Cor-Ten Fire Pit Area

[CeeJay]

As the title, been working on this area in our back yard the last few weekends.

No Festoolisation or woodwork in this one but here it is.

We had 4 large sandstone blocks left over from retaining walls when we landscaped 5 years ago, so arranged these in a seating arc, dug out the turf, and laid some cor-ten edging in a nice curved pattern.

I poured a small concrete pad in the round form using 12 bags of pre-mix, then laid down some decorative gravel between the pad and the seating area, underlain with Geofabric to aid drainage and stop weeds.

Ordered a nice fire pit which arrived Friday, assembled and placed it and got some large black pebbles to go around the legs under it.

I got a stainless steel grill plate as well, so this can be fire pit or grill. I’ll also make a timber top soon so it can also serve as a table.

Maiden fire tonight I think! Came out great and will be awesome for the coming winter.

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[Dan C]

Love cor-ten!  Your project turned out great!

 

[CeeJay]

Thanks [member=10225]Dan C[/member]. It has been very popular on the home front - plenty of brownie points!!

 

[Cheese]

Big fan of Cor-Ten… [smile]

Nice job with the fire pit, wish we had more room in our yard for one.

Is the edging also Cor-Ten?  If so how do you keep it staked in-place?

 

[CeeJay]

Big fan of Cor-Ten… [smile]

Nice job with the fire pit, wish we had more room in our yard for one.

Is the edging also Cor-Ten?  If so how do you keep it staked in-place?

Thanks [member=44099]Cheese[/member] Yes the edging also cor-ten (actually a local brand called Redcor). It’s staked with 300mm stakes which tuck into the folded top and are secured with tek screws. You can see a stack of them on the far right sandstone block in the second photo next to the Irwin clamp. Then you hammer the edging in with a mallet, carefully avoiding the Polyurethane pipes for your irrigation system. Ask me how I know….

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[Packard]

Cor-ten was invented in the 1930s but the first time I saw it was in the early 1970s on a job site.  I said, "You probably got that real cheap.  It's already rusted".  He laughed. 

For those that are not aware of what Cor-ten is, it is a self-inhibiting, rust resisting high tensile steel.  Once the surface is coated with rust, the rust then protects the rest of the steel from further corrosion.  The only way you can get it to rust through is to keep removing the surface rust as it appears. 

Visually it offends nature less than bright dipped galvanized would and protects better as well.

A nice looking fire pit. 

 

[rst]

There is a multi story office building in west shore Harrisburg, PA just up from the river on RT-11 or 15 that is cladded with Cor-Ten.

 

[CeeJay]

In the right context Cor-Ten can be really beautiful I think. I may be a bit biased - we partially clad our house in it, and we have laser-cut gates and screens in Cor-Ten as well, hence the firepit and edging approach so it all hangs together.

This is our front gate - my wife designed it and we got it custom made by a local fencing manufacturer who have a laser cutter.

 

[Michael Kellough]

You can use Cor-Ten indoors too if you have the right space. Check out the installation video lower down the article.

 

[Packard]

Officially it is called "weathering high tensile steel".  Here are the specs on the stuff:
https://www.ssab.us/products/brands/ssab-weathering-steel/products/cor-ten

And here is a history of the stuff:
http://allsteelsculpture.com/history-of-corten-sculptures

And examples of sculptures using cor-ten
https://www.google.com/search?q=corten+sculpture&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjR1ty-nJb2AhV5lIkEHeVxBMQQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1600&bih=775&dpr=1