Fire pits & fire features, Peninsula & South Bay

A manufactured kit or burner may cost a few thousand dollars, but a finished fire-pit area can also include fuel routing, masonry, drainage, controls, seat walls and patio work. Our two published fire-feature scopes ran $11,100 to $12,300 in Atherton and $8,000 to $9,500 in San Carlos, inside complete yards of $96,150 to $106,360 and $50,000 to $60,000. Those are not the same scope: Atherton was a rebuilt gas fire pit, San Carlos was a refresh of an existing pit and bench. Our minimum total project engagement is $25,000.

No. We incorporate fire features into qualifying patio, backyard and outdoor-living projects rather than taking a standalone kit installation or a minor gas-line repair. The minimum total project engagement is $25,000, and if a drop-in is what you need we will say so in the first conversation.

Wood gives you the traditional flame, sound and embers, and it makes smoke, needs fuel storage and is subject to Bay Area burn restrictions. Natural gas is convenient fixed service but the supply has to be able to carry the appliance. Propane can work where there is no gas service, when the appliance is approved for it. If being able to light a fire whenever you want matters to you, that points at gas.

No. The Bay Area Air District states it is illegal to use fireplaces, wood stoves, pellet stoves, outdoor fire pits or any other wood-burning device during a Spare the Air Alert for fine-particle pollution. In October 2025 the Board lowered the alert threshold from a daily forecast of 35 to 25 micrograms per cubic meter, and estimates 19 to 41 alerts a year against a historical average of 15. Check the current alert before every wood fire. Burning garbage, plastics and other toxic materials is prohibited at all times.

It depends on the proposal, and it will say. The appliance, the hookup, any new fuel-line routing, trenching, regulators, permits, meter work and inspection are listed separately so you can see exactly what is in and what is not. On our Atherton project the owner’s own plumber ran the gas line, which is recorded in that case study.

When new gas piping is required, we coordinate the fire-feature construction with the appropriately licensed trade partner responsible for the gas scope, and the responsible parties, permits, testing and inspections are identified in the proposal and the project records. California places gas appliances, gas connections and property-side gas piping in the C-36 classification. We hold CA License #1099847 with classifications A, C-8, C-27, D-06 and D-12.

It varies by city, appliance, fuel and the construction around it. Gas piping, electrical work, masonry or a nearby structure may each trigger separate review, and jurisdictions adopt their own amendments. We confirm the requirements with the applicable building department, fire authority and utility before construction begins.

There is no single distance that applies to every product, and we do not publish one. The layout accounts for the selected appliance’s instructions, its heat and flame characteristics, the wind, the furniture dimensions, circulation and any local requirement. The dimensioned plan follows the appliance, not a rule of thumb.

Only when the selected appliance’s listing and manufacturer instructions permit that specific overhead condition and the local authority accepts the installation. Being rated for outdoor use does not automatically mean approved beneath a roof or a pergola, and the overhead clearance a manufacturer specifies is often what decides which appliance you can have. Tell us at the start if the fire is going under cover.

Usually yes, when the appliance support, the enclosure, the heat exposure, the drainage, the service access and the required separation are planned together with the paver system. The materials next to the flame have to suit the selected appliance and the detail.

Drainage is planned from the selected appliance outward. Burner pans, valve boxes, enclosures and the surrounding patio can each have different requirements, and the approved media, weep paths, covers and service access follow the appliance instructions rather than a standard detail.

Whatever the appliance going into it requires: the ventilation, the drainage and the service access specified for that unit, with the shutoff somewhere you can reach without leaning over the flame. Manufacturers vary clearance by appliance input and publish their own requirements, so the document that governs is the manual for the unit you actually bought.

Some Peninsula and South Bay properties sit in a mapped Fire Hazard Severity Zone or another locally regulated wildfire area, and many do not. Where one applies we verify the property-specific requirements before finalizing the fire feature and the planting around it, because those rules reach the landscape as well as the appliance.

It depends on the design, the product lead time, permits, fuel routing, masonry and the surrounding patio. Product lead time is the one people underestimate: the replacement burner on our Atherton project took five weeks to arrive. We give you the construction duration in writing once those items are confirmed.

Yes, $25,000 for the whole project. A fire feature is built as part of a larger patio, backyard or outdoor-living project rather than on its own.