Nice work! I think it's great to go in and figure out some of these reasonable DIY projects and save some money for the things we can't do outselves (i.e.: pebblefinish). It looks great, was it tough to cut the angles so perfectly on the bricks? Seriously, come to Georgia and do mine...I'll make you a peach pie in return! :-)

Actually that was the easiest thing...I talked my wife into buying a used wet saw on Ebay for $5 plus $100 shipping. Its cleaned up now and I can probably tell it for about $200. I cut all those bricks in about an hour with cool water from the wet saw misting on me. I cut the saw with a dry blade before the wet saw....it would be easier now.

I'm going to be extending the flagstone from the coping around the firepit as well but I'm trying to decide if I want to build some rock benchs around the fire pit. I still have a lot more bricks and stone.

Very nice work!! Not many pros would take the time to do that clean of a job.

Quote: "I got tired of people doing a crappy job and charging me as if it was a good job"

Hahaha! I love that line!! That belongs on the wall over my phone at work :-)

Thanks. I painted the inside with high-temp epoxy so it would not show mortar, brick lines and smoke damage. I told my wife there is no way anyone we would have paid would have done that.

Have done everything but seal....I can never bring myself to seal anything for some reason. And I have more than several gallons worth of that very expensive stuff.

Looks great Barco, I don't think I have seen your pool yet, do you have any pics posted?

A fireplace w/ chimney will be our fall project hopefully. Our "drainage" issues set us back a little. Which by the way turned out to be not related to our pool just aggravated by it. But fixed now, woo hoo!

You did a great job and do believe that you won't have the same results if you had hired it out.

Looks great Barco, I don't think I have seen your pool yet, do you have any pics posted? Thanks...I did but I'll post pics when I'm completely done.

Susanna,
What did they end up doing to fix your drainage? (Wondering if it's something we can do for ours & save some $$$)

Barco,
Love your work! I have been thinking of trying my hand at some small projects that involve mortar work, but have been holding off because I'm not sure if I can do it. As a DIY project, how would you rate it? Would you say that it was very difficult?

Well I don't know how to rate its difficulty. I had a heck of a time here in Texas getting Refactory mortar for the inside firebricks. They don't sell it here and no-one seems to know about it. That was difficult. I was dry saw cutting everything at first and now with the wet saw, it would be alot less work. Its time consuming though when all you really have is a little weekend time. I had two motivation factors and you need motivation factors to get you all the way through.

1. I have been getting ripped off here in Texas Construction wise. There are no or few rules when it comes to Texas Construction and Quality. Buyer beware rules here and quality is unpredictable from one person to the next. You have little recourse legally or otherwise. Having moved from California its night and day of two extremes. California--too many rules. Texas---no rules.

2. Its nice to build something that will be outside and endure for a long, long time and masonary construction gives you that sense of accomplishment. So you should build something you are going to enjoy for years to come and have pride in its form and function. Plus, you will save a lot of money.

I put cabinets inside and built a TV niche and that was a win-win situation too since I put those in for 1/3 the price of a contractor. Two of my neighbors have copied me on that idea so far now. That was easy because it essentially was just hanging them up.

Thanks, barco! Is it difficult to brick or stonework with the mortar smoothed inward (can't remember what they call that) like they usually do on houses? I'm thinking of something like a planter made out of brick.

Barco,
Looks great. Your motivation factors are a lot of the reasons that i do a lot of DIY projects. Most people do not have pride in themselves these days, and it shows in their work.
I have built a few firepits and am about tho start another. I noticed that your pit is fairly deep. It has been my experience that this can cause the fire to have a hard time drawing fresh air, and your fire tends to smolder than burn aggressively. All of my pits since then were built with vent holes near the bottom of the pit, so air can be sucked into the fire. If your fire does not burn well, you can either cut vent holes in your pit (ugh!), or add gravel or sand to the inside of the pit, to bring the level of the floor within 12 inches of the top.
Anyhow, it looks great.
Where did you eventually find the refactory mortar?

Cant wait to get our pit in for winter! We soooo understand the poor construction issue-

Grace- Yes drainage issue was an ordeal, the pool just aggravated a situation that we did not know existed. DH bought this house 7 yrs ago. Poor drainage is due to poor home building when the house was built 20 years ago. Long story including rotting siding and some new gutterwork, but yes we had a french drain installed that runs the length of the house to our natural runoff area. They trenched it, put 4in. of rock, the drain, then another 6 in. of rock on top. Our gutters(all 3 in the same spot!!!!) are sealed into the french drain. So far so good, but the only rain we have received was overnight from Edouard, but, the entire alcove area stayed dry... Seems to be working but I would really like to confirm that with a good hard rain, you know before its a freezing rain in the middle of winter... :)

Its 18 inches on the outside from floor to top but thats only because there will be a flagstone floor that comes up about 3 inches. In the inside its 14 inches from the floor because there are 4 inch fire bricks on the bottom. There is a wood rack that sits on top of that, which brings the wood "off" the floor which is why most people have trouble because they try and stack the wood on the floor. This allow air to get "underneath" and around the sides of the wood. The wood rack elevates the wood another 3-4 inches, giving it a final height to the top of only about 10-12 inches. The wood rack was also "very hard" to find....and this is probably why most people are not using them. There are 4 mortar breather holes around the sides and there are 3 "drainage" aluminum tubes for water drainage and cleaning as well as air.

I paid a ransom fee for the mortar. I contacted the vendor who just happen to tell me a landscaper bought a pallet of it because his mason was having the same problem. I called the guy and he started laughing at me. I said I'm looking for refactory mortar. His answer was "you and everybody else". Anyway, he charged me $80 for a 50lb bag. I forget to put this in my expenses--I guess I'm trying to forget. If he had been built locally they would have used standard mortar. Good for a few years until it all cracks off. Anyway, having talked with every landscaper and brick and mortar store and distributor here in Austin, I was able to get someone to carry it. Didn't help me, but the next person will be helped. Custom Stone Supply here in Round Rock now carries it and its closer to the $40-$50 price it normally goes for. She called me a few weeks ago after I was done to ask me if I wanted to buy it. They carry the indoor premix refactory mortar in a couple places but this is water soluable outside....so after a few rains, everything will come crumbling down.

If I have to go higher on the wood, I can set the wood rack on half-height cut fire brick to double the distance off the floor.

Thanks, barco! Is it difficult to brick or stonework with the mortar smoothed inward (can't remember what they call that) like they usually do on houses?
I'm not sure what you are referring to. Are you referring to the brick? Stricking the mortar joint? They make a tool for that. I have one but didn't use it because these bricks are laid on their side and had to lay in the mortar afterwards.. I use a mortar broom with water. You broom between the joint while its still wet and it pretty much strikes itself.

That is very impressive! I really like it a lot. I can't get over your material costs. How long did it take you to build it?

My husband tossed around the idea of building ours but we found that too many things were landing in the DIY list and it would take forever to get to all of them. We decided to have our paver contractor build one to match our pool. I hope he can build one as nice as you can.

Thanks.
It took about 2 months to build on weekends, swimming every other hour or so to stay cool. I'm laying slate now and the concrete is not poured well and too high so thats going slow as well.

Thanks for the info, susanna & barco!