Protecting Your Wood Deck

Families everywhere enjoy a wooden deck every bit a convenient place to breathe some fresh air, scout a sunset, or enjoy an outdoor meal. A deck offers easy access to the amenities of your domicile while still providing an enjoyable outdoor space. Increasingly, homeowners are using portable fire pits on their decks. For safety and protection of your belongings, it's critical that you exercise fire pit deck safety and larn how to protect your wood deck.

Decks are synthetic with traditional woods lumber or composite decking. Here's a petty information on each.

  • Wood A tried and true building fabric, wood, when properly designed and finished, makes a beautiful, sturdy deck. Nonetheless, no thing how eye-catching information technology is, it'south still wood and will burn if you aren't careful.
  • Composite Decking This durable, long lasting product is comprised of recycled forest and plastic, both combustible materials that volition burn or weaken when exposed to rut for extended periods of time.

Make Safe Your First Priority when Placing a Burn down Pit on A Deck

There's a lot of debate about the safety of placing a fire pit on a wood deck, and many people abet finding a suitable location in your chiliad. If y'all make the choice to put a portable fire pit on your deck, be smart and take any precautions you can to keep from risking your family's safety.

Safety Considerations

  • Never burn down a burn on a windy day.
  • Always tend a fire. Never leave it, even for a minute.
  • Ensure that your community allows outdoor fires or if at that place are restricted burn days.
  • Chimineas are not quite every bit open up for watching a fire, merely they will direct smoke and heat up and away from your deck and domicile.

Safe Equipment

  • Fire extinguisher
  • Bucket of water or garden hose without a nozzle (h2o under pressure will but push the embers off the deck or into a corner, but won't necessarily extinguish)
  • Heavy gloves

How to Safely Use a Portable Fire Pit on A Wood Deck

Fire Pit Pad
Choose a Fire Pit Pad for a Wooden Deck

Step 1 – Select a Safe Location

Cull a location that is at to the lowest degree several feet away from your house, walls, railings, roofs or overhangs, tree limbs, blinds, shades, and the like. If whatsoever area of your deck is sheltered from the air current, consider that as a location for your fire pit.

Footstep 2 – Ready the Area

Take the time to ensure your deck is safety for a fire by following these guidelines.

  • Brand certain all of your prophylactic equipment is nearby in the event something goes wrong.
  • Movement deck furniture, umbrellas, and other stored items out of the way.
  • Remove trip hazards such as floor mats, extension cords, or dog leashes.
  • Some natural gas powered fire pits connect straight to your home's gas supply. If you have i, ensure that it'south routed safely where no one volition trip over it.
  • Store extra forest at a condom distance so wayward sparks won't cause information technology to unintentionally ignite.

Step three – Utilize a Fire Pit Pad to Protect Your Deck

Never set your fire pit directly onto a wooden or composite deck. Fire pit pads protect your forest deck from rut, embers, and ash and come up in a variety of styles and materials; rock, stone composite, metal, screen mesh, and tile. Most pads are small-scale, only by placing several of them together, you will be prepared for flying embers or a fire pit that tips over.

Place your portable burn down pit in the centre of the pad for the best consequence. Remember that hot embers tin easily fall between the spaces in wood decking. A practiced way to gainsay this is to lay down a couple of fire resistant hearth rugs to further widen deck protection.

Feel free to build your own burn down resistant pad by placing bricks, interlocking paving stones, or cinder blocks where you desire to put your fire pit. You can even make it permanent by using mortar to hold them all together. Some other method is to adhere heat resistant tiles to a large piece of plywood to identify beneath your fire pit.

Fire Pit Pad Blocks
Lay concrete blocks for a fire pit pad on your wood deck

Step 4 – Place Your Portable Burn down Pit over the Pad

Fire pit pads are not a silver bullet when it comes to protecting your deck. Do not place the fire pit directly onto the pad. Instead, use the stand information technology came with, if it has one. If not, improvise a stand with cinder blocks to get the fire pit a few inches off the basis. Avert direct estrus to your deck every bit much every bit possible.

Ensure the fire pit is stable with no wobble or uneven lean to information technology or the stand beneath it.

Stride 5 – Calorie-free the Burn

Identify a couple inches of sand in the lesser of the fire pan every bit an additional layer of insulation betwixt the hot coals and your deck.

Step 6 – Place a spark screen over the top if you accept i. If non, get one hither, otherwise do not use the burn pit.

Step 7 – Consider Alternatives to Forest Burning Fire Pits

Gas or propane is the best selection, no sparks, no mess.

A good alternative is the gas tin can in a campfire because of the many features it has.

  • Its small size and portability allow you to take it anywhere.
  • It puts off plenty of rut for cooking (64,000 BTUs)
  • Information technology's the only patio fire pit with zero clearancdue east—you can set it correct on the deck and light it up.
  • It has an adjustable flame.
  • Its hose and RV attachment make connection to a fuel source like shooting fish in a barrel.

Step 8 – Ensure the Fire is Completely Out

Never leave a burn this close to your home called-for or unattended for whatsoever length of time.

After your evening of fun, let the burn burn completely out and so use h2o or sand to completely absurd it. Run across "How to Put out a Burn down in a Fire Pit" for detailed instructions.

Fire Pit Deck Prophylactic is Nothing to Accept Lightly

Although you'll be having a good fourth dimension relaxing on your deck, roasting marshmallows, and enjoying the radiant glow of a crackling fire, safety is still your first consideration. Nobody wants to impairment their home because they didn't know how to protect a wood deck. No thing how loosened upwards your leisure fourth dimension makes you, never forget the rules.