de Luca - How to Build a Kick-Ass Wood-Fired Pizza Oven in Less Than 2 Weeks

How to Build a Kick Ass Pizza Oven in Less than Two Weeks

17 Step-by-Step Instructions

By Dylan De Luca

Text copyright 2012 Dylan De Luca

All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer

This book is based on a wood-fired pizza oven built in our own experience as a hobby. We have never been injured or caused injury to others while building or using our oven.

We are not professional oven builders. Always think safety first. Prior to building your oven, be sure to check with your local city and county jurisdiction to ensure you are following the proper guidelines and codes (and that an oven is even permissable where you live). We cannot be held responsible for accidents that occur during the building or use of your wood-fired oven.

Always have safety precautions in place in case a fire occurs outside your oven, so that you can act quickly. If you have concerns about the safety of the plans we used to build our oven, we would suggest you purchase a ready made oven that fits your needs.

Table of Contents

Introduction

So perhaps you have tasted wood-fired pizza and the pizza oven bug has gotten you! If you can follow basic instructions, enjoy Do-It-Yourself Home Projects and love the thought of having your own wood-fired pizza oven, then this book is for you. If you are on a budget then this book is really for you.

A little about us. Were just average people with average budgets and skills. Were not pizza professionals or skilled with masonry. We just love good pizza and home projects.

Many of the resources available about oven making are from experts in cooking and masonry. Some are also designed for commercial use. We bought their books during our research and we used a lot of good information from them.

For us, however, most of the plans seemed over-kill for our purpose - extremely detailed, complicated (for our skillset) and expensive. We also discovered there are so many differing opinions about what the best materials are to use for your oven (i.e. clay, firebrick, etc.). Our opinion is that you really cant go wrong with any options you choose. Your pizza will taste better than any you can bake in a normal oven.

We built our oven and have enjoyed it so much that we wanted to share our experience. You, too, can build a wood-fired oven on a budget and cook like the rest of them!

Our oven was adapted from a combination from several different sources, and we recommend you do the same. Since there are so many variables depending on the materials used, we didnt include an exact plan here.

If you want a purely functional oven and dont care about looks, you can build it for very little. Depending on your ability to find cheap brick and materials, you can build a small oven for $400-$900 (or less). The price varies depending on some of the optional items discussed later. The most expensive items are the firebrick, pre-formed clay dome, front arch/opening, and the cement pavers for the base.

With just a few resources, money and time you will be cooking pizza better than any you can get in most restaurants in a very short time. Your house will become the pizza haven, and it will be hard for you to go back to just average pizza again. While throwing pizza parties and making your own dough can be a lot of work, its also very rewarding to prepare food the way you like with the freshest of ingredients.

We hope you enjoy this book and are inspired to build your very own wood-fired oven.

17 Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1. Decide on the oven and plans that are best for you

We researched online and purchased four books to help us decide. By doing so we learned which oven was best for our skill set and how we wanted the oven to look. Our final design included a combination of a few designs. We did not follow one plan to the T although you certainly could if you like.

Since we decided on a brick oven with a clay dome, thats what will be discussed here.

We just wanted a basic oven that looked nice, was safe and would cook awesome pizza. We didnt care about winning any awards for looks, and it wasnt for commercial purposes. Therefore, we cut corners on certain things (and saved a ton of money).

Questions to Ask Yourself

What type of oven would you like to build? i.e. brick, clay, etc.

What is your budget? This will determine your materials and where you purchase them. We saved a lot of money by purchasing our outer bricks on http://craigslist.org .

Will your oven be portable, or fixed? Ours is fixed, but you could certainly build one designed to be moved either to protect it or cook elsewhere.

Will you build a cover for your pizza oven to protect it from weather? In hindsight we wished we would have done this, because it rains a lot where we live.

Where will you build it? How large is the area, and do you have ample space away from building structures, fences, trees, plants, etc. ? Consider height and width. Refer to your local building codes before you start to build it.

What size do you want it to be? How many pizzas do you want to be able cook at one time? What else do you want to cook in it?

Recommendation: Build your oven dome as large as you can. One of our biggest regrets is that we built a smaller oven with a 27 dome, and we can only cook one pizza at a time. Even though the pizzas cook between 90 seconds and 2 minutes, if you are entertaining a large group, its nice to be able to tend the fire and cook multiple pizzas. And we learned it doesnt take that much more wood to heat a larger oven.

The answers to these questions will determine the plan and cost for your oven. Once the initial planning of step 1 is settled, you are on your way to building your oven in less than two weeks (assuming its not the middle of winter or rainy season). Your weather will help determine how quickly your oven will be ready to get fired up allowing the mortar to dry thoroughly.

Now the fun begins. Decide on an oven plan that you like. Modify the oven design based on the questions above. Below are the books and resources we used to build our oven:

Your Brick Oven Building It & Baking In It , by Russell Jeavons Build Your Own Earth Oven , by Kiko Denzer The Bread Builders Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens , by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott Building A Wood-Fired Oven for Bread and Pizza , by Tom Jaine Forno Bravo Traditionalovens.com YouTube has a lot of great videos on Oven Building and Pizza MakingMany other free resources via internet searches on building pizza and wood-fired pizza ovens.Click for other Kindle Wood-Fired Oven Books and Here for both printed and ebooks

Step 2. Prepare a materials list

Below is a general list of the materials we used. Many of the items were found on craigslist. The firebrick, dome, and arch were purchased from a local building supply warehouse.

The Base

Pit gravel/rockSandConcrete paversCement blocks
Other Option: Concrete floor, rebar and cement (since we were building down in heavy clay soil, we did not build ours with rebar or pour a cement base) We have not had any problem with shifting of the oven at all, but your soil foundation might be different. If youre concerned about the ground surface your oven will be on, pour a concrete slab for your base. Also be sure to check with your local building code department to see if there are any requirements. The Oven Firebrick (inside the oven)Outside brick (found on craigslist.org)Clay Dome (optional, ours was 27 and wish we would have gone bigger)Arch entry to oven (optional, can use firebrick)Refractory mortar for firebrickStandard mortar for outside brickOven door (wood, metal vermiculite as an insulator)Vermiculite (for insulation in door and inside the inner and outer oven. You can also use brick and bottles to fill up additional spacing in the oven)Next page