make it much harder for young children to burn themselves as the blocks will not be hot to touch, whereas the outside of a steel fire dish on its own can cause injury.

Best Concrete Barrier Blocks
Family Friendly Fire Pits use a steel fire dish and ‘barrier blocks’ to create a fire pit which contains the fire and provides a barrier between the flame and your loved ones. When built correctly with a minimum of 500mm from the flame to the blocks, you make it much harder for young children to burn themselves as the blocks will not be hot to touch, whereas the outside of a steel fire dish on its own can cause injury.

Miniwall – Perfect for circles, no cutting required, build to 500mm high, DIY friendly.

Eziwall – Great for wider circles and varied shapes. Very DIY friendly, Buy at Bunnings

Eziwall Lite – Smaller DIY block, light weight, build to 300mm high, Buy at Bunnings

Versawall – Best choice for square and rectangular fire pits. Special corners and caps to make building a square fire pit easier than ever before.

Benefits of Fire Pits
Fire pits are great as an entertaining benefit and become an instant feature in your yard to improve your lifestyle and add value to your yard. Have you thought about other fire pit benefits?

-Easy DIY project to extend your living area to the backyard
-Creates a focal point in your backyard.
-Customisable project to suit your home
-Nature’s TV – great for entertaining all year
-Family Friendly Fire Pits provide peace of mind for families with young children because of the concrete barrier blocks

Fire Pit Styles

Safety Tips
When installed correctly and used responsibly, fire pits are safe and enjoyable. Of course, as with any fire, it is important to follow safety best practice. In addition to the below safety tips, always check for local council fire bans and play by the rules.

1. Choose a Family Friendly Fire Pit with Adbri Masonry concrete barrier blocks like Eziwall or Miniwall

2. Choose a safe spot for your fire pit – Install a safe distance from your house, overhanging trees and flammable furniture

3. Always have a full bucket of sand and a bucket of water near to the fire to extinguish at short notice.

4. Never leave fire unattended and always supervise children and pets when using the fire pit.

5. If your fire becomes too smoky and it is uncomfortable, put it out!
For the best balance of safety and a real fire feel, build a Family Friendly Fire Pit with concrete barrier blocks around a steel fire dish. This style is very popular as the barrier blocks are available in decorative coloured finishes, so they look great while keeping loved ones a safe distance from the flames.

Recommendation: If you have young children and/or pets, choose a Family Friendly Fire Pit – you’ll spend more time enjoying it than worrying with the extra layer of protection (the barrier blocks). Obviously, fire has the potential to be dangerous in all instances – enjoy safely.

How to build

Fire pits are easy DIY projects and for those wanting a family friendly fire pit, we’ve put together a detailed step by step video, you can also follow these steps in our 2024 Fire Pit Guide

If you’re looking at using Versawall, watch the video below.

FAQ’s

Can fire pits go on a deck?
Wood-fueled fire pits are not recommended for timber decks. Consider bioethanol fire tables for decks.

Where to buy fire pits?
Fire pits are available at Bunnings, landscape centers, garden supply stores, Mitre 10, Kmart, and sometimes Aldi.

Which fire pit is best?
It depends on whether you need a family-friendly design and the style of your backyard.

Do fire pits burn grass?
Yes, unless using an elevated fire dish. Removing grass and using decorative pebbles is recommended.

Difference between fire pits, fireplaces, and chiminea’s?
Fire pits are for outdoor use, fireplaces are usually indoor with a chimney, and chimineas are a type of outdoor fireplace.