Sunken fire pit ring solved with a $20 trick I wish I knew ages ago

After two winters my gravel base kept sinking around the fire pit and it looked like a crater. I tried compacting it twice with a hand tamper but it settled again within a month. Then my buddy who does retaining walls told me to lay down landscape fabric and fill with 3/4 inch crushed stone instead of pea gravel. The crushed stone locks together way better and I topped it with a 4 foot steel ring from a local metal shop in Austin. It has held level through two big storms and a whole summer of parties. Has anyone else fought sinking issues with their fire pit base?

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riverb5218d ago

Wait, you had a 4 foot steel ring made at a metal shop and that only cost you $20? That seems crazy cheap for custom steel work, unless you mean the whole fix was $20 and the ring was separate. I priced out a steel fire ring last year and the quotes I got were like $150 and up, so if you really got one for 20 bucks I need the name of that shop. Either way the crushed stone tip makes sense, pea gravel rolls around like marbles and never locks up no matter how much you tamp it.

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