Highland Park / Fire Pits

Fire Pit Installation in Highland Park

Custom gas fire pits built into Highland Park and University Park backyards, sized for the lot and matched to the home.

Highland Park backyards are different from the open lots out in the suburbs. The Park Cities sit on mature, close-set lots where the house, the pool, and the fence are all within a few steps of each other, and University Park is tighter still. A fire pit here has to fit that footprint. We size the pit to the space you have, find a spot that keeps a safe distance from the house and the neighbor's fence, and keep the surround in scale with the yard so it does not swallow the only open ground you have. On these lots, where the pit sits is most of the job, and we work that out on the walk-through before anything else.

Gas is almost always the right call in the Park Cities. A natural gas fire pit lights with a switch and makes no smoke or ash, which matters more when the neighbor's windows are close and there is no room to store a woodpile. It needs a gas line run to it, and on these established lots that line is usually a short reach from the house. Wood-burning is possible where there is the clearance for it, but the smoke and the storage are a harder fit on a tight lot, and some owners are restricted from it. Propane from a hidden tank is the fallback only when a gas line is genuinely not workable. We talk it through on site.

What you do not see is what makes the pit last. Set on pavers with no footing, a pit heaves with the soil and the surround cracks apart in a season or two. We pour a proper footing, set a steel ring or fire-rated liner at the core so the heat stays off the decorative stone, and lay the surround in heat-rated mortar that handles the summer heat and the winter freeze. The pit is set to NFPA clearances, which is the part that earns its keep on a close lot where the house and the fence are near.

Materials are where the Park Cities are particular. The fire pit has to answer to the architecture of older brick and limestone homes, so we lean toward natural limestone, cut stone, and brick that match the house and the existing stonework rather than a stock paver kit. These projects often run through a designer, and we build from their specs on the stone and the proportions. Built-in is the standard here, a pit that reads as original to the home. We match the surround to your existing coping and patio so it pulls from one palette.

On a smaller lot, a low seat wall earns its space. An 18 to 24 inch wall around the pit gives you seating for a group without crowding the yard with loose chairs, and it carries the same stone as the pit. That seat wall is the same build as a retaining wall, which a lot of these graded Park Cities yards already need, so the two often go in together. A fire pit also pairs cleanly with an outdoor kitchen when the backyard is being redone as one project.

A fire pit and an outdoor fireplace are not the same build. A pit is the open, gather-around feature with a low footprint, which suits a tight Park Cities yard where a tall structure would close the space in. If you do want the chimney and the mantel, look at an outdoor fireplace instead, a larger masonry build. A custom stone pit usually runs $3,000 to $9,000 installed over 3 to 5 days, with premium stone and detailing at the higher end. You can also compare a fire pit in Southlake. Fill out the form for a free on-site estimate.