Light Up Your Profits

Tips and ideas for how to sell and install fire pits.

By Fred Minnick

Why: Outdoor living spaces are among the hottest landscaping trends

How: Install natural or cut stone, custom metal or kits

When: Sell a fire pit as an option to a comprehensive plan

Bottom line: Net from $2,000 to $50,000

From Hollywood celebrities to New Jersey plumbers, Americans are rediscovering a forgotten past time: warming their hands over a crackling fire in their backyards. And, landscape architects are making upwards of $2,000 to $50,000 installing them on $800 to $5,000 in materials and skilled labor.

“The fire pit is a year-round feature that is extremely low maintenance, as opposed to a pool. It completely defines a space, making it a true outdoor room,” says Anne Rainey Rokahr, managing director for Colombo Construction in Brooklyn, New York. “If you want people to spend time outdoors, a fire will get them there. The same way people always end up in the kitchen at a party.”

“If we listen to our consumers, they are trying to make home more like a vacation,” says Eric Kent, owner of Archadeck of Charlotte. “People are taking fewer vacations, spending more time at home and looking to create exciting landscapes that they can enjoy with family and friends. The whole outdoor living trend is exploding.”

DETAILS TO CONSIDER

1.  Use the flame creatively.

A client of Stone Age Fireplaces used glass crystals to spell out his favorite college team – Oklahoma State Cowboys. Beidel says these crystals have grown in popularity because people like the sparkling reflections projected from the glass.

2.   Add roasters, grills and outdoor stoves. According to a 2009 Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association study, 45 percent of Americans grill one to two times per week.