Pizza Oven Build Australia

Building your own PIZZA oven.

This was not a kit, i just knew how big i wanted it and went from there.

Cement

Refractory bricks

Your blocks / bricks of choice for the main body

REO Bar

wood to form up

heat and fire proof insulation, Very High temp rating for this.

chimney kit

brick saw, I used a grinder with a cut off disc

cement mixer

trowel

level

DUST MASK

EYE PROTECTION

HEARING PROTECTION

GLOVES

This used to be a pond, so perfect area to fill in, I made sure it had a decent slope so i wouldn't get any water running back into my patio area.

Road base layed down first and compacted.

REO bar put in place and tinted concrete poured.

Went with a brushed finish.

Mark out your base location and calculate you block usage,

HINT: If you can finish on a full block so it saves u cutting them down to fit.

For extra strength i used REO bar that i sunk into the main pad for added strength, ( Probably not needed)

Lay out your first row and core fill each block. To be hones this is probably over kill but its what i went with.

Continue this for a couple of courses.

Because I had a pretty decent slope on the ground level i formed up with wood a wedge to bring my wall back to level, as I was going to render the wall I wasn't too concerned about the look of it at this stage.

After the wedge has cured continue up till the top layer.

Reaching the desired height I formed up by table top, I went with a curved front edge just to get away from all

the 90deg corners it had already.

This top also has REO bar in it for added strength.

Now the fun part.

After the top slab has fully cured you can now start to plan out the overall shape of your oven.

I started by drawing the base circle how large I wanted it and cut and layed the thin refractory bricks there as my guide to the rest of the build.

HINT: Go double thickness on the floor bricks than I did in the picture, u will thank me later.

I made up the arch form out of wood to hold it in place as i built around it. It will save u time and mortar later on if you make your gaps between bricks as small as possible. I cut wedge brick sections later on and filled in my gaps.

All my bricks i cut in half and had the uncut side facing in,

You can also see i bade a tool that sat on the inside as a distance guide for each brick as I moved around the perimeter.

I used a swivel castor wheel frame with a piece of wood in there instead of the wheel. This gave me yaw and pitch and the small block of wood at the end of the stick gave me accurate distance. This worked very well.

I have seen people use sand or a fitness ball but to be honest i think this would work much better.

No need to completely fill all the gaps as you go just get enough refractory cement on the bricks to firmly hold them in place. We will fill later on.

I ended up setting up a gazebo over me just to keep the sun off me and helping the cement not dry out so fast.

I built this during summer in Australia

When u get higher up in the dome u will have to slow down a little just so each brick has time to set in place so it doesn't fall in. I ended up making the small block at the end or my guide stick larger, big enough so i could do 3 bricks at a time. Remember as you get higher up u will be using less bricks to close the gaps.

One thing I did for the keystone brick ( the very top center brick) is engrave my name and build date and have that face to the inside. Just an idea.

Now comes the FILL THE GAPS time,

With all the small pieces of brick I had laying around I shoved them in all the large gaps I had then proceeded to fill the exterior with refractory cement. This will reduce the amount of cement u need to use.

During this whole laying the brick process you would have made a spot for the flue to sit in, usually near the opening is the best spot. Secure this in position so it doesn't move as the cement around it cures.

The exterior at this point doesn't need to be perfect as you are about to add another layer.

INSULATION LAYER

Now comes the time to insulate the dome further, this step may not be needed but the more you can reduce heat loss through the walls and floor the better.

I used K-Wool, google it if unsure. Laying this in a single layer around the outside is enough to provide another good insulation barrier.

To hold this is position i used chicken mesh around the whole dome keeping it tight and close as possible to the K-wool.

RENDER

Rendering the dome is quite easy using a trowel in conjunction with your gloved hand works well.

I used general render cement on this area with a hit of cement coloring in it.

Let the render fully cure before continuing,

After the cement has had ample time to cure ( I waited a week ) I proceeded to clean the inside of the oven.

I made a shelf in front of the opening big enough that I could lay on and slide myself inside to clean the roof and walls.

I used a really good dust mask for this.

I used a wire wheel on my cordless 5" grinder and proceeded to lightly buff the walls and roof if that's what u want to call it, just to knock off any loose brick or cement that was still stuck there.

The last thing you want is to bight into a pizza with something hard stuck in it.

After this I took a hose to the inside and washed out all the muck left behind.

FIRE

Now we can light our first fire, I have read that a small fire burning for a long time is the best way to run in a pizza oven, so that is what I did, I had a fire going in that thing for pretty much the whole day.

This thing hold heat WELL.

First cook up went well, I lit a fire inside a few hrs before I was ready to start cooking, As this oven is so large it did take some time to get up to temperature.

The tell tail sign that your oven is hot enough is when the bricks turn from black back to white or the bricks natural color again.

TECHNIQUE

Light a fire in the center of the oven or even a bit closer to the flue just to get that hot and drawing well, Get the fire raging with these thick bricks it can take it. Also depends on when u want to start cooking and what you are cooking. PIZZA, roast, bread etc.

Once your bricks have turned white again u can push your fire to the back or to the side you will work the best spot outs as you experiment.

If you are cooking PIZZA the floor is probably too hot as you have just moved the fire back, give it 10mins or more to cool a little. One way to test floor temperature is to get a small amount of flour in your hand and dust it over the floor area were you are going to place your PIZZA. U will tell straight away if it is too hot it will either catch on fire instantly or smoke a lot. Keep doing this until the flour dose's burn on impact.

Now you are ready to throw a PIZZA in there. Same goes for bread or roasts, like any oven you don't want a scorching hot plate to put it on.

Now you are ready to finish off the base that it sites on, how you do this is completely up to you. Since these photos were taken I have rendered the outside of my base and am about to tile the top surface.

I also made a stainless steel door for the front of the oven, this is a necessity to keep the heat in when doing longer cooks.

I also made some copper lettering to finish it off.

Another upgrade I did to it later on was drill a hole from the underside right through to the cooking floor and installed a remote digital thermocouple probe, which gives me a digital reading of the floor temperature so I'm not always throwing flour in there to test it.

How I mentioned earlier to use thicker brick for the floor, I wish I did this as my top concrete slab that the oven sits on has formed a hairline crack right through the center, This doesn't effect the integrity of the base at all as it has REO bar through it, it just annoys me knowing it is there. Otherwise I wouldn't change anything else about the build.

So to finish off after I have finished cooking and the fire dies down after an hour or so almost 12 hours later the internal temperature of the oven is sitting around 80 deg Celsius.

Enjoy building, you wont regret it.

Kody