How Big a Fire Pit Should Be

Start With the Inside Diameter

The fire lives inside the ring, so that is the first number to fix. For a wood pit, the ring or liner you buy sets it; for a gas pit, the burner pan does. One gas fire pit maker builds round drop-in pans at 19, 25, 29 and 33 inches and square pans at 20, 26 and 32 inches, and the enclosure is built around the pan you choose.

Block kits work the same way from the outside in. Belgard offers a fire ring as an option with one of its fire pit kits. Buying the ring or pan first, then the block to suit it, avoids a pit that fits nothing on the shelf.

Wall Thickness and Height

The wall adds its own depth on every side. A ring of wall block a few inches deep turns a modest fire area into a noticeably wider pit, so measure the outside of the kit, not just the ring, when you mark out the patio.

Height is a choice between a sunken bowl and a seat-height wall. Unilock suggests coping on top of the wall as a place to rest your feet, and a full seating wall around the pit as a separate design. A low wall shows more of the fire; a taller one blocks more wind and gives you somewhere to sit.

The Ring of Space Around It

No Florida code number tells you how far the chairs go. One chiminea and fire bowl supplier recommends at least one metre between the fire and garden furniture, especially fabric or woven plastic, and a gas fire pit maker simply says to keep combustibles at a safe distance. Add room behind the chairs to walk past and to stand up, and the clear circle grows quickly.

On a small patio, that circle usually decides the pit's size more than the fire does. If the chairs cannot keep their distance, the pit is too big for the space.

Matching Size to How You Use It

A few questions settle the size.

• How many people sit around it on a normal night, not on the busiest one.
• Whether you burn split firewood, which needs room for logs to lie flat, or a gas pan.
• Whether the pit needs its own base cut into the pavers, as Belgard recommends, and how big that base can be.
• Which way the evening breeze runs, so the smoke has somewhere to go besides the chairs.
• Whether the wall should double as seating.

Sizing a Gas Fire Pit Enclosure

A gas enclosure has more to fit than the pan. The Firegear manual calls for a non-combustible structure with a cut-out for the pan, at least 18 square inches of cross ventilation on each side, drainage, and room for the gas fittings and the ignition controls. The media on top should cover the burner by no more than about an inch.

A bigger pan is not automatically a better fire. A pan sized to the table top and the seating looks right and keeps the flame where people can enjoy it.

Planning One With Us

Laying out a built-in pit, with the base, the ring and, for gas, the enclosure, is outdoor fireplace work for our crew. Experienced installers from a local family business in Spring Hill come for a free inspection of the patio and leave a written estimate.

Proudly American and honest about space, we mark the pit out on the ground before anything is bought; that is the Proudly American way to size a patio.