6 minute read
Fun with fi re (pits
from At Home, Fall 2019
Three Fs of outdoor entertaining: fireplaces, fire pits, fun
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Fall 2019 by CHRIS BURRITT SUMMERFIELD – As far as Glen Claeys can see, fi replaces and fi re pits sprout from backyards and decks along Rob Roy Drive in Summerfi eld’s Lennox Woods subdivision, and they’re almost as common as mailboxes.
Across our area, fi replaces are increasingly the focal point of decks and covered porches, creating outdoor caves for men grilling and watching football games on big screen TVs. Others stand alone in the yard as stout stone towers of fi re where families and friends gather on chilly nights.
“It’s an excellent place to reconnect with your family,” said Claeys, owner of The Garden Outlet in Summerfi eld with his wife, Donna. The fi re pit he and his crew built in Lennox Woods was relatively simple – a half moon-shaped hole encircled with dry-stacked stones and surrounded by a gravel patio and landscaping.
“When you want to build a fi re, it’s almost a fantasy,” said John Futrell, owner of Common Ground, a Greensboro-based landscaping company. “A fi re pit is very primal.” Homeowners can expect to pay $1,000 or more for contractors to build fi re pits and sitting areas, according to Claeys and Futrell.
The cost for outdoor fi replaces can easily exceed $10,000. Landscaping and lighting add to the expenses.
Outdoor living areas fi gure into home prices when they’re built along with the rest of the house. Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO A fi re pit is “an excellent place to reconnect with your family,” said Glen Claeys, owner of The Garden Outlet with his wife, Donna. Shown in photo is a fi re pit Claeys built in Summerfi eld’s Lennox Woods neighborhood.
A year ago, builder Kevin Lansink and his family moved into their new home on Pleasant Ridge Road in Summerfi eld with a wood-burning fi replace as the centerpiece of a covered porch overlooking their wooded backyard. A big-screen TV hangs above the stone fi replace, surrounded by a black granite countertop with a grill. Lansink, the owner of Lansink Custom Homes, is eyeing a spot for a refrigerator. “The sky’s the limit,” he said. “There is something relaxing and hypnotizing about a fi re and often it becomes the center piece of our outdoor spaces,” said Paige Friddle, owner of Friddle Construction Company with her husband, Michael. For clients who want more than a fi replace, outdoor movie
screens, sound systems and landscape lighting add “the finishing touch,” she said. “Most of the outdoor living areas we’re building now have TV hookups and surround sound,” said Casey Johnson, who owns construction company Johnson and Lee with his father, Commie, and another father-and-son team, Rick and Mike Lee. “Homeowners are trying to bring the inside outside,” he said. Many homeowners prefer gasburning fireplaces to avoid the inconvenience of removing ashes from burned wood, according to Johnson. For people who want to burn wood, fireplace log lighters eliminate the need for kindling, paper and matches, he said. But not all homebuyers want to incur the extra cost of an outdoor living space, according to Ray Bullins, owner of Ray Bullins Construction. For builders, that means constructing an outdoor fireplace in a spec house may deter potential buyers. “It’s not for every family,” he said. Outdoor living spaces are especially appealing to families moving to our region from the northeastern and midwestern U.S. where temperatures in those regions are too cold for entertaining outside during the late fall and winter months, said Matt Walraven, owner of Walraven Signature Homes. It’s typically warm enough in our area to entertain outside until December, he said.
“There’s nothing more romantic or cozy or fun than sitting in front of a fire,” he noted.
By contrast, there’s nothing worse
than “smoke blowing in your eyes,” said Futrell, of Common Ground. He urged homeowners planning to build fire pits to pay attention to the direction of the wind, which he said typically blows from the southwest to the northeast.
While construction of fireplaces is regulated by local building codes, homeowners are typically free to build fire pits as they choose, Futrell said.
He and Claeys, of The Garden Outlet, recommend people dig fire pits with curved sides, rather than straight up and down like a box, to make cleaning easier. They put loose gravel or set stones in concrete in the bottom of the pits. When the slope of the land allows, Futrell runs a two-inch, non-galvanized pipe from the bottom of the pit to the outside. The heat of the fire draws cool air through
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Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO A fire is “relaxing and hypnotizing,” making fireplaces the centerpiece of outdoor living areas, said Paige Friddle, who owns Friddle and Company with her husband, Michael.
the pipe, stoking the fire.
“It makes you look like a heck of a Boy Scout,” said Futrell, who also recommended that people stack rocks around the pit no higher than a foot.
“I want to feel the fire on my legs and see the coals,” he said.
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