Well the only thing I would add is avoid leaving it burning unatteneded, so to be able to put it put when finished, it should be able to with stand water being put on it with out cracking, warping or breaking....

The best I have seen are just dug to mineral soil, lined with rocks and cleared around the pit a minimum of 12 feet. Make sure and remove all roots so fire won't travel outside the fire ring. Have fun.

Thanks for the feedback. We ended up handling it much like a brick paver. We went down 6". Then laid 2" of stone, another 2" inches of stone/sand mix, and finished with a paver sand for the final 2 inches. We had some play sand for making sure our first layer was level. After that, it went fast. Be backfilled the outside, the inside was packed in with more sand (before we added the ring), then finished with 2 cubic feet of lava rock. There are small gaps between blocks. We'll keep filling those with sand as the summer progresses until it can't handle more. Then we'll finish it up with cement caulk and keep our fingers crossed it holds for the winter.

I know of people who have buried the 'pot' part of old
Weber grills, and that seems to work very well. Plus, one can always save the cover to smother the fire and prevent open flareups of fire. Much safer than pouring a cold water hose on hot rocks and the resulting split and crack of the rock. Please do be careful of floating sparks on your neighbors roofs and trees.

Hope you cook lots of s'mores! Pondy

we used an old semi tractor rim burried it and surrounded the area with the concrete pavers. Its easy to sweep off and gives a flat area to sit chairs. The webber grill lid work for putting it out.

I hope yours turned out well. Check out my DIY fire pit. I used large 24" pavers as the base and river rocks as a surround.

Thanks for looking!

Here is a link that might be useful: Fire Pit with River Rocks