Once you have built a natural stone or paver patio and set up your very own outdoor kitchen, it’s time to start looking at new ways to expand and enhance your outdoor living space. Beyond the basic hardscaping materials, homeowners in Foxboro and the surrounding Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island area, have access to what is known as an outdoor fireplace kit. So even if you don’t have any idea how to build an outdoor fireplace, you can easily add one using a basic DIY fireplace kit from J&J Materials.
Two Ways to Install an Outdoor Fireplace
There are two different ways that homeowners can add a fireplace to their outdoor living space. The first is to hire a professional installer who can use custom hardscaping materials that you pick out to create your outdoor fireplace. The second is to use a fireplace kit, which can either be installed by a professional or by you to create a beautiful, well-planned outdoor fireplace. Using a fireplace kit takes all of the guesswork out of learning how to build an outdoor fireplace and prevents homeowners from choosing the wrong type of materials for the job and making costly mistakes when they try to do it all themselves.
The basic fireplace kit can be customized through the use of natural thin veneer stone or thin brick veneer to create a truly custom outdoor fireplace that you and your family can enjoy for many years to come. Natural thin veneer stone is sliced natural stone that has all of the look, texture, color and functional appeal of full-thickness stone, but at only a fifth of the weight. This makes it easier to install and doesn’t cause any structural concerns that would be associated with full size stone or brick hardscaping materials.
Deciding How to Build an Outdoor Fireplace
Cost can sometimes be a huge factor in deciding whether to hire a master stone-mason to build you a custom outdoor fireplace, hire a professional to install a fireplace kit or choosing to install the outdoor fireplace kit yourself. The cost of hardscaping materials plus the labor of hiring a master stone-mason to ensure that your custom outdoor fireplace is installed properly can cost tens of thousands of dollars. However, a fireplace kit will run much less, whether you decide to hire a professional or install it for yourself.
Because you can customize your fireplace kit with natural thin veneer stone, the flexibility and options that would normally be a factor in the custom master stone-mason option are no longer in play. Choose from a wide variety of colors, shapes, sizes and styles at J&J Materials for our natural thin veneer stone and thin brick veneer. Further customize the area with additional features, outdoor lighting and create a special outdoor living space through the use of matching hardscaping materials, such as pavers, blocks and natural stone.
What to Expect in an Outdoor Fireplace Kit
Most of the outdoor fireplaces that you will see look very similar to an indoor fireplace. They have a base, a fireplace and a chimney. The top of the chimney for an outdoor fireplace only has to rise a few feet above the fireplace, rather than up and out like in your home. This is a huge advantage, keeping the chimney away from bushes, low-hanging branches and power lines in the area.
There are three common types of outdoor fireplaces that people install:
- WOOD BURNING – Requires a safe location away from your home, bushes and tree branches, as well as a steady supply of dry firewood.
- PROPANE FIRED – Simple hook-up to a gas line that runs to a propane tank. Like your barbecue grill, you will need to make sure that the propane tank stays full.
- NATURAL GAS FIRED – Easy hook-up into a natural gas line makes this great for Foxboro homeowners who already use natural gas inside their home.
Stone Age Fireplaces at J&J Materials
For South Coast homeowners in Foxboro and the surrounding area, J&J Materials is a proud supplier of Stone Age Fireplaces outdoor fireplace kits. Specially engineered materials are used to create these beautiful outdoor fireplaces that are designed to provide homeowners with many years of worry-free, low-maintenance use. Extremely durable and strong, a fireplace kit from Stone Age Fireplaces has been UL-127 tested and approved for consumer use and comes in three different sizes – 24, 36 and 38 inches – for the width of the firebox opening of each model.
One of the advantages to choosing a fireplace kit from Stone Age Fireplaces is their attention to detail and consideration for the Foxboro homeowner and properties in the New England area. The firebox is designed very deep to maximize draft performance and reduce the amount of dust and particles that are expelled from the front of the fireplace – even in high wind conditions. Consumers get to choose what type of exterior they want for a truly custom experience. J&J Materials has a wide variety of hardscaping materials that are perfect for this purpose, including natural thin veneer stone, full veneer stone, brick and more.
Another huge benefit of choosing how to build an outdoor fireplace using a fireplace kit from Stone Age Fireplaces and J&J Materials is that the included hardscaping materials are designed to be assembled and constructed right off the pallet in approximately 4-6 hours. Each kit contains all of the modular masonry pieces, fire brick to line the firebox and detailed instructions for straight-forward DIY assembly. For more information on Stone Age Fireplaces or the full line of masonry and hardscaping materials available at J&J Materials, stop by one of our Southeastern Massachusetts locations or contact us via this website for details.
