Have you seen any of the Home & Garden magazines lately? They’re filled with pictures of outdoor kitchens and free-standing fireplaces. Without a doubt, these backyard creations are the hottest things on the patio/landscaping market right now. With the recent shakeup in the housing market, fewer people are looking to trade up to a bigger house and instead they’re looking to spruce up their backyard. At Irwin Stone, we sell many types of stone to create the perfect built-in grill, a fire pit or free-standing fireplace. In fact, we now sell a pre-fab outdoor fireplace that is ready to be veneered with the stone of your choice. These fireplaces are made of concrete, they comply with UL127 standards and can be put together (the kit arrives as 26 pieces) in a matter of hours. A photo of the concrete 36” unit is shown below. After the pre-fab unit is together, it can be veneered with full-bed building stone, thin veneer stone or brick (see photo below).
So why has this become so popular? Like almost everything, it’s all about the money. There is a huge labor savings because of the speed with which these fireplaces are completed. It’s much less expensive than building a complete free standing fireplace from scratch. In the coming years, I expect to see a lot more of these fireplaces in backyards.