How to Build a Brick Outdoor Fireplace

Building a brick outdoor fireplace is a huge undertaking, but well worth it. A brick fireplace will make any yard pop. It adds curb appeal and can increase the value of your home. So although building it is a pretty involved project it's one that pays for itself in the long run. Assuming you have some basic masonry know how here's how to build a brick outdoor fireplace.

The first thing you need is a piece of paper. You'll need the dimensions for your new outdoor fireplace so you can order the brick. Once you've got it sketched out call up your local building center and they'll be able to tell you how many bricks you need.

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Pick a spot in your backyard where there isn't a chance of a stray spark starting a fire - avoid placing under trees, awnings and the like.

Found just the right spot? Great! Grab your shovel and get ready to dig.

You'll need to remove all the grass from the base of your outdoor fireplace.

Once you've removed the grass you need to compact the loose layer of soil. You can either use a hand compactor or rent a powered one for a few dollars a day.

So you're sitting there looking at a big ugly barren spot in the yard by this point. Don't get discouraged!

Have the bricks delivered as close to your work site as possible. Pushing carts full of bricks around all day isn't going to get the fireplace built any faster.

Before you start throwing bricks on the ground make sure you're set with a masonry saw, a trowel and mortar.

Lay a bottom layer of bricks on top of the compacted soil. Be sure to use the trowel and mortar in between each brick. This will give you a nice sturdy starting point for the rest of the brick fireplace.

Let the mortar cure overnight

Start stacking bricks along the edge of the base. What you're shooting for here is a layer 4 bricks high. Be sure to cut/stagger the bricks from row to row always applying a thin layer of mortar between rows.

By now it should start looking like an outdoor brick fireplace.

Keeping laying, staggering, and mortaring those bricks along the sides and back of the fireplace.

Pretty soon you'll have 3 walls about 3 and a half feet high. It's time to build the roof.
Cut a piece of sheet metal sized to the fireplace walls. Cut a small notch slightly larger than 1 brick in the back of the sheet metal.

Place the metal across the 3 walls of your fireplace with the notch facing the back.

Put down another layer of bricks across the top of the sheet metal without covering the notch.

The chimney is the trickiest part.

You'll need to cut the bricks to size to stack them around the notch.

The chimney doesn't need to be that high, just tall enough to let the whole fireplace draft properly.

That does it! It took some time and backbreaking effort but you can now brag to the neighbors that you know how to build a brick outdoor fireplace.

How to Build a Brick Outdoor Fireplace

Author Jennifer Akre is an owner of numerous niche online stores that offer customers not only products, but information relating to furnishing and decorating indoor and outdoor living spaces. Whether you want to renew your deck or patio with Adirondack furniture or create the ultimate living environment with teak patio furniture that is perfect for entertaining, there is a lot of helpful advice to take advantage of to make it happen. Click today and indulge your senses.