Firepit Planner

UPDATE: I did in fact build the firepit per the plan output by the script and it worked out well! Here’s the construction process and the finished result:

Firepit construction in progress with materials and Jimny

Additional construction detail showing materials and setup

Completed firepit with stone surround and metal liner

Final firepit detail showing the finished construction

Out in the forest school woods, I wanted to build a proper firepit. Something solid, lasting, and safe for group sessions. I’d already picked up a steel liner from Amazon, but that left one question: how many bricks do you actually need to build the surround, and how should they be laid out?

I used the opportunity to have Cursor knock me out a one-time tool to solve it. It takes the liner and brick dimensions, makes a few layout assumptions, then calculates the full Bill of Materials automatically: number of bricks, courses, radius offsets, total cost, and even a simple visual plan.

It’s up here if you fancy a look:
👉 github.com/simonjgreen/fire_pit_planner

The script’s simple and fast. You feed it your liner dimensions, brick specs, and construction details, and it figures out the rest, producing a neat plan that makes sure you’re buying the right amount of materials before heading to the yard.

All in all, this took me just under an hour with Cursor. I got to Minimum Viable Experiment in about 5 minutes, and the remaining time was fiddling and polishing it that really wasn’t necessary!

The firepit’s going in a small clearing among the beeches, right in the centre of the forest school site. Once the brickwork’s done and the liner’s dropped in, it’ll become a proper gathering spot. Somewhere for stories, food, and the smell of wood smoke hanging in the air.

Firepit example image from repo