Outdoor Fireplaces & Fire Pits

 

 

Fireplaces – Fireplaces placed in a backyard under a pergola or on a patio extend your home into your outdoor area, creating another space to relax and entertain guests. Outdoor fireplaces come in a variety of materials including brick, stone and tile.

 

Portable Fire Pits – A portable fire pit is an economic solution to add fire to your outdoor area. If you plan on moving the fire pit consider the weight before you make a purchase. Portable fire pits are offered in steel, copper, cast iron and other materials. 

 

Custom Fire Pits – More elegant than a portable fire pit, this option creates a centerpiece on a porch, patio or deck that easily lights with a turn of a knob. Easy to use with low maintenance, custom fire pits offer liquid propane or natural gas options.

 

Fire Glass – Place fire glass inside a custom fire pit or fireplace to create a wonderful glow as the flames flicker. Reflective fire glass adds extra sparkle, while Eco Glass and Fire Beads grants the ability to go green or create a polished look.

 

 

If the mortar in your chimney is crumbling a repair may be in order. Repairing damaged mortar is called tuckpointing. Damage can be caused by water seeping into cracks and then freezing, the expansion of the ice causing the mortar to crack. You might consider consulting a brick mason, but you could do the repairs yourself. If the mortar inside the firebox is damaged and you're considering doing the repairs yourself, you must use refractory mortar, which can withstand the high temperatures found in a typical fire.

 

Follow These Steps To Build a Fire:

1. Gather tinder (small bits of leaves or bark), kindling (twigs and small branches) and larger fuel, such as logs
2. Place the tinder under a small amount of kindling and light with a match or lighter
3. Place the logs around the burning kindling in the shape of a log cabin, tepee or pyramid
4. Keep adding fuel until the fire has reached your desired size - sit back, relax and enjoy

 

Fire separated early humans from their animal counterparts, and evidence exists across the globe of man-made fires throughout prehistoric times. The first sources of fire were undoubtedly used for cooking and warmth, and many historians theorize this occurred with fire pits built into caves, the Earth or in the center of a dwelling, such as a hut.The obvious issue with fire pits is the smoke they create, and the need to filter this smoke into areas outside of a cave or dwelling created the need for the chimney. Simple designs for chimneys existed for thousands of years but proved mostly inefficient and sometimes dangerous. In the late 1600’s Prince Rupert, a European noble, lifted the grate in the firebox, thus improving airflow and the efficiency at which wood burned.The 1700’s witnessed several advances in the design of fire places and chimneys, with Ben Franklin developing a convection chamber for fireplaces that became known as the Franklin Stove. By the late 1700’s Count Rumford, another innovative European noble, had changed the design of fireplaces to offer a taller firebox that allowed a more efficient drawing of the smoke and air up through the chimney, while also producing more radiant heat inside of the building. Rumford’s concept has been filtered into virtually every fireplace design, including our modern outdoor fireplaces.

 

 

Fire Glass - 10 lb Bag - The perfect amount for a small fire pit or add two different colors to a large fire pit for a custom look
Fire Glass - 20 lb Bag - Appropriate for larger fire pits, add a bright fire glass color for enhanced sparkle and shine
Eco Glass - 10 lb Bag - Glass pebbles made from recycled industrial glass so you can go green in your fire pit
Fire Beads - 10 lb Bag - Rounded and smooth, fire beads are the ideal choice if children are present in the home

 

Did You Know?

• Never burn treated wood taken from broken down structures found on your property; the wood has been treated with chemicals that can be damaging to your health if burned. And for a special experience add exotic woods, such as apple wood, cedar or even pine cones, for wonderful aromas.
  
  
• Radiant heat means the warming of the surrounding stones, rocks or tiles that make up the fireplace and chimney structure when the fire burns. Most of the effective heat and warmth produced by an indoor or outdoor fireplace is created not by the fire directly but by radiant heating.
  
  
• Fireplace grates will improve your fireplace experience. A fireplace grate will help your fire burn effectively and efficiently, allowing air to travel around the hearth to feed the fire. Fireplace grates also make lighting a fire easy, since you can get below the wood or starter logs.
  
  
• A fireplace can be safer than a fire pit, since it contains the ash and embers, thus preventing your fire from jumping out of the fireplace with the wind. Also, a fireplace is more efficient than a fire pit, since the chimney neck creates a draft and pulls air through the fireplace, naturally stoking your fire.
  
  
• While chimineas originated in pre-Columbian Mexico to prevent rain from putting out cooking fires and to create radiant heat, clay and copper chimineas should be covered when not in use to protect them from the rain and other damage that can occur when left outside in the elements.
  
  
• When purchasing a fireplace be sure to study the size of the firebox. Smaller fireboxes can be difficult to load, forcing you to cut down the size of the logs. And be sure to keep a bucket of sand or water near your fireplace, as well as a fire extinguisher, in case the fire gets out of control.