- My name is Aaron Massey
from MRFIXITDIY.com, and today I'm gonna show you how I built this DIY
concrete gas fire pit table. (upbeat music) So the first thing that I'm gonna do to get started with this project is I'm actually gonna
work on the top first, and I'm gonna be building
it out of melamine. I'm gonna make a form that's
gonna be about two inches thick and it's gonna have a
knockout in the middle for where the fire insert is gonna be. This fire insert, I got a big one, and it was really expensive. It's not a super cheap DIY build, but I'm building something
that would normally cost thousands and thousands of dollars to buy. So spending a little bit of
money is reasonable, I think, but if you're looking
for a super cheap build, this isn't it, but if you want something that's gonna be really cool, really nice, then stick around. This build is based off
of a set of design plans that I got from Yardzen,
which you guys can check out. I did a video on how I'm working to overhaul my entire backyard space, and this is one part of it, but it's kinda based on
their initial design. Now I've made some modifications to better fit what I want it to be. So I'm ripping some pieces
of melamine on the table saw, and then I'll put it all
together with some screws, and then silicone the inside, so that it's a nice clean form. I have some other videos on how I've done concrete
tops and stuff before, like my custom concrete
sink, stuff like that. So if you want to check those out, I'll make sure to leave links to those. Basically, you're just
making a two-inch thick form, putting some wire mesh inside of it, and then you can mix up some concrete, and put that in there, vibrate it really well, and
get yourself a nice solid top. The concrete mix that I'm
using for this project is the QUIKRETE ProFinish-5000, and I need about a bag
and a half for the top. I also want it to be like a
dark charcoal looking thing, so I'm gonna be using two bottles of the QUIKRETE charcoal
dye to darken it up. And you can grab all this
stuff at Lowe's or Home Depot. Once it's all mixed up, from there. it's just a matter of
adding it into the form, and once it's in place,
I found that the best way to get a nice finish, is to
vibrate the hell out of it with a Sawzall, without the blade in it. I like to just press
it up against the form, all over the place, and let
it run for a few minutes. And from there, I'll just
cover the whole thing up in plastic, and let it cure
for about 24 to 48 hours. All right, so this concrete
has been setting up for like a day, a day and a half, and now I'm gonna pop it loose, and see what we've got. To get it out of the forms, I'm just taking out all the screws, and then I'm using a
couple different tools, to try and pry the sides off. Most of it comes apart pretty easy, but the middle bit is a little bit tricky. I used hot glue to hold
the pieces in place, rather than using screws or something, so I could just kind of
knock out the pieces, rather than trying to pry too hard against the fresh concrete. I don't want to crack it, or leave a chunk in it, or anything. and fortunately, this
looks pretty good as is, So I'm gonna pop it loose. I'll hit it with a little
bit of a slurry coat which is more of the same kind of thing. It's just Portland cement, and I dyed it to kind of match the color of the concrete that I mixed up, and now that, that part's all finished, I'm gonna try my hand at
trying to polish this concrete for the first time. I've never tried to polish
anything concrete before, but I've seen some
beautiful results for it. So I'm gonna try and polish it using this cheap angle
grinder polishing set that I got off of Amazon. Everything that I've bought on Amazon, I've put together into a list that you could find on my Amazon store. It's an affiliate store, so it helps me out anytime
you make a purchase. So if you want to see all the stuff that I bought off of
Amazon for this project, make sure that you click that link, and it'll take you over there, and show you all the different
things that I bought. Okay, so the top is just about finished. I just have to apply a
wet look sealer to it, but I'm gonna forego that for now. I'm gonna shift gears, and I'm gonna start working on the base. Because this is a fire pit, I'm gonna be building the frame for it out of these metal 2x4s. I don't have a ton of
experience working with them, because they're primarily
used for commercial and high rise or multi-family
apartment applications, but they're also widely
available at big box stores. So I'm gonna be building the
base in kind of two stages. There's gonna be the very bottom, which will be a little
bit narrower and smaller. And then there'll be the second part, which will be the wider and taller base, that sits on top of the bottom piece. The overall footprint of the whole base is gonna be 24 inches wide, by 48 inches long, and 16 inches tall. I'm using my angle grinder
to cut the framing, because I found that it was a
little bit faster and easier than using the metal shears. And then I'm using a clamp,
to secure it in place, and screwing it altogether
with self-tapping metal screws. I'm also mocking up a place where I can put the firebox control valve, and igniter assembly, which you can find which one that I used, on that Amazon list, that
I just mentioned before. So this fire pit is gonna be connected to a natural gas line that I ran when I built the retaining
wall kind of seating area. So if you're planning
to use a propane tank, you might have to modify
the height of the table a little bit, or add an access door, so that you can easily swap
out the tank when you need to. Now that I've got the frame all built, the next thing I'm gonna do, is I'm gonna wrap the whole
thing in WonderBoard Lite, which is a cement backer board, that allows you to add
tile and stone easily, and it's also really
lightweight, and easy to cut. Originally, I was planning to do kind of a smooth charcoal stucco finish on this whole fire pit, but after looking online I found some charcoal
stacked stone tile at Lowe's that I liked better, and
I thought that it might be a little bit easier to do. So what I'm doing now is I'm
mixing up some thin set mortar and some of the charcoal
dye that I used earlier to match the top, and I'm applying a layer
over the entire frame. It probably isn't
necessary to apply the dye, or do a full scratch coat, since I'm deciding to go with the tile, but I figure if there's any areas that the stone doesn't cover, it's not gonna stand
out or catch your eye. So before I add the tile, I'm gonna move the table into place, so that it doesn't become
too unbearably heavy, and I'll just tile the
whole thing in place. I'm using a piece of scrap
2x4 underneath the lip around the base, to act as a lower stop, to hold the tiles in place while the first row of mortar sets up. And again, I'm using more
of that charcoal dyed mortar to secure the tiles in place. So now it's just a matter
of me working my way all the way around all four sides, and cutting off any excess, with a Diamond cutoff
wheel on my angle grinder. Now that the tiles are set and in place, I'm gonna apply a wet look
sealer to the whole base, put the top in place. I'm also going to apply the
same wet look sealer to the top, and then I can connect all
the gas lines and hoses to the firebox control, and
to the fire tray assembly. From there, it's just a matter
of turning the gas line on, filling the fire tray with the Fire Glass, firing it up, and this
project is complete. (upbeat music) So that's it for this video. I hope you guys enjoyed it, and I hope you learned something, and I hope it inspired you to tackle your own fire pit table. This is the first fire
table that I've ever built, so if I can do it, you guys
can definitely do it as well. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you like this video,
please hit that Like button, and leave a comment down
below, and let me know. Also be sure to subscribe to the channel, and hit that Notification Bell, so you never miss out
on any of the content I put out, and as always, you can check out all my how to an home improvement
projects on my website at MRFIXITDIY.com. Thank you guys so much for watching. I'll see you next time. (upbeat music)
