Linear Fire Features and Fire Tables

A long, narrow trough of flame set into a wall cap, a ledge, or a table. Fire where there is no room for a seating ring.

Talk To Us See Your Options

What It Is

What is a linear fire feature?

A long, narrow trough of flame: a ribbon of fire running two, four, six feet or more in a straight line. The burner sits in a stainless trough set into whatever you build around it, a seat wall cap, a ledge along the deck, or a freestanding body of concrete or metal. When that body is at table height, the same feature is a fire table. Nothing here is round or meant to look like a campfire. The proportion is the point, long and low, drawing a line across the space instead of marking a spot in it.

Linear features suit modern and contemporary designs where the fire is part of the architecture rather than an object sitting on it. If your pool is geometric and your deck runs in long clean lines, a round fire pit will read as borrowed from a different house. A ribbon of flame along a wall will not.

They also solve a problem nothing else does: fire in a narrow space. A seating ring will not fit down the side of a pool; a linear burner in a seat wall cap will. The trough and its gas line are built into the surrounding structure, so this gets designed with the wall, not added to it later.

Linear fire feature set into a stone seat wall beside a pool (Warwick)

natural grey linear feature by concrete commander

floating linear fire feature concrete commander
8' linear fire feature by concrete commander

Your options.

Linear fire feature in a stone seat wall

Length
Trough inserts commonly start around 24 inches and step up through 36, 48 inches and beyond. The single decision that determines whether it looks right. A short burner in a long wall looks lost; the flame should relate to the run it sits in.
What it is built into
A seat wall cap, a deck ledge, a planter, or a freestanding body. Built into a seat wall it disappears into the hardscape. As a freestanding body it becomes furniture.
Table height
Coffee height for lounge seating, or dining height for chairs. Coffee height suits deep seating around a lounge. Dining height turns it into the table you actually eat at, with flame down the centre.
Body material
A stainless trough set into stone or concrete, or a complete cast-concrete unit. Set-in troughs match whatever you have already chosen. Complete units come in their own finishes and can be moved.
Media
Fire glass, lava rock, or decorative stone. Very visible on a linear feature, because the burner sits in a long open channel you look straight down into.
Cover
With or without a fitted lid. A lid turns the feature into usable surface when it is off, which matters on anything at table height.

Why a linear feature.

It fits where nothing else does

Fire along a narrow run beside a pool, where a seating ring would never work.

A modern grey rectangular outdoor fire pit with a metal burner and glass wind guard.

It reads as architecture

Built into a wall, it looks designed rather than placed.

Long, low, and unobstructed

A ribbon of flame does not block a view the way a fireplace does.

A fire table earns its footprint twice

With a cover on it is a table for most of its life, and a fire feature when you want one.

Fuel, ignition, flame sensing and clearances apply to every fire feature, so they are answered once on the overview.Fire feature FAQs

FAQs

The six questions we hear most about linear features and fire tables.

Ask the Design Team

What is the difference between a linear fire feature and a fire pit?

Shape, and what it does to a space. A fire pit is round and gathers seating around it. A linear feature draws a line: it is built into a wall, ledge, or table and works where there is no room for a seating ring.

How long should a linear fire feature be?

Size it to the run it sits in rather than to a standard. A four-foot ribbon in a twenty-foot wall looks like a mistake, and the same burner in an eight-foot ledge looks deliberate. Work out the run first, then size the burner to it.

What is the difference between a linear fire feature and a fire table?

Mostly height and whether it moves. A fire table is a linear feature in a freestanding body at coffee or dining height, usually with a cover. Built into a wall cap or ledge, the same burner becomes part of the hardscape.

When does the gas line go in?

Before the cap goes on. A trough built into a seat wall needs its supply line placed first, and a change of mind afterward means taking the cap back off. Length and position get settled before the masonry starts.

Does it need a cover?

It earns its keep. Because the trough is open and shallow it collects leaves and standing water more readily than a deep bowl, and on anything at table height the lid gives you back a usable surface.

What should I ask any builder?

Three things. When does the gas line go in relative to the wall being capped? Does the ignition have flame sensing? And what length actually suits this run, shown on the plan?