Fireplaces, fire pits provide warmth during winter months

While many cities across the country ring in the winter season with extremely cold temperatures and mounds of snow, Las Vegas residents are able to enjoy their backyards year-round. Fire features help Southern Nevadans further enjoy the outdoors during the winter, when nighttime temperatures can dip down into the 30s and 40s.

At Galaxy Outdoor on Dean Martin Drive, owner Bruce Spangrud said the company manufactures fireplaces, pits, tables, walls and barbecue islands with built-in fire pits.

“Fire pits and tables are the most appealing because you can sit around them, whereas with a fireplace you can only sit in front of it,” he said. “It’s all about getting people together and having a glass of wine, and fire features can create a great outdoor environment.”

Spangrud said Galaxy Outdoor also does custom commercial projects, including an underwater gas fireplace at Caesars Palace (gas is pushed to the top of the water where it mixes with the air and forms a flame) and a 30-foot fire feature at the PBR Rock Bar &Grill in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort.

Although fire features are an investment — they start at $995 for an unfinished fire pit and can range up to more than $5,000 — Spangrud said it’s one that can be used year-round.

“Fire pits are great to use during the evening in the summer after getting out of the swimming pool,” he said. “We get all the seasons here in Las Vegas so it’s a great place to have an outdoor fire feature.”

Danny Check, owner of Hearth &Home Specialties on West Quail Avenue, said most of his Las Vegas-based customers turn to face-venting (no chimney) gas fireplaces to add to the exterior of their home.

“The linear style — long in width and skinny in height — is very popular in this area,” Check said. “While there are also some turnkey products available out there, I like the products that are attached to the home because they add value to the home.”

Check added that having an outdoor gathering area expands the overall footprint of the home.

“Having an outdoor room has become really popular especially during the economic downturn when people stayed at home more and didn’t have as much disposable income,” he said. “It’s a national trend for the outdoor room to become part of the architecture of your home, and you can’t tour a model home these days without seeing an outdoor fireplace.”

Hearth &Home Specialties offers a standalone gas fireplace without an enclosure starting at $1,200 and other fire features can cost up to more than $5,000.

“It all comes down to what fits in your budget,” Check said.

He added that some of the custom projects Hearth &Home Specialties has produced include linear fire pits above ground and exterior fireplaces with Isokern, a masonry-type product that can be cut into various shapes and sizes.

“We’ve done an 8-foot-long outdoor fireplace with it; it’s almost whatever you can dream up that fits within the code requirements,” Check said. “We’re just now starting to gain momentum when it comes to some of the more unique designs and seeing what we can create now that the economy has come back.”

Check cited the Outdoor GreatRoom Company’s Wave Fire Feature, a fire table that boasts three different curved burner bars so the fire is burning at different levels, as one of the latest unique outdoor fire feature developments.

In the future, Check said he anticipates that more unique manufactured outdoor fire feature products will come on the market.

“Manufacturers are always in competition to outdo each other,” he said. “The sky’s the limit when it comes to outdoor fire features and what you can do.”