Fire pit installation in Mansfield, MA

A fire pit is the thing you end up using most, and the thing most often dropped onto a patio that wasn't planned for it. Building it into the layout from the start is what makes it feel like part of the yard instead of an afterthought.

In Mansfield that usually means grade that falls toward the house, and a base dug to the 30-inch frost line so nothing lifts in March. The lots run from flat to a foot of fall in twenty, so the slope is read before any stone is set.

A Mansfield fire pit usually sits on its own level pad off the patio, far enough from the house for a real fire and near enough to share the seating. Most Mansfield yards have the room for that pad off the patio edge, so the pit ends up where the seating already wants to be rather than out in the open lawn.

The pad under a fire pit in Mansfield gets the same treatment as the patio: dug, compacted and set on a base that does not heave, so the stone ring stays level rather than tipping after the first hard winter.

• Built into the patio layout, with seating sized to the circle
• Matching stone, caps or a steel insert for a clean bowl
• Clearance and grade around the pit planned for drainage
• Seat walls, steps and lighting detailed alongside it
• Worked to Mansfield's grade and drainage, not a cookie-cutter layout