[Stonehenge]

How to Build an Outdoor Fireplace

I'm finding that the interest in this is growing, and the knowledge base for designing and building them (at least in my office) is a little on the short side.

Fine Edge was kind enough to help me a great deal with a bid I was putting together for one (though the jury is still out on whether we'll get the job), and it appears Treedoc has a fair amount of intimate experience with them as well.

So I thought we might put a thread together covering some of the basics of design and construction, including any code issues, footer requirements, managing air flow, cleanouts, etc.

I'll start with one question about codes - around here this is a very new thing, and no municipality seems to understand how to approach it. Their default is to call it a recreational fire structure, putting it in a group with fire pits, requiring it be 20+ feet from the house.

No conversations about the fireplaces that are inside the house (right next to all kinds of flammable materials) seem to affect this opinion. So for those areas where this is more common, can someone advise me on how to approach municipalites/inspectors so they don't make me put the fireplace a country mile from the house?