Making my own Pizza Oven. Anyone else done this?

Hi Matty

one piece of advice do not use standard house bricks for the base of the oven, over time these bricks become brittle and  may chip and end up in your pizza base then someone bites into a bit of brick and breaks a tooth!   So use refractory fire bricks and refractory concrete that are made to withstand prolonged heat, over the long term your oven will: (a) last longer (b) work more efficiently. I have both a Allan Scott oven which Allan built for me and a mudbrick oven that we built long before we knew what we were doing, the mudbrick oven had house bricks on the base which we covered with a layer of cement fondue (refractory concrete) and then refractory tiles, it was a very difficult job retro fitting the base, so do it right the first time, you mention using a granite slab for your base, not sure how this would work but someone else might have some experience with this material. Best of luck and do lots of research a simple google "pizza oven construction" will give you a start. 

Cheers Lyn 

There is a Brick Oven newsgroup on Yahoo! that gathers people with many years of experience building and using wood-fired ovens.

You can get free oven plans from Forno Bravo: www.fornobravo.com/

You can find lots of information about wood-fired ovens at my Quest for Ovens web pages: spbc.info/quest/index.html

If all you want is to bake a few pizzas, building a mortared oven is overkill (in my opinion).

I find that temporary brick ovens are a much faster and cheaper was: spbc.info/quest/brickovens_links.html#temporarybrickovens

9 easy steps -

http://www.sunset.com/garden/how-to-sunset-classic-adobe-oven-0040000004...

Hi MattyW

There is a UK-based forum that addresses such things and there is a UK-based manufacturer of ready-made ovens.  We have their largest oven and it has been good so far (we have used it 3 or 4 times so far, but only because we didn't take delivery until the end of February 2012).

My first pizza baking

One of my first pizzas (with a sourdough base using Caputo Pizzeria flour)

http://www.traditionaloven.com/ 

Hi.  I made my own wood-fired oven.  I found the general design guidelines on the web, but the design was my own and I used cob (clay/sand mix)

I used fence posts for the legs, then got a good wooden pallet for the base. These are generally 40"x 48"  (1.0m x 1.2m).  They are designed to take about 600Kgs, so I added a little reinforcement.  I bought 12 air bicks for the base, these are very light and give good insulation.  On top of the airbricks I placed about 60 house bricks, bottom side up.  In order to keep everything in place and to stop the bricks from 'wandering' with time, I put a layer of about 1" of cob mixed with straw. The straw is important as it holds everything in place.   This gave me a flat platform at about waist height that was slightly larger than the pallet.

I decided I wanted an opening about 20 inches wide in order to accomodate a good size pizza.  This meant I made a wooden former out of old floorboards and hardboard.  The idea was to make a hemisperical arch about 20 inches in diameter and about 12-14 inches deep.  This was used to support the brick opening.  I used 12 housebricks to form the arch, and each one had a wedge shaped layer of cob as mortar.  You build it up from the base and put the top two in last. 

Next I made a mould for the dome.  This was made of two layers of corrugated cardboard.  It has to be strong to support the thickness of cob.  (You can use a sand mold, which you dig out when you have finished, but that would mean youhad a large amount of sand left over).  Generally the advice is that the opening should be apprx 70% of the height of the internal dimensions of the oven.  This meant the internal diameter of the oven should be about 28".  My cardboard mold was made in three parts, a vertical bit round the edge about 8-10 inches high, a middle section that sloped at 45 degrees, again about 8-10", and a top which was about 15-16" diameter.  You need a LOT of internal reinforcing of the this cardboard mold.  I also supported the top internally with a bit of wood.  When the mold is complete, you place it on the base next to the brick arch.  You should have a space about 8 " at each side of the mold. 

Then you need to mix up a lot of cob.  You can find the details on the web.  You mix garden clay (NO organic material) with builders sand something like 3 parts sand to 1 part clay, depending on the sand content of the clay.  I used about 11 bags of sand.  First put a layer of wet newspaper over the cardboard mold, then put a layer of 1-2" of cob over the mold. This layer should not have straw in it or the fire will burn it and loosen it.   Then you mix in some straw with the rest of the cob (to give it tensile strength- see web for details). You build up a layer of about 6" thick around the base.  I stopped when I got halfway up, to let it dry out and gain some strength before I did the top.  Next day I finished the top.  Then I put a cosmetic layer of cob with no straw(1-2") over that - looks nicer).  My oven has no seperate chimney, the smoke comes out the front opening.  This way, when it is up to temperature, when I cover the opening, it stays hotter longer.  Leave for a few days/week to dry out. then light a SMALL fire inside to help the drying process.  I left mine for a week or two befor I light a proper fire.  This will burn the cardboard mold completely.

Et voila. Keep it covered from rain.  I will post some pictures when I get a chance if that would be of interest.

Cooking? well thats another long post.  Ther's more to it than meets the eye......

johnb

 It is a charcoal fired oven and yes I have made a few pizzas in it.  I get the temperature up to 700 and 800 degrees and the pizza is done in 5 minutes.

And don't forget Matthew's photo log of his woodfired oven build:
http://sourdough.com/forum/my-brick-oven
http://sourdough.com/forum/my-first-woodfired-brick-oven-pizza-party

As well as this post on building a Cob Oven.