How Much Does a Fire Pit Cost in Shreveport?

It's October in Shreveport. The temperature dropped to 58 degrees — what passes for a cold snap in Louisiana. Your patio is empty because it's "too chilly." Now picture the same evening with a fire pit — stone ring glowing, flames dancing against the dark, your family pulled in close, nobody checking their phone, the conversation slowing down because nobody wants to go inside. That's what a fire pit sells. Not stone and gas. The reason people stay outside after the sun goes down.

So let's talk real numbers for Shreveport, Bossier City, Benton, Keithville, and the surrounding parishes in 2026. Three tiers, broken down by what's actually in them — and what Louisiana does to the price.

Fire Pit vs. Fireplace: What's the Difference?

Before we get to cost, let's clear up the confusion. People use "fire pit" and "fireplace" interchangeably, but they're different structures with different price points:

• Fire pit: An open ring or square structure, 36–48 inches across, with flames visible from every angle. People sit around it. It's a gathering circle. Fire pits run $3K–$12K.
• Outdoor fireplace: A vertical structure with a chimney, opening on one side, flames contained behind a hearth. People sit in front of it. It's a focal point. Fireplaces run $10K–$30K.

This post covers fire pits. If you want the taller cousin, browse our fire features page for both options.

Fire Pit Cost by Tier

Breaking Down the Components

A fire pit is a fire-safe container sitting on a slab that Louisiana clay will try to crack. Here's what each piece costs — so you can see exactly where the money goes.

Notice the line most builders skip: clay soil prep. In Caddo and Bossier Parish, the expansive clay moves with every wet-dry cycle. A fire pit pad poured on native clay without over-excavation and a non-expansive base will crack within two seasons. When the pad cracks, the stone surround cracks with it — and a cracked gas line under a fire pit is a safety issue, not just a cosmetic one. That's $500–$1,500 you won't see in a "starting at $3K" quote, but you'll pay for it one way or another.

Gas vs. Wood: The Real Decision

Most fire pit discussions come down to this one choice. Here's the honest comparison for Louisiana homeowners:

• Wood-burning ($3K–$6K). Cheaper to build. No gas line, no plumber, no permit for gas. The fire crackles, the smoke smells like a campfire, and there's a ritual to stacking wood and lighting it. The trade-off: you buy or haul wood ($200–$400/year in Shreveport), the smoke blows into someone's face no matter where they sit, you can't turn it off instantly, and embers can drift onto your roof in dry fall weather. In Caddo and Bossier Parish, burn bans during drought periods mean your fire pit is unusable exactly when you'd want it most — October and November when it finally cools off.
• Gas-burning ($6K–$12K). More expensive upfront — $2K–$5K more than wood for the same size — because you're running a gas line, adding a burner assembly, and using a stainless steel fire ring instead of a steel insert. But: instant on, instant off, no smoke, no wood to buy or store, no embers, no burn bans (gas fire pits are exempt from most burn-ban restrictions in Louisiana), and you can use it year-round without hauling anything. The glass media lasts forever. The gas cost is negligible — a typical evening fire costs $0.50–$1.00 in natural gas.

Our recommendation for most Shreveport families: gas. The $2K–$5K premium pays for itself in convenience within two years, and you'll use it three times as often because there's no friction. A wood fire pit that requires hauling wood and waiting 20 minutes for it to catch gets used 10 times a year. A gas fire pit that turns on with a switch gets used 50 times a year.

Permitting in Shreveport and Bossier City

Here's what catches homeowners off guard:

• Wood-burning fire pits: Generally don't require a building permit in Caddo or Bossier Parish if they're under 3 feet in diameter and at least 25 feet from any structure. But local burn bans during drought season (typically October–November in dry years) can make them unusable for weeks at a time. Check with your parish fire marshal before lighting.
• Gas-burning fire pits: Require a plumbing/gas permit in both Caddo and Bossier Parish. The gas line must be installed by a licensed plumber (we hold the Louisiana plumbing license), pressure-tested, and inspected. An unpermitted gas line is a safety hazard and an insurance liability — if a fire traces back to an unpermitted gas installation, your homeowners policy can deny the claim.
• HOA restrictions: Many neighborhoods in Ellerbe Woods, Kingston, and Southgate Estates have HOA rules governing fire features — material, height, setback, and fuel type. Check your covenants before building. We handle the permit applications and can work with your HOA architectural review committee.

Don't Build a Fire Pit If…

• Don't build a wood fire pit under a tree canopy. Embers rise. In Louisiana, your pine trees have resin that catches fast. A fire pit under low-hanging branches is a fire hazard that your insurance company won't cover if it was obviously dangerous. Minimum 15-foot clearance from any overhanging branch.
• Don't pour a fire pit pad without clay soil prep. A 4-inch pad on native clay will crack within two wet-dry cycles. The crack runs through the stone surround and, if it's a gas pit, can shear the gas line under the slab. Over-excavate, add non-expansive base, then pour. It's $500–$1,500 you'll spend once instead of $4,000 to redo the whole pit in three years.
• Don't use a big-box kit for a gas fire pit. The kits are fine for wood. For gas, the burner assemblies are undersized, the fire media isn't rated for continuous high-BTU use, and there's no engineering documentation for the permit office. A stainless steel burner assembly rated for 100K+ BTUs costs $400–$1,800 — and it's the part that can't fail.
• Don't skip the gas permit. An unpermitted gas line is a bomb under your patio. It's also a title-search flag when you sell. A licensed plumber, a pressure test, and an inspection cost $300–$500 and they're the difference between a safe fire pit and a liability.
• Don't build it too close to the house. Louisiana's adopted IRC requires a minimum 10-foot setback from any combustible structure for a gas fire pit, 25 feet for wood. Heat radiates. A fire pit 5 feet from your siding will discolor it, warp vinyl, and create a fire risk on windy evenings.

All-In Pricing — No Surprise Line Items

Here's what most companies won't tell you: the "starting at $3K" fire pit price is a steel ring on bare dirt. No pad, no stone, no gas line, no permit. By the time those show up, your $3K fire pit is a $7K fire pit. We don't quote that way. Our numbers include the clay soil prep, the pad, the permit (if gas), the surround, and the finish — because that's what it actually takes to build a fire pit that lasts in Louisiana. The price you see is the price you pay.

That's the design-build difference. One team designs it, one team builds it, one warranty covers it. No subcontractor finger-pointing when a gas valve sticks two years in. You call (318) 242-8225 and the same people who poured the pad answer the phone. Founded in 2018, 24 years of combined construction experience, six Louisiana state licenses — including the plumbing license that lets us legally run your gas line.

A fire pit pairs naturally with a patio as the gathering point at its edge, a pergola for overhead structure, or a full outdoor kitchen if you're building the whole backyard at once. If you're in Shreveport, Bossier City, Keithville, or Haughton, we've built fire features in your area.

The honest truth: a fire pit is the single lowest-cost structure that changes how a backyard feels after dark. It takes a patio you use during the day and makes it a space you use at night. And in Louisiana, where the evenings are long and the temperature drops just enough from October through April to make a fire feel good, that's six months of evenings you're currently spending inside.