Outdoor fireplaces and fire pits for evenings that outlast the summer

An outdoor fireplace and a fire pit are not the same purchase with different furniture. A pit is a flame in the floor. A fireplace is a wall that holds the evening: a hearth, a flue, a place to sit that is not in the smoke. In Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, the test is October. July sells itself. The fire is how the yard still has a job when the pool is quiet.

Field of Dreams builds fire as part of landscaping and hardscaping, not as a metal bowl chosen after the stone is down. The flame has to belong to the house, the grade, and the people who live next door.

Close lots need a flue. Open lots can earn a pit.

Greenville, Hockessin, and much of Wilmington sit close. A fire pit in the middle of a terrace looks generous in a photograph and sends smoke across a bedroom window the first night the breeze turns. An outdoor fireplace gives the smoke a direction. You sit to the side of it, not in it.

West Chester, Kennett Square, and Chadds Ford often have more air and more grade. A pit can work there if the seat is out of the prevailing drift and the flame is not the only light on a dark slope. The wall of a fireplace can also be the thing that holds a change in level. That is a retaining walls on a slope problem and a fire problem at once.

On the coast, in Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach, wind is the author. A tall open flame fights a sea breeze and loses. A lower fire, sheltered by the house or a real wall, is the one you will light. A kit that looked calm in a showroom will not.

The seat matters more than the flame

People do not stare at fire for three hours. They talk beside it. If every chair faces the flame and the smoke owns two of them, you built a photograph. We place the hearth so conversation has a back, a view that is not a neighbor’s window, and a path back to the kitchen that does not cross the heat.

Gas and wood are both honest if the lot can take them. Wood smells like the season and asks for storage and ash. Gas starts when you want it and still needs a line drawn before the patio is closed. We will not pretend a portable bowl is a fireplace because it was easier to deliver.

If the terrace also holds an outdoor kitchens, the fire is not the cook line. Work light and a working flame are different rooms. Put them near each other only when smoke and grease are not sharing a chair.

Draw it with the stone

hardscaping and landscaping as one plan is the companion. A fire feature set on a slab that ponds will heave, and the pretty face will crack. Drainage under the hearth is not a detail for later. outdoor and landscape lighting still has to get you there. A flame at the far end of a dark terrace is a picture. The walk is the plan.

pergolas and covered patios changes the same evening. A cover over a fire without a flue traps smoke. We will not put a roof on a pit and call it an outdoor room.

• A footing and a hearth in the first drawing, not cut into finished pavers
• Smoke aimed away from the house you live in and the house next door
• A seat that stays usable when the breeze shifts
• A path you can walk after dark — fire is not a substitute for light
• Stone that looks right when the flame is out, which is most of the year

How we start

Stand where you already wish you could sit in October. Note which way the smoke would travel, and which window is twenty feet away. That is the brief. We walk it with you — walk the property — or call 302-234-8090.

Read Before the First Stone if you want the questions before the visit. The fire belongs in the first drawing with the terrace, not in a catalog the week the furniture arrives.

Questions homeowners ask

Is an outdoor fireplace different from a fire pit?

A pit is a low flame you gather around. A fireplace is a wall with a flue, a hearth, and a direction for the smoke. Close lots usually need the second. Open grade can earn the first.

Will smoke bother the neighbors?

It will if the flame sits in the path of the evening breeze and the next house is near. In Greenville, Hockessin, and much of Wilmington, the flue and the seat are one decision.

Can a fire feature be added after the patio is finished?

Sometimes. You will usually open finished stone for a footing, a gas line, or a hearth that was never drawn. The better time is with the terrace.