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Creating a firepit for your garden can be a fun, hands-on project to work on just before that sun comes out and makes it too hot to even think about a DIY project! Not only is this fairly easy and low-cost (under £50!) but it’s also really rewarding as you can make it as unique as you like.

Firepits are an amazing addition to your garden, especially if you’re having guests over for a BBQ or garden party. As the sun starts to set, you’ll know you’ll still be nice and warm from the heat of your very own firepit.

There are many variations of how you can create your own firepit; you can create it underground so the fire is ground level, or you can create it on the ground, which is the slightly easier and quicker option, and what we’ll be showing you. You can also make this any shape of your choice. Popular shapes are usually circles, squares or hexagonal.

You can also use different building materials for your firepit. This guide will show you how you can use cobbles to create a fire place (as seen in the above photo) which is easy and safe. You can use most rockery stones for this project though, including our large slate stones (right). If you choose this option, you usually don’t need to cement them together, just ensure they are stacked tightly and the weight should hold them into place.

In this guide, we are making a circular firepit with stacked cobbles cemented together. This firepit guide is for a pit roughly 60cm tall, 1.2m in diameter and roughly 1.9m all the way around (circumference), this is just to work out how many cobbles will be needed.

You will need:

15 x 200 x 100 mm cobbles (available in colours Umbra, Carbon and Fernlea) 

1 x 20kg bag of 40 mm scalpings 

All weather cement

Garden stake

String

Tape measure

Cement trowel

Spirit level

Step 1

Put your stake to good use

Decide where you want to build your fireplace. This can be anywhere with a sufficient amount of room around it, ideally on a level part of the ground. Once you’ve decided where you want this, put your stake in the ground and use this to mark the centre of your round firepit.

Step 2

Tie the knot

Measure 60cm of string, and mark this down, ensuring you leave some room to tie the end to the stake. Then, loosely tie the spare end of this string to your garden stake. Check that the point marked is close to the stake meaning that the radius of this circle will be as close to 60cm as possible.

Step 3

Create your circle

Now you have your stake in the centre of your desired firepit position, with 60cm of string loosely tied onto this, you can start using this to mark out your circle. Pull the string taught and mark the first point of your circle with your spade. Walk around in a circle, ensuring the string is pulled taught, carefully marking around this circle using your spade by digging a couple of cm into the ground.

Step 4

Start digging

Now you’ve got your circle mapped out, take out your stake and string and start digging out your inner circle. You only need to dig out around 5cm into the ground and then, using your spirit level, ensure this ground is level throughout.

Step 5

Fill with scalpings

Using your bag of scalpings, empty this out into your dug out firepit. Adding this or any drainable hardcore will make a good base to lay on and will also mean the firepit won’t fill with rain water between uses.

Step 6

Lay down your firepit

Start to lay down these blocks as if you were laying down bricks for a wall; using the sand cement. This amount allows for 1 layer of cobbles all the way around and 6 layers of laid cobbles all the way up. As an option, you can also line the inside with a fire cement to protect the stones from the heat of the fire which can sometimes damage them.

Step 7

Enjoy!

Now you’ve built your firepit, it’s time to sit back on some comfy outdoor chairs and relax! Simply use some tree sticks to put in this firepit and you should be good to go. You now have a beautiful centre piece in your garden as well as a way of keeping nice and warm as the Summer nights draw to a close. You could also toast marshmallows as well!

Please note that the images are created for illustration purposes only. This is a rough guide only – please consult a professional if you need to.