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Do It Yourself Fire Pit Earth Bag Construction

When you put your mind to something, anything is possible, even for middle aged mid-western wives. Ilse Ackerman fell in love with fire pits while being entertained at a friend home, and decided she had to have one herself. Only Ilse didnt hire a contractor to come and install her fire pit, rather with the help of a few books, YouTube and her determination, she built a fire pit herself! The cool thing about Ilses fire pit is that it was constructed with unconventional and green building materials, earth bags. If you are unfamiliar with earth bags, they are low cost durable sacks filled with organic material like dirt, sand or gravel which are then stacked up like bricks.

After Ilse created a ring, she placed barbed wire between each level to keep the bags from shifting. After she had created the fire pit shape desired, she covered the entire think is chicken wire then coated it with concrete Spec mix.


After the concrete dried, she then finished off her fire pit with a dark Indian pink lime wash which is rot-proof and weather resistant.



The most impressive part of of Ilses home construction was that with the help of a YouTube video, she was able to run the gas lines herself out to her fire pit. Not only was Ilses home improvement project done by herself, but she pulled it off for under $1000.


Below is a video to help you if you decide to build your own fire pit, and please keep us in mind for all of your burning system needs.