Granite for gas fire pit

3 years ago

We installed a gas fire pit from Warming Trends using techobloc bricks as the base and a leathered granite top. We actually didn’t plan on the top, when the granite fabricator was at the house for our outdoor kitchen, he suggested it to us. It is a circle cut out of one piece that was leftover from the kitchen work. We have been loving it for about a week. Last night we had it on and the gas was a bit higher than we normally have been using it. All of a sudden we heard a big pop and there is a huge crack through the entire thing! We weren’t warned about the temperature and I thought granite was supposed to be very resilient to heat. I wanted some advice if this is expected and if we just have it repaired, will this be a recurring issue / is this a design flaw? Is it possible there is some other defect in the stone that we should have ask the fabricator to replace it? Thank you.

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Comments (4)

PRO
Yardvaark
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
I'm not an authority on this but imagine it is mostly likely bad design. Many stones and other hard materials (glass, ceramics, etc) commonly crack if heated unevenly which, of course, is the only way a stone around a fire pit is going to heat. A one-piece stone surround sounds like a likely candidate for this to happen. The fabricator may have much experience creating these and appreciating their beauty, but very little experience using them. In the end, a complaint will always be over money so even if it's his/her fault, they'll still come up with excuses why it isn't ... especially if they've been doing it for a while as it represents an even greater liability. I'd be looking for a way out using another scheme that is not a one-piece object ... not a replacement of the same. And, having the heat on one's fire pit a bit higher than normal should still be well within the design specs, as that's something any average user might do at any time.

I had a nice pizza stone which I used regularly on a closed barbecue pit and in the oven with never any trouble. One night, I decided to use it on top of the stove burner (electric) for some reason, which in retrospect was hair-brained, thinking that if I heated it slowly enough, it would be fine (and if it wasn't, that I would learn something!) About 20-something minutes later there was a gun shot and a crash that came from the kitchen. The stone had exploded into two and one part had landed on the vinyl floor and immediately began melting it.. I had no time to figure out a good way to pick it up on such short notice and ended up trying to push it against my sock with a hot pad so I could get hold of it. But those socks were thin so there ended up being a lot of dancing before I could get it off the floor. Now, I'm never going to do that again. And I also won't make a one-piece top for a fire pit.

Also, if you're looking for advice with some authority to it, contact a granite manufacturer/producer and see if you can talk to an expert about the situation. And I don't mean a fabricator. Call a representative of a quarry. There should be someone on staff who knows granite's technical properties and abilities, as a material.
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
3 years ago
Yes, it's a design flaw. The designer failed to accommodate the uneven heating of the stone. The hot inner ring wants to expand, the cool outer ring does not and boom. I wouldn't make one of these rings in less than 4 segments, with each seam siliconed.

Hopefully your crack ran in a straight line and can be cut into a seam as well as one opposite.
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PRO
The Outdoor GreatRoom Company
3 years ago
Sorry to hear about your gas fire pit top cracking. If you are looking to replace your top completely, we provide a lot of customization options. Our fire pits use reinforced Supercast™ concrete and other materials to withstand the heat of the flames. Feel free to contact us with the dimensions and desired color and material, we can certainly work with you on getting your fire pit fixed. Thanks!
Melissa Horn
Original Author
3 years ago
Thank you so much for the insight. The contractor did come right over to repair the crack. In the daylight you practically can’t even see it, at night with the firelight it resembles a seam. We’ll see how it goes but might suggest having it redone in sections.