First Pizza

Had the first big fire, got hot....real hot. And just like all the other sites said, the black soot on the dome all disappeared when the oven was super hot. First pizza out looked nice, but had a couple of big bubbles in it.

The first one cooked in about 1 minute, the oven was probably a little too hot,( the floor was at 750 degrees and the dome was around 975) as the bottom was cooked, the top was cooked, but the inside of the dough not so much.  I might have to tweak my dough recipe, time will tell. As the oven cooled down, the next few came out like this one.

The first night we ended up with 4 pizzas and a loaf of well done bread.  Not too bad. I can see that there will definitely be a learning curve to this, but everyone enjoyed the product.

Now i have to get back to finishing off the oven....

Finishing Part 1

I wanted a stone look for the bottom part of the oven.  I opted for a filedstone veneer, the guy said it was like using legos- but this legos were all wacky shapes.  It took a while, but got the stone up.

I also finished off the chimney surround with red brick.

Now the family is starting to see that this is going to end up pretty cool

Starting the facade

I forgot to take a picture of making the front arch, but it was done with a simple wood form.  The Chimney pipe is a piece of Tera-Cota Flue.  Right now it is just sitting on the brickwork. Other Bricks are just layed in place, trying to get an idea of my layout.

                      The first of several small fires, helping to dry and cure oven

And the draft is working, with the majority of the smoke going straight up the chimney

More Concrete

More concrete now.  The brick work was covered in 3 layers of heavy duty aluminum foil, which has some minor insulating properties and provided a slip layer for the concrete that was poured over it.

Wire mesh for a little more support

Looks like a reactor or something.














I used some sheets of plywood and made a form around the oven.  concrete was poured around it - 3 inches on the sides and 4 or so on the top.

Chimney area

In order to close up the oven so to speak, I needed to angle bricks from the dome down to the door way angle iron.  This was done with a supporting 2x6 behind the bricks.

I also starting building part of the front facade at this time ( the red bricks )










The full bricks were mortared together and the top bricks were cut at an angle to match up with the dome and the full brick.

The sides were filled in with more bricks, creatively cut.  The outside look didn't matter, as long as the inside was relatively smooth.  Mortar helped fill in any gaps.  I also cut bricks  at an angle to provide a level surface for the chimney.

More delays

So, while the month of May had brought the constant rain which set me back a few weeks, July brought lots of HEAT.  My wife had bought me a nifty IR thermometer for Father's Day, so when it started getting hot out I checked my patio temperatures.

130 degrees is toasty...

And 140 is really hot...

So, while my pool temperatures soared, it turns out trying to mix mortar and use concrete when its that hot doesn't work.  And it didn't matter how many umbrellas or pop-up tents I used. I guess the pool and some Sam Summer will just  have to help me wait it out.

Then came a few big thunderstorms that took down a few trees in close proximity to the oven.  This is a pic of the first one.  A week later the rest of the tree fell.  I was beginning to think the trees didn't like my project.

The Dome

Building the dome seemed like it would be the most difficult part during my planning stage, however, it went pretty smoothly.  Once I realized that the bricks would hold once the form was removed it was smooth sailing.

First was a rough layout of how I wanted the arch.  I needed the dome height to be 16 inches.  I then sketched that onto 2 pieces of plywood.

Cut the plywood with a jigsaw, used some scrap 2x4 pieces to attach the 2 pieces of plywood together.  I then used firebrick with a shim to hold it in place. I then added the bricks.

The moment of truth was taking out that form the first time. It held.











A few more arches were added, until i needed to angle down to the doorway.

Now it was starting to look like something.  My family still wasn't quite sure what it was going to be, but it was getting there.

The doorway has a piece of angle iron spanning the opening. It is 10 inches high and 16 inches wide.

Oven Floor and Walls

Next up was the oven floor, this is what the fire is built on and where the food is cooked.  It is made of firebricks.  After a few different layouts to see what would go where, I set the floor in place using a mixture of fire clay and sand.

Nothing was used on the sides of the brick.  Any pattern can be used for the floor.

Again, a few dry runs for making the walls before using a refractory mortar to hold it in place. The walls are firebricks.

I wasn't the neatest with laying bricks, but not bad for someone who never set a brick before in his life. 

Hearth Slab

To make the hearth slab- what the oven actually sits on, I framed out with plywood and studs.   There is rebar running throughout.

 I used concrete first, and a vermiculite mixture (vermiculite and Portland cement) poured on top of it.  Some plans called for the vermiculite first, other the concrete first. I suppose there are pros and cons to both.

I poured 1 right after the other, so I don't have pics of the concrete only.  The vermiculite mixture was interesting and I wasn't sure it was going to set up firm enough.

The next morning it was solid enough for the girls, so I gave it a try.

Materials and Wall Building

My plans called for 53 16x8 concrete blocks to build my foundation.  I also needed approx 225 firebricks for the floor, walls and dome, some red bricks for the chimney and front facade.  So a trip with my uncles pickup to the local mason supply was in order.  I had to make a few trips, it was loaded by a forklift at the supply yard, and unloaded block by block by me.  About 5 minutes into it i realized i should have recruited friends to assist. No need for the gym today.

After the slab cured (another 2 weeks of rain helped with that) i was finally ready to start building.  I spoke to a few different people, consulted a few books and decided on going with a dry stack of the block.


Checked level by my assistant.

An angle iron was used to bridge the gap and allow the opening for wood storage.

I made this secure by filling the cores with concrete and putting rebar in every other core. I suppose at this point it could double as a mini bunker.

Concrete Base

Now it was time for the base.  I used rebar to reinforce the area,  there was another piece added after the picture was taken.

Next I decided it would be better to have the concrete poured via a truck, rather than me transporting home 40 some bags of concrete, mixing it by hand and pouring it myself., So thanks to a friend in the construction business (MDH) I was able to get a truck delivery at a very nice price.  So approximately 1 yard of concrete later, smoothed out and edged, I had my slab.

My first experience with wet concrete was successful.  I lost a pair of gloves, and found new meaning for cement shoes, but still ok in my book.

Part 1

It took about 2 weeks of drawings and looking at google earth to decide where to put the oven, it was finally decided and I began to excavate the area for a base.

The problem I had after digging out the area was that it kept raining on and off for about 3 weeks. An unexpected delay.  Even with a tarp covering the area, it still got wet.  I used my pool pump to drain out the area.

Once it dried out enough, I was able to add the crushed gravel.   I used 3/4 inch stone to a depth of 7 inches.  To compact it I had used a scrap piece of 2x6 attached to a stud, which worked suprisingly well.

The Quest

It all started with the quest for the perfect pizza.  It probably started after college, when I finally realized the chain pizza places were terrible, and that the college standby of  Chessman's pizza really only tasted good when you were drunk. Everywhere I went I had to have the pizza.  I was fortunate enough to travel around a little bit and continued my pizza tasting, everywhere I went, NYC, NJ, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, California, Colorado, Austria, France, and most importantly, Italy.  I was able to find some great pizzas and also found some terrible pizzas that tasted like toast with ketchup and cheese.  So, in order to have good pizza all of the time, I started making my own.  I began with store bought dough and canned  sauce, then began making my own of both.  I have had tons of pizza and stromboli parties throughout the years and have had good reviews, but something was still missing. Something to give the pizza that "WOW" factor. And that is what started the backyard brick oven idea.

After reading up a lot on brick ovens, buying some books about pizza ovens and about masonry skills, I managed to get the ever important permission slip from the wife to go ahead with the project. After all, she is Italian and appreciates my homemade cooking.

So here we go...