A brick pizza oven is one of the most traditional methods of cooking pizzas. The more elaborate you make it, the more it will improve your pizzas. A good way to get started with building a brick oven is to use bricks that have been exposed to fire for hundreds of years. After you’ve assembled your pizza oven, you should build a brick, stone or concrete foundation to hold the oven in place. Before laying bricks on the ground, be sure to create a squared-off outline using stakes and string. Place your base layer of bricks on top of this foundation and then add another layer or two to form an inside wall; be sure to leave enough room at the bottom for a fire pit.
Building a brick oven can be a time-intensive and expensive home project. However, it’s well worth it for the delicious food and cheerful hearth. First, find a brick oven plan that fits within your size and budget limits. Next, prepare a foundation for your brick oven by digging a hole and filling it with concrete. After your foundation has cured, begin constructing your brick oven. Follow your plan when gathering materials and laying the bricks. Last, use your brick oven to bake pizzas, bread, and other delicious dishes.
Find brick oven plans. Brick ovens are time-consuming, expensive projects. If you build the oven incorrectly, it might crack and undo all of your hard work. If you want to build the oven properly, you need to follow a plan. Brick oven plans can be found online or purchased from your local home improvement store.
The making of a diy brick pizza oven is a great learning experience. Up until recently, I had never made a brick pizza oven before in my life. Thinking about making one felt like a challenge to me at first, but once I got going assembling the oven, everything fell into place.
Making your own brick pizza oven at home is less of a hassle in the long run. You can still order out at the famous pizza chains, but when you know that you have a brick pizza oven in your backyard, it becomes easier for you to simply get the ingredients you want for your own custom pizza. Instead of waiting for your pizza to be made by someone else, you can control how and when your pizza will be made.
The diy brick pizza oven is the most flexible option for a custom pizza oven. Bricks are the building blocks you use to make your oven, and unless you plan on sticking them together with cement, you can make as many changes to your oven as you need to.
What is a Wood Fired Pizza Oven and Why Should You Build One?
A wood fired oven uses exceptionally high heat to cook pizzas in just over a minute, creating food that’s infused with a tinge of tasty and earthy smokiness. You fire up these ovens by placing seasoned hardwood on one side of the oven’s central brick or concrete base plate. You then light this dried woodand wait until it burns down to coals, and the oven reaches a high temperature of around 750°F. You use a wooden or metal pizza peel to slide your uncooked pizza into the kiln.
Deciding Where to Put Your Wood Fired Pizza Oven
Before you learn how to build a wood fired pizza oven, you’ll need to figure out where exactly to place it. This oven is a permanent structure, so you won’t be able to move it to another section of your patio or backyard after constructing it.
Most wood fired ovens make plenty of smoke during the cooking process, so try to build it somewhere that’s not too close to your outdoor seating area or your neighbors’ backyard. Also, make sure you’re not constructing this oven directly beside or underneath leafy shrubs.
How to Build a Wood Fired
Pizza Oven?
When learning how to build a wood fired pizza oven, there are five simple steps to consider.
1. Build the base structure of your oven
The first step to constructing your wood fired pizza oven is to build the foundations. You can use several materials to create the frame for this structure, from cinder blocks to concrete to timber sleepers. Just make sure you’re using a suitable bonding agent to stick your bricks or cinder blocks together, like cement or mortar.
Before you begin building this base, you’ll need to dig a shallow trench in your backyard where you’re going to put the oven. This process helps you find a firm and compact subsoil which strengthens the lower foundations of your unit.
2. Make the mold for your dome
You can use wet sand to construct the mold for your oven’s dome, but some people prefer to build this dome with hard clay bricks and mortar, using a trammel tool to help create the unit’s signature curve.
If you’d prefer to use wet sand, order between 260-270 lbs. of this material, then clump it all on top of your foundation structure and shape it into a smooth dome. Aim for a shape that’s between 30-35” in diameter by 15-18” tall.
Rinse several sheets of newspaper, then cover the dome with these damp sheets: this process keeps the dome moist while you puddle the clay.
3. Build the initial clay layer around your mold
When you puddle the clay for the layers of your dome, stick to a general ratio of 1 bucket of clay to 2 buckets of wet sand, where the buckets measure around 10 liters. You should need 3 buckets of clay for your initial layer and 4 buckets for the second major layer.
You can use your feet or an electric drill with a paddle attachment to mix these 2 ingredients and create a moist, thick substance that is ideal for constructing your dome.
Once you’ve created this mixture, you can build the first layer of clay and sand around your dome mold. The easiest way to do this is to split the puddled material into long, cylindrical rolling pin shapes, then wrap each piece around the mold until the whole dome is coated with this substance. Make sure that this first layer is between 2½-4” thick.
4. Create the entrance to your oven
On this take you’ll be laying the bricks for the entrance. Let the clay dry for between 4-6 hours. You can now use a sharp knife to cut a smooth crescent aperture in the front of your clay oven. Be careful not to make this entrance too large: you don’t want lots of heat escaping from the unit during the cooking process. Aim for a hole that’s just under 8” high by just under 12” wide.
You can then use a shovel or small rake to remove all the wet sand from inside the dome. This sand should be dry by this point, so it won’t be too difficult to scoop it all out.
Create a hole just behind the brick entrance towards the top of the dome, and use concentric circles of clay to shape this circle into a small chimney.
5. Add the final layer to your mold
After you’ve let the clay set around your brick archway, mix clay, water, and some wood shavings and add this substance to the dome as an insulation layer. Leave the mixture to dry for 2-3 hours, then create your final layer of puddling using the previous ring method.
Leave the oven to dry out for between 5-7 days, then cure the interior by lighting a fire inside as you would when preparing to cook a pizza and let it burn for several hours. Allow the oven to cool off completely. Then, it is ready to use.
