What it is
A built outdoor fireplace — wood-burning or gas — designed for the spot it sits in, faced in stone or brick that ties to the house or to the patio it serves. Not a kit. A real firebox, a real flue, a real chimney with a cap that doesn’t rust through in five years.
When you need it
- A new outdoor living space — patio, terrace, pavilion
- A pool deck or screen porch upgrade
- A pizza oven, smoker, or combination cooking hearth
- A separate seating zone in a larger yard
How we do it
We pour a footing below the frost line — forty-two inches minimum here, often deeper on the lake estates with poor drainage. We lay CMU back-up walls for the firebox and ash drop, then face the unit in the chosen stone or brick. The firebox itself is lined in firebrick set with refractory mortar — never standard mortar, which fails at sustained heat. The throat narrows to a damper or smoke shelf. The flue runs up the chimney lined with clay flue tile or stainless steel liner depending on the appliance.
Code on outdoor fireplaces is real: ten-foot clearance to any structure, height above the nearest roof line, spark-arrestor cap, distance from combustible plantings and patio surfaces. We lay all of that out at the site walk before we draw the unit.
Materials and methods
- Firebrick and refractory mortar in the firebox and smoke chamber
- Type N mortar on the structural CMU back-up
- Clay flue tile or stainless steel liner
- Cast or stone cap with proper overhang and drip kerf
- Copper or stainless steel spark-arrestor cap
- Stone or brick face matched to the house, the patio, or a deliberate contrast that reads as designed
A good outdoor fireplace anchors the yard. It is the thing you sit by, the thing the patio organizes around. It deserves to be built like the chimney on the house — because mechanically, that’s exactly what it is.