Flame at the water's edge, on the same switch as the lights.
Pool Fire Bowls and Fire Features Across Georgia
A fire bowl sits on the coping or on a raised wall and burns above the water, so the pool does half the work by reflecting it. It runs on gas rather than wood, which is what makes it practical beside a pool, and where the pool has an automation system the fire can usually be put on the same control as the lights and the spa. Aqualis Pools also takes on projects across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Designed to Impress, Built to Last
Fire by the Water Is a Different Product
Fire in a backyard comes in three forms and they are not interchangeable. This page is about the one that belongs to the pool.
A fire bowl. Raised, gas, and positioned so the flame reads against the water. Often in a pair, often on the corners of a raised wall, sometimes with water spilling from the same structure. It is a visual element first: it is seen from the house and from the water more than it is sat around.
A fire pit. Low, open, in a seating area rather than at the pool edge, wood or gas, and something people sit all the way around. Different job, different money, and it has its own page: fire pits.
An outdoor fireplace. A built masonry structure with a chimney that you sit facing. The largest of the three by cost and by effect, and covered under outdoor fireplaces.
If the fire is meant to be looked at from the house and reflected in the pool, it is a bowl. If it is meant to be sat around on a cool evening, it is a pit. Deciding that first saves a conversation later.
It Is a Gas Appliance, Not an Ornament
A fire bowl looks like a piece of sculpture and behaves like equipment. Three things decide whether it is a pleasure or a nuisance.
The gas supply. Natural gas run from the house, or propane with a tank in a position decided before the deck goes down. That line has to reach the pool edge, which is straightforward while the deck is open and disruptive afterwards. It is the single reason fire bowls should be decided with the pool rather than after it.
How it lights. There is a real difference between a burner you go out and light and one with electronic ignition that starts from a control. The first is cheaper; the second is the one that actually gets used on a weeknight. Worth asking about before the quote is compared with anyone else’s.
Whether it is on the pool’s controls. This is the part a pool builder can do and a landscaper generally cannot. Where the pool runs on an automation system, a gas fire feature can normally be brought onto the same control as pool lighting and the spa, so one button turns on the evening. Retrofitting that to a fire bowl installed by somebody else, on a system they never saw, is a different and worse job.
And the wind. A gas flame in an exposed position behaves differently from one tucked against a wall, which affects both where a bowl should sit and what it is worth specifying. It is a placement question, and placement is free before the deck is poured.
Design Decisions Made Before the Deck Is Poured
Where they sit, and how many. Bowls are usually specified in pairs or in a run, because the effect is symmetry and repetition rather than a single object. Two on the corners of a raised wall reads deliberate; one on its own reads like an afterthought.
The sight line that matters. The view that counts is the one from the kitchen window and the seating area, not the one from the far end of the garden. Position them against that view and against the water they are reflecting in.
Fire and water together. A bowl that also spills water is a specific arrangement and a different build: two services to the same structure and both of them decided at once. It sits alongside the rest of the pool features and add-ons on a project.
What they are made of. Concrete, cast stone and metal all weather differently and all look different lit. Finished to match the pool tile and coping they read as part of the pool; finished differently they read as objects placed on it. Both are valid, and it is a decision rather than an accident.
Distance from where people walk. A bowl on a raised wall is out of the way. A bowl at deck level next to a route people take barefoot with wet feet is a different proposition, and it is decided on the drawing when it costs nothing to change.
Fire Beside Water, Handled Properly
The live page says fire features are completely safe. Nothing with a flame in it is completely safe, and the useful version is what actually makes it sensible.
Height and position do most of the work: a burner raised above the deck, away from the routes people take barefoot, and clear of anything overhead. The gas installation is the part that has to be done by someone qualified and tested when it is done. Where children use the pool, an ignition that cannot be started casually matters more than any other feature on the specification, and pool fencing and safety covers the pool and the fire together where the area is enclosed.
What Fire Bowls Cost
The bowls themselves are rarely the expensive part; what feeds them usually is. The units themselves are a manageable line on a pool project; the gas run, the valves and the control are where the number moves, and all of them are cheaper by a wide margin when the deck is already open.
What changes it: how many bowls, the material, whether water is combined with the fire, how far the gas has to come, whether the ignition is manual or electronic, and whether the feature goes onto the pool’s automation.
Where fire features form part of a larger project, pool financing options apply to them in the same way they apply to the pool.
Adding Fire to a Pool You Already Have
It can be done and it is worth being straight about what it involves. The bowls are the easy part. Getting gas to the pool edge usually means opening a deck that is already finished and paid for, and making the surface good again afterwards.
Which is why it is normally worth doing alongside work that is already happening. If the deck is coming up for pool decking work, or the pool is due for pool resurfacing, or a wider pool remodeling project is planned, the gas run is a small addition rather than a separate excavation. Adding fire to a pool finished last season is the expensive route to the same result.
What Our Clients Say
Aqualis Pools is rated 5.0 on Google, from a small number of reviews, and every one of them can be read on the profile.
Fire Features Across Georgia
We design and build fire bowls and fire features for homeowners in Lawrenceville, Buford, Loganville, Athens, Auburn and nearby Georgia communities. The full list is on our service areas page, and finished work is in the gallery .
Frequently Asked Questions
A fire bowl is raised, runs on gas, and is positioned at the pool edge so the flame reads against the water. It is looked at more than it is sat around. A fire pit is low and open, sits in a seating area rather than at the water, can burn wood or gas, and is something people gather around. If the fire is for the view, it is a bowl; if it is for sitting round, it is a pit.
Gas, either natural gas run from the house or propane from a tank positioned before the deck is built. Wood is not practical at a pool edge: ash, smoke and embers next to water and bare feet are not a combination anyone wants to manage.
Where the pool runs on an automation system, a gas fire feature can normally be brought onto the same control, so the lights, the spa and the fire come on together. It is decided when the system is specified rather than added later, and it is the practical reason to have the pool builder do the fire feature.
Yes, and the honest version is that the bowls are straightforward and getting gas to them is not. It usually means opening finished decking to run the line and making the surface good afterwards, so it is meaningfully cheaper as part of a decking, resurfacing or remodeling project than on its own.
Little, which is one of the reasons gas is used rather than wood. Burners and ignition need occasional checking, and anything that lives outdoors at a pool edge needs cleaning. There is no ash and nothing to store.
It is a composition question rather than a heating one, since nobody buys a fire bowl for warmth. They are usually specified in pairs or in a run so the effect is symmetry, and the number follows the shape of the wall or the coping they sit on rather than the size of the pool.
Start Planning Your Fire Feature
Two answers get this priced quickly. Is this going onto a pool we are building, or one that is already finished? And do you want to light it yourself, or have it come on with the pool lights? The first decides how much of the cost is groundwork; the second decides the specification.
Call (770) 373-8405 or send us a message.