Build a DIY Stone Fire Pit in 2 Hours

Today I’m sharing how we easily built a DIY Stone Fire Pit in our backyard for under $140 and in less than 2 hours. Keep reading for a supply list and step-by-step instructions.

This DIY Stone Fire Pit is my very first project of 2020!

We spend a lot of time in our backyard and our new fire pit gives us another reason to spend more time outside. I was surprised at how easy it was to put together. From start to finish this project took my husband and I less than 2 hours and it looks so nice!

We went ahead and had our first fire the same night that we built the pit. (Were we supposed to let the glue cure? Oops!) And I can tell that we will be spending lots of evenings out here. I’m already dreaming up outdoor furniture I can build around the pit to make it an even more cozy and inviting spot.

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learn how to build a diy backyard fire pit in less than 2 hours

If you’re looking for more outdoor projects, you might enjoy my Honeycomb Garden Trellis or the collection of projects in my Budget Front Porch Makeover.

How to Build a DIY Stone Fire Pit

First, you’ll need to go shopping for supplies for to build your DIY stone fire pit.

We picked up everything at a local home improvement store. We weren’t sure how many stone pavers we would need for this project, so we laid out a circle of pavers right in the aisle of the store. Once we had a set up that we liked, we counted our pavers and started adding them to the cart.

We also purchased concrete adhesive to use between the layers of stones. The concrete adhesive comes in a few different colors so you can choose one that matches your stones.

Here’s the whole supply list:

Supplies

stone pavers
concrete adhesive (We used 4 tubes.)
paver sand
lava rocks
shovel
level

Estimated Cost

We spent less than $140 on this project. The cost will vary based on the stones you choose and material prices in your area.

We considered purchasing a kit that came with the all of the materials to build our fire pit, but after comparing costs we found that buying the materials individually was significantly cheaper.

Build your DIY Stone Fire Pit

Remove the Grass

Lay your pavers in a circle where you want to build your DIY stone fire pit. Use a shovel to mark the outside of the circle all the way around the pavers. Then take them out of the circle and place them to the side.

mark the edges of the fire pit with a shovel

Now you have an outline of the area where you’ll need to remove the grass. Use your shovel to dig out the grass within the circle. Try to dig shallowly so you don’t remove too much of the soil beneath the grass.

Add Paver Sand

After the grass has been dug out you can dump out some paver sand into the circle. We just used one bag. After dumping the paver sand we used shovels and our hands to try to make the ground level, especially on the outer edges of the circle where the stone will go.

First Layer of Stones

Next we added the first layer of stones for our DIY stone fire pit.

We had to do some adjusting to the outside of the circle to get the stones to fit snuggly. This meant digging the circle out a little farther in a few places.

Once the circle is complete use a long level to make sure the pavers are level. Adjust the depth of the pavers as needed until the circle is level. We checked for level at several spots and adjusted until all of the pavers were the same height.

checking for level with a long level on diy fire pit

Add More Layers

With the first layer of stones in place and leveled, it’s time to add a few more layers.

First, clean off any large pieces of dirt or sand from the top of your first layer of pavers. Then, add concrete adhesive on top the pavers, trying to cover as much surface as possible. If your pavers are not flat, be sure to apply the concrete adhesive on the high spots of the stone surface. Put your next layer of pavers on top of the concrete adhesive.

using concrete adhesive to place stones on fire pit

Keep adding layers until your stone fire pit is the height you want. We made ours four layers tall.

Fill in the Gaps

After our DIY stone fire pit was built we were still a little concerned about it’s stability. So, we picked up some more construction adhesive and used it to fill in the gaps between stones inside the fire pit.

After just a few hours of drying the fire pit was very sturdy and solid!

Add Lava Rocks

The last thing we did was to add two bags of lava rocks inside the fire pit. Lava rocks are a good fire pit filler because they help with drainage and can withstand the heat of a fire without cracking.

DIY Stone Fire Pit

This might be one of the easiest DIY projects we’ve done to date. Building this DIY stone fire pit was so quick and simple! And we’ve already got some use out of it.

Next I’m dreaming up some comfy seating, maybe some lighting and a few other ways I can make this backyard fire pit feel like a cozy little get away.