Morning everyone. I tried to find the right place to post this, so please move this if necessary. We have a light weight portable fire pit that we would like to use on the lawn. Does anyone have any suggestions on fire resistant mat or an alternate item to use underneath the fire pit? Or will we need to sue it over concrete on the driveway? We wish to keep it movable for now, hence why I have not looked into building anything in the back specific for it.
Thank you for the time and help.

 

How large is your fire pit?

What level of protection do you want for the ground? Just not start a fire or do you want to leave the grass unharmed?

Here are some things you can put underneath:
large, round, steel pizza sheet
cement board
Hardie Backer
fire brick

 

This will be used just for making smore's and the like, no left alone.

 

I'd just spray some total vegetation killer, then lay out some 12 X 12 landscape blocks.

 

Sounds like you want to prevent the radiant heat from killing your grass??
If so, If-I-Were-You: I would use tinfoil and coat hangers to make a heat reflector.

Grab a couple of old wire coat hangers, cut off the hook, then bend the 2 short sides to be 90-degrees to the long side - so you have a couple of giant "staples"

Take a staple, push it into the ground on one side of where the firepit will be.You want the long side to be a few inches ABOVE the grass you want to save.Then Measure out enough foil to be around 6" WIDER than the firepit, make sure it is SHINY SIDE UP. Push in another staple and then wrap/crimp the foil so that it is taught, and hangs above the grass. You want to create an aluminum hammock to reflect the radiant heat, and have it suspended ABOVE the grass, to allow cool air to circulate.
Repeat with more staples and foil to shield the grass under the fire pit.

Congratulations, you've essentially just made a small replica of the Skylab-sunshade...

 

We use a piece of plywood, and put it away after the festivities.

 

Thanks all for the suggestions, I will probably go for the plywood or get cement board to put under it and then remove when done.

 

If your talking about one of those small dish shaped fire pits on legs, you probably will have a small fire to start with which wont generate a lot of heat downwards.

I have a huge fire pit and get some enormous fires that contribute to global warming. It will dry out the grass around the edge but it doesn't kill the grass so after a couple rains it's back to normal.

You probably dont even need to do anything!

 

My fire pit will steam and cook anything flammable underneath it if you burn a fire for more than half an hour. Small quick fires don't put out much heat downwards but once a bed of coals is established it's quite toasty (literally) underneath).

 

Depends on your fire pit. Mine is a bowl shaped dish that sits on a stand about a foot off the ground. I move it around the yard because we end up killing the grass from our feet and chairs if it's always in the same spot. I just have a couple red bricks that is sits on and no issues with the grass. I even get some pretty hot fires going in it.