I dug out a place for fire pit. I thought some cement blocks would be good to keep things in order. I'm looking at circle, and I would like it to be about about 1-2/1 ft. tall. For these twigs and small limbs that keep falling out of my gag-gum pine trees. What u say?
I agree......cement blocks are an unwise choice. Go to a home supply place and get some large stones...however many you need. Set them almost touching the firewood!!......and then start a trial-run fire. Keep it burning for a good couple hours at least. The stones being so close to the fire will get really hot, which is what you want. If any decide to 'blow', they should do it now, and...you don't want to be sitting around the fire either, you just want to keep an eye on it from afar while you're doing other things. Once you're done with this, you should be able to set them in place at the outer perimeter of the pit and be ready for regular use. You see....stones and rocks can contain water. When they get hot the water will expand to boil.....so what you have is like a low-grade hand grenade, and they can crack very sharply and loudly sometimes. Often chips and pieces fly off and they can and have blinded people, and hit people in the face, etc. It's just a dangerous situation that can, and should be avoided. Cement blocks have loads of water in them. It's not a matter of IF they shatter or break.....it's when. Do it right....take the time.....so you can have a safe place to hang around a fire.
Cement blocks will will break up under heat ,you are better off using fire bricks .
The best option for creating a fire ring is brick and in particular fire bricks the kind commonly used in fireplaces, regular cement blocks will crack and fail from the heat, never use CMUs commonly called cinder blocks, because they may actually shatter and pop hot pieces at you.
