I recently got to mix things up a bit and work with some concrete. I had a few different designs in steel and concrete and ultimately this simple cube was chosen as an addition for backyard entertaining.
They really like wood burning fires, so I thought it would be interesting to make a linear wood burning firepit. The linear trend seems to be pretty popular these days, but I haven’t seen too much in the way of wood burning. I formed the pit and created a nice rectangular interior that was big enough for logs but still kept things fairly tight and linear.
They decided to go with a light brown concrete to match the color of the existing walks. Once the concrete was set, I removed the forms and steel trowelled the faces for a nice smooth finish.
In order to achieve the linear fire with logs, I wanted to add a stand that would make things easy to get the logs situated. I came up with this triangular stainless design and it seems to hold the pieces up nicely while also adding an interesting detail.
I also added a stainless steel top for the winter months. I put a drain in the bottom as well but figured it would be nice to to have it covered and not have to worry about it for the rainy months.
theprojectmodern 
how does it burn? does it burn well? any issues? i’m interested in building one as well.
Hi Justin,
The firepit works good, but I ended up having to do some modifications. Under intense heat, the concrete in rare cases can spall, and unfortunately that happen in this on a small 10″ wall section. To remedy this, I made a heavy guage steel interior liner that still keeps the clean minimal look and eliminates any potential for spalling in the future. The other option is firebrick on the interior walls depending on the look you want to achieve. Good luck with your project!
One quick add, if it were gas, spalling would not be a problem, as the flame would be centered and you would have lava rock or sand or something like that to disperse the heat. However, this firepit is wood so the heat can get pretty intense right against the sides. Ultimately, my vote is for gas for ease of use and cleanliness but wood is great too.
Your fire-pit turned out perfect. My wife and I have been searching for weeks for a design and yours is hands down our favorite. What are the deminsions of your fire-pit?
Thanks John. I don’t remember exactly, but I believe outside dimensions were 4’x 5′ and interior was 12″ x 40″. Something around there :)
That’s really an amazing looking pit. For those of us with brutal winters, would you need to pour footers for this kind of a thing?
Thanks Scott! I made this a few years back, but I think I had a 4″ footer. Probably not necessary in my case, but it never hurts to error on the side of caution.
did you use rebar? how many pounds of concrete? I really want to build this!
Yes, I used rebar. I did this project 5 years ago so not sure how much concrete it took. It’s enough to have a premixed truck drop off the load.