936-676-6732Montgomery, The Woodlands, Conroe, Lake Conroe, Magnolia, Tomball & Spring, TX
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A warmer center after sunset

Fire Features & Outdoor Gathering Spaces

Fire bowls, fireplaces, and conversation areas designed with the right scale, sightlines, clearances, and materials.

Raised freeform pool with a curved purple-lit spillway waterfall and a fire bowl burning atop a stone pedestal at dusk

Fire changes the energy of a backyard. It draws people together, extends the evening, and creates a strong visual counterpoint to water. The feature should be located and scaled so it adds atmosphere without competing with circulation, views, or comfort.

Reef Pools and Spas can integrate fire bowls, pits, fireplaces, and linear features into the broader backyard composition. Seating, wind, fuel, clearances, materials, lighting, and the relationship to the pool all deserve attention before a final direction is selected.

  • A natural evening focal point for the backyard
  • Seating and circulation designed around real gatherings
  • Fire and water features composed as a connected experience
  • Materials coordinated with pool, patio, and architecture

What is included

What this service can cover.

  1. Poolside fire accents

    Fire bowls and linear details positioned to frame views and complement water movement.

  2. Fire pits

    Conversation-centered round, square, or linear concepts with appropriately planned seating.

  3. Outdoor fireplaces

    Architectural hearths that anchor a covered or open-air living room.

  4. Gathering layout

    Furniture zones, pathways, lighting, and adjacent surfaces planned around the feature.

Before you decide

What this actually turns on.

The parts of the job that are decided by the ground, the weather and the way things fail here — rather than by taste.

The fuel decides more than the flame does

Natural gas gives a fire feature an endless supply and a permanent line; propane gives it a tank that has to live somewhere, be screened, and be refilled — and a good deal of the acreage around Montgomery, Plantersville, and Richards has no utility gas at all. Beyond convenience, the two burn differently: appliances are configured for one or the other, and a burner set up for natural gas will not behave correctly on propane. Line sizing also has to account for everything else on the same run, so a fire feature planned alongside an outdoor kitchen is one capacity calculation rather than two separate ones.

Clearance, wind, and what is overhead

A fire pit is a heat source in a yard that also holds seating cushions, a pergola, and, on most lots here, a canopy of pine. Manufacturer clearances to combustibles are the floor rather than the target, and the prevailing breeze decides which side of the fire is comfortable and which side gets the smoke. Placing a fire feature under a solid or slatted cover is a specific question with a specific answer for the appliance in use — not a matter of taste — and it is worth settling before the structure above it is built rather than after.

Water finds a burner pan, and then it freezes

An outdoor fire feature is an open vessel in a region that takes fifty inches of rain a year. Rain, irrigation overspray, and pool splash all collect in a burner pan, and a pan with no drainage holds that water against the burner, the igniter, and the fittings — which is how a feature that worked in October fails on the first cold evening in January. The answers are unglamorous: a drain in the pan, a cover for the months it goes unused, and media that does not hold moisture. They are also the difference between a feature that still lights in year eight and one that does not.

Match-lit or electronic is a ten-year decision

A match-lit burner has almost nothing in it to fail and asks you to walk out with a lighter and open a key valve. An electronic ignition system lights from a switch or from the pool automation, adds flame sensing, and introduces a control module, a transformer, and a low-voltage run that all have to survive outdoors — which means power has to reach the feature and the module has to sit somewhere serviceable. Neither is right in general. The question is honestly how often it will be used and by whom, because a system nobody wants to troubleshoot gets used less than a valve and a match.

Written from how Robert Welty builds here — more than 35 years of hands-on pool construction, and the person who walks the property before anything is drawn.

About Robert

Our process

How the project moves forward.

  1. 1Choose the role of fire in the backyard
  2. 2Resolve location, seating, and sightlines
  3. 3Coordinate fuel, clearances, and materials
  4. 4Integrate lighting and adjacent hardscape
  5. 5Install and review operation
Aerial view of a geometric pool and flush spa beside a modern farmhouse with a black-and-white paletteRaised wall with sheer-descent spillways and bubblers rippling the pool surfaceCovered outdoor kitchen and lounge with a stone fireplace, TV, and grill station beside a purple-lit pool waterfall feature at night

What a customer said

Not our words.

5.0 from 8 Google reviews. One of them is below; the rest are on the profile. Transcribed from the profile on August 20, 2026. Read them on Google

Great company to work with from pool design to completion. Great customer service, quality craftsmanship and fair pricing. We love our backyard oasis. Will definitely have Robert build us another in our next home.

David HobbsLocal GuideGreat price

Inground pool installation · Spa & hot tub installation · Custom swimming pool design · Swimming pool water feature construction

Questions

Helpful answers before you begin.

Can fire and water features be used together?

Yes. When proportion, spacing, and sightlines are handled carefully, fire and water can create a distinctive evening experience without feeling overly busy.

Is a fire pit or fireplace better?

A fire pit encourages conversation around all sides, while a fireplace can define an outdoor room and block a view or wind. The yard and intended use should drive the choice.

Can a fire feature be added to an existing backyard?

It may be possible if space, fuel, clearances, access, and surrounding materials support it. An on-site review is needed before defining the scope.

Can we burn wood, or does it have to be gas?

Both exist, and the practical difference around here is that wood is occasionally not allowed. Montgomery County and its neighbours issue burn bans during dry spells, and those cover open burning; deed-restricted communities sometimes restrict wood independently of any county order. A gas fire feature is a fixed appliance rather than open burning, so it is generally treated differently, but that is worth confirming against the current order and your covenants rather than assumed. Beyond the rules, gas lights instantly and stops instantly, and wood is a fire you have to build, tend and put out — which is either the appeal or the reason not to.

Plan it together with

Seen in these builds

Read before you decide

Where Reef builds this

Fire Features across Southeast Texas.

Ground conditions, permitting, and approvals change from town to town. Each page below covers what that means for a property in that market.

All 50 communities Reef builds in

The next conversation

Tell Robert what you
want to build.

Design a custom outdoor fireplace, fire pit, fire wall, or poolside fire feature for a refined backyard gathering space in Montgomery, Texas.

Start a project or call 936-676-6732
Based in
Montgomery, TX
Serving within about 100 miles
Hours
Monday: 9am – 5pm
Tuesday – Friday: 8am – 5pm
Saturday: 9am – 4pm
Sunday: Closed
Direct
936-676-6732
reefpoolsandspas@gmail.com