Jeremy's fire pit
Monday, December 25th, 2006Since leaving Waynesville, the stone crew has ventured back to Jeremy’s for the second phase of his ongoing project. We are building a low retaining wall behind the house that will frame a stone patio, creating a small courtyard. The centerpiece of the courtyard/patio area is a fire pit set into the wall.
This sketch is my scrawled version of a plan by landscape architect Tony Hauser of Ambient Design Group. The sketch is not to scale. The fire pit itself is half of a four foot circle.
Here is a heroic shot of the Dolmar, our faithful and ferociously loud cut off saw, sporting a well worn diamond blade. The hearthstones are cut from huge slabs of Tennessee Crab Orchard. At three inches thick, they are the outer limits of what the Dolmar can cut through. Though it’s outfitted to run wet, we have run the saw dry in response to a variety of water related setbacks. See the previous post for a shot of the Dolmar warrior in full battle regalia.
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I used the Dolmar to trim the stone down to shape and to make the major cuts for the inside arch of the fire pit. The hand grinder, also outfitted with a diamond blade, has been used to do the finer shaping of the inside curve. Lots of small cuts, then lots of careful chiseling, then lots more small cuts.
After the first hearthstone was cut, we brought it to the fire pit area, to sight it up and to plan the actual fire pit. Even after trimming the stone so much, two people can barely budge it, let alone lift it. Scott used the skid-steer loader to move it into position. The rough-looking back edges of the hearthstone will be hidden under a small, semi-circular retaining wall, as seen in the sketch above.
After sighting up the hearthstone and centering the fire pit on the back window of the house, Scott began building the fire pit. It’s a delicate weave of fire brick inside the pit and stone to face the wall, all the while aiming for a level and stable surface for the hearthstones to rest. We are off for the remainder of Christmas week, but just after the first of the year we should have another posting of the finished fire pit.
We have just added 
We are taking a break from the Waynesville wall, until after the holidays. The week we finished was crisp cold. The afternoon light sparkled and cast strong shadows on the wall.