How Far Should a Gas Fire Pit Be From the House? Clearance Distance

Follow the distance printed in your fire pit's installation manual. In the manuals collected here that is 24 to 48 inches at the sides to anything combustible, siding included, and 72 to 120 inches overhead where a cover is allowed at all. The 25 ft figure you see online is the model fire code's rule for recreational fires, which it defines as an uncontained pile of fuel no more than 3 ft across and 2 ft high. The code never names gas fire pits.

Three local questions can still stop a plan: whether your fire official treats a gas fire pit as an open fire, whether a burn ban reaches it, and whether the gas work needs a permit. This guide covers the distance first, then those three. Everything below comes from published manuals, codes and local ordinances, linked where they appear.

How Far Should a Gas Fire Pit Be From the House?

Your house wall is a structure and, if it has siding, a combustible. The manuals publish minimum distances to both. These are the ones collected for this guide, in inches, with the burner rating where the maker ties distance to it.

Prism's guides say every unit in a series needs 4 ft at the sides and 6 ft from the top, and Firegear's 36 in. is its figure for a combustible side wall. Where a table has two rows for one maker, pick the row for your burner's rating.

Three details change the number you use.

• Burner rating. HPC and The Outdoor Plus step the distance up as the rating rises, and HPC says plainly that a higher rating needs more distance from combustibles. Read the rating off the data plate, not the catalog.
• What the wall is made of. Only HPC publishes a smaller figure for a noncombustible wall. The Outdoor Plus applies its figure to noncombustible walls too, and the other makers give one number. If your house wall is masonry, ask HPC how its manual defines noncombustible before you count on the smaller distance.
• Where the distance starts. Outdoor GreatRoom and HPC measure the side distance from the edge of the burner. HPC's Figures 1 and 2 draw it that way, and its Tech Talk says the horizontal distance runs from the edge of the burner pan. Read the drawing in your manual before you mark the patio.

Combustibles cover more than the wall. Railings, fences, eaves and plants count too, and an overhang above the fire pit triggers the overhead column. The clearance distance checker filters these same published figures by burner rating. On a deck, the surface under the unit has its own rules, covered in gas fire pits on wood and composite decks.

What the Fire Code Says About Distance From the House

The 2024 International Fire Code sets three distances for outdoor fires in Section 307. The next section shows how the code defines each kind of fire.

• Open burning: 50 ft from any structure (307.4). Fires in approved containers can be 15 ft away, and a pile no bigger than 3 ft across and 2 ft high can be 25 ft away.
• Recreational fires: 25 ft from a structure or combustible material (307.4.2).
• Portable outdoor fireplaces: 15 ft from a structure or combustible material (307.4.3), with an exception for one- and two-family dwellings.

Constant attendance applies to all of them, with an extinguisher or an approved substitute such as a garden hose on hand (307.5).

Those are model code numbers. A state or city has to adopt them, and many amend them. The state pages below show who did what. NFPA 1 is the other model fire code some states adopt. Its text sits behind a login, so it is not quoted here.

For a gas unit, the code points back to the manual. The International Fuel Gas Code requires permanently fixed-in-place outdoor decorative appliances to be listed to ANSI Z21.97 and installed according to the manufacturer's instructions (Section 635.1). The fire code's own rule for nonportable fuel-fired appliances says the same about installation (IFC 605.1.1). Neither section prints a distance, which is why the manual's table is the number to use.

Is a Gas Fire Pit an Open Fire or a Recreational Fire?

The code's definitions don't name a gas fire pit or fire table. A "recreational fire" is an outdoor fire burning materials other than rubbish, with a fuel area of 3 ft or less across and 2 ft or less high, where the fuel isn't contained in an incinerator, outdoor fireplace, portable outdoor fireplace, barbeque grill or barbeque pit. A "portable outdoor fireplace" is defined as a "solid-fuel-burning" fireplace. Neither definition mentions gas. "Open burning" is wider: burning where the products of combustion go into the air "without passing through a stack" or chimney from an enclosed chamber. That wording could reach any open flame, and the exclusions it lists don't mention gas fire features.

So the code doesn't settle the question, and local officials answer it for themselves.

• Denver. The Denver Fire Department's policy defines a solid-fuel-fired device to exclude natural gas-fired devices, and says listed natural gas appliances are permitted on patios of one- and two-family homes when installed under the International Fuel Gas Code. It names natural gas, and Denver treats propane separately, which the Colorado page covers. The policy is dated August 19, 2019, so confirm it still holds.
• Maricopa County, Arizona. Its residential burning ordinance doesn't apply to fire pits and fireplaces designed and used to burn natural gas, propane or liquefied petroleum gas exclusively. The word exclusively matters.
• Los Angeles. The Fire Chief approves the location of any permanently installed outdoor burning device that is a separate structure for cooking, decoration or entertainment and sits within 10 ft of a building (LAMC 57.307.6.2). Check it before you build a permanent gas fire feature near the house.

Wildfire areas add a wrinkle. The model code requires an operational permit to use "a torch or open-flame device" in a wildfire risk area (105.5.37), and an exception in Section 308.1.5 covers inhabited premises at least 30 ft from grass-, grain-, brush- or forest-covered areas. The code doesn't say whether a gas fire pit is such a device. If your lot backs onto brush, ask your fire official.

Do Burn Bans Apply to Gas Fire Pits?

It depends on the wording of the order, and orders differ even inside one state.

• Douglas County, Colorado. Its Stage 2 list bans fires in chimineas, other portable fireplaces and patio fire pits. It allows fires within liquid-fueled or gas-fueled stoves, grills, fire pits or other gas or liquid-fueled appliances.
• Keystone, Colorado. Under Stage 2, the town ordinance allows only the activities it lists. Gas grills are on the list and gas fire pits aren't named. "Fires on private property" appear among the prohibited activities. Whether a gas fire table counts is a question for the town.
• Maricopa County, Arizona. Its restricted-burn period bars solid-fuel fire pits, and its gas exemption is above.
• Texas. A county commissioners court can prohibit or restrict "outdoor burning in general" in the unincorporated area for up to 90 days per order, and knowingly violating an order is a Class C misdemeanor (Local Government Code 352.081). Backyard fires aren't among the statute's exemptions, so the order's text decides.

Read the current order, or call your fire district, before you light a gas fire pit on a red-flag or high-danger day. The order's wording decides, whatever the fuel.

Do You Need a Permit for a Gas Fire Pit?

The fire code's open-burning permit has an exception for recreational fires (IFC 105.5.36), and that definition doesn't mention gas. For a gas unit, the permit that usually matters is for the gas work.

The model fuel gas code requires a permit to install work it regulates (IFGC 2027, Section 105.1) and exempts portable heating appliances (Section 105.2). Whether a freestanding propane table counts as portable is a local call. A natural gas line or a plumbed propane line belongs to a licensed gas fitter or plumber, and they pull the permit where one is required. Los Angeles adds the Fire Chief's location approval above.

Insurance is outside what the codes and manuals cover. No primary source we found says a gas fire pit changes a premium, so call your agent before you build.

Fire Pit Rules in California, Texas, Arizona and Colorado

These pages hold the cited, dated rules for each state and the city examples behind them. The table shows only what bears on a gas fire pit.

Cities and counties add rules these pages can't predict. Your fire marshal's reading governs.

Before You Set the Fire Pit

• Find the distance table in your manual for your burner's Btu/h rating, and note where it measures from.
• Check what your nearest wall is made of. Only some makers allow a smaller figure for a noncombustible wall.
• Look up. Eaves, pergolas and tree branches count as overhead, and some manuals forbid any overhead structure at higher outputs.
• Ask your fire official whether a gas fire pit counts as an open fire where you live, and whether a permanent unit needs location approval.
• Read the current burn ban order each time conditions are dry.
• Have a licensed gas fitter or plumber run the gas, and ask your building department about the permit.
• Read the safety guide for attendance and shut-off rules, and the guide on gas fire pits under a covered patio if any cover is overhead.