Good things deserve to be shared and when it comes to DIYs, it gets even better as you get to know how a project or product took shape from start to finish. Today, we are going to tell you about an amazing DIY creation that will leave you mesmerized for sure. Meet Drew Anger from Canada, who runs the popular YouTube channel @DrewBuildsStuff. He keeps coming up with unique projects and creates detailed DIY videos to share with the world.
So far he has undertaken elaborate projects including building a tiny house for himself, a sauna, a solar-powered car, a hot spring, a burning lava gaming desk, a camper for snowmobiles, a heated dog house, and many others. Drew’s latest DIY project is a smokeless fire pit with a flagstone light-up patio and it is awesome.
According to Drew, it is one of the most ambitious and time-consuming projects that he has ever worked on, and had to take his brother’s help with it. His idea was to create the world’s most unique patio with a smokeless fire pit that could add beauty to his parent’s backyard. It is not the first time he thought of adding some value and functionality to the family property as he has earlier built a stone hot tub and sauna.
Let’s find out how he created this stunning outdoor feature.
Initial Preparation
Drew wanted the outdoor patio to be an extension of the existing patio so it could be accessed easily for outdoor activity by the family. A fire pit was already there and he thought why not update it with a touch of creativity. He started by marking the dimensions of the fire pit and the walkway that would lead to it.
Once everything was marked using white paint, he dug up the foundation of the patio using a mini excavator. He created a seven-inch-deep base for the fire pit and a few inches for the rest of the patio surface. Finally, he had a consistently dug-up bed ready for the project.
To prevent any weed growth, he covered the bed using an industrial-grade landscape fabric. Thereafter he used oversized flagstones and aggregates to fill the patio bed. To ensure good drainage he filled about four inches of the bed with three-quarter-inch clear gravel. For those who would like to take up such a project, Drew advises prepping the bed depending upon the climate of the location; for his place, he needed better drainage to prevent chances of frost on the patio surface.
Also Read: Ultimate Guide on How to Maintain a Wood-Burning Fire Pit
Creation of Smokeless Fire Pit
Next, Drew needed a mold to create a perfect shape for the smokeless fire pit. He used a scrap piece of OSB to draw the inner and outer circles and cut them off using a jigsaw. Then he cut down a plank to create identical blocks with a height of around 14 inches to form the circular framework of the mold. The blocks were screwed to OSB to form a shell.
To hold concrete inside the mold, skinning was important for which an eight-inch MDF with white melamine coating was used as it was easy to bend around the circular shape and could be removed easily post-curing.
An important step here was to leave space for holes as those were necessary to create a true smokeless functionality for the DIY fire pit. Drew used steel tubes for this purpose.
Once the mold was ready it was filled using a crack-resistant concrete mix which has fiberglass fibers to provide additional structural strength. It took around seven bags of concrete to fill the entire mold and then it was left for curing. After a few days, the mold was removed.
A fixed cozy outdoor seating was planned for this project to complement the smokeless fire pit. The idea was to create two benches matching the overall look. To bring out symmetry to the design, Drew thought of creating curved benches, one with a tabletop. He measured and built the framework using wood, and attached a concrete board to cover the benches from the sides.
To create an impression that the fire pit and benches are made of natural stone, the Canadian artist-cum-DIYer chose stone veneer. Veneer mortar was used to attach the pieces to the fire pit and the benches.
Adding Concrete Tops to Fire Pit and Benches
An interesting phase of this DIY project was where concrete tops were created for the fire pit and benches. Drew used melamine sheets as the foundation. Wooden blocks were screwed along the circumference and foam liners with rock patterns to give a natural look to the sides. The crack-resistant concrete was used while some lengths of fiberglass rebars were added to keep the slab together.
Now before installing the concrete top to the fire pit, it was necessary to integrate a fire pit ring to line it from the inside. Drew had ordered one online and to bring it to the required shape he had to join its eight pieces. The inner concrete lining was joined to this ring using a construction adhesive.
About one inch of air pocket was created between the two structures for better air supply to achieve a smokeless fire pit. This allowed air from the outer holes to get sucked inwards from the base region of the fire pit and circulate to the top part where there are holes to release it for a true smokeless burning experience. Next, the tops were added to the fire pit and benches using construction adhesive. The next step was building the light-up patio.
Also Read: Best Smokeless Fire Pits to Invest in 2024
Building the Light-up Patio
To create a clear boundary and keep the grass out, Drew placed an edge guard around the patio bed. Then he used oversized flagstones to floor the bed. The flagstones were around two inches thick and he had to cut some of them for leveling and getting a pattern out of them while leaving some space for the lighting. The procedure took around four days.
The best addition to this patio and smokeless fire pit comes at this point where LED lights had to be set up. The DIYer used Govee RGB pro lights for this purpose as they can be controlled using an app. Fully encased with silicone, these strip lights are also waterproof.
Three boxes of strip lights were used in the process and fastened to the bottom of the trench using landscape stapes. To add a touch of magnificence, Drew added transparent tempered fire glass beads above the strip lights to help diffuse the light for a visual spectacle.
After spending around two months on this DIY project, it was finally time to test the smokeless fire pit and light-up patio. It exceeded the expectations as smokeless fire pit worked perfectly and the benches around it added more functionality and convenience to enjoy outdoors. The LED lights laid around the flagstones were tested using the Govee app which provides options to create various patterns and colors.
For those of you who are interested in the cost of the whole project, it was around CAD 10,000 ($7,000). Most of the money went into oversized flagstone and stone veneer. So if you want to add an attractive fire feature to your outdoor space, you can take inspiration from Drew. You can find plans for Drew’s other projects on Drew Builds Stuff.
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