Building a 30" (75cm) minimally insulated Pizza Oven

[handycrowd]

Hey guys,
Finally got around to posting my oven here after about ten firings! All good too, definitely happy that I built what I had in mind rather than a huge oven of the style often described on the net. I just didn't want such a large thing in the location I had available, so I came up with a minimal design that works just fine for an evenings cooking.

I figured that you can buy tiny little precast ovens so why not build a smaller one? As a bricklayer I was amazed at the amount of overkill I saw doing my research, massive support walls filled with concrete and re-bar etc. I just wanted an oven to use of an evening to cook great pizza with a few bread loaves or a nice roast afterwards.

I posted pictures and descriptions of how I went about building my pizza oven on my blog. I cast a special lightweight, insulating concrete for the base by replacing the stone element with expanded clay balls, worked a treat!

Here are some pics of the build, hope it's useful to someone, I know how many hours I spent researching before starting to build mine lol!

[John Middleton]

Hi Handycrowd, I enjoyed reading your blog. Well written.

I'm struggling with a few points in my planning stage at present. The courtyard concrete has only just been poured last week, so I have a heap of fencing etc to do first, besides, we are just entering our winter, so I have a bit of time up my sleeve yet

I'm a joiner by trade, and a perfectionist to boot!! It's a curse sometimes. Anyway, time is limited for me with work and personal commitments so while I would normally go the 'Taj Mahal' route as you describe it, I'd be concerned about starting a project I can't finish so reading your blog was refreshing. We are a family of 5, and often have guests over, so I had been thinking a 39" WFO. I have plenty of red clay bricks from a chimney, and some night store heater bricks (really heavy) that I had planned to use for the floor. I have some old Jarrah railway sleepers that my wife would love me to use as the stand, I wasn't sure they would hold the weight but they would easily do so based on your style.

Is there a way to apply a water proofing last layer render layer to your oven to keep it in it's natural raw beauty?

Cheers, John

[handycrowd]

Hey John,
I think it's going to be difficult to keep water out of any oven exposed to the elements. You know how water is, it dissolves battleships eventually! Living here in Norway, I couldn't find any proper insulation so I used a few fire blankets. This proved to be a mistake as it didn't provide enough separation between the super hot internal dome and the exterior rendering, causing a few hairline cracks. If I left my oven not covered I'm sure it would soak up rain causing a problem on the next firing. But sure, waterproofing additives can be added to mortar to make it 'waterproof'...... as long as there are no cracks! It might pay to research how stable waterproofing agents are in the presence of a few hundred degrees temperature though.......

Maybe if I'd used a decent layer, (say a couple of inches) of insulation, the render wouldn't have cracked, but even then, water could get in somewhere. I think in retrospect a pizza oven needs a cover, either a permanent one or a temporary one ( I use a BBQ cover).

Re the size and materials you have: sounds good to me! Mine feels really sturdy and the timber is nowhere near as big as railway sleepers. Good call on the heater bricks too, super dense and ideal for the cooking surface.

Re the perfectionist, I feel your pain, but in addition to my own fussy origins, I'm also cursed with a rustic, minimalistic bend too........ a leftover from living in Africa years ago. Live is fleeting, just build the darn thing, the pizza will blow you away, even if the oven isn't perfect. Don't forget, your neighbour doesn't have any kind of pizza oven, or even your neighbours, neighbour, so you're ahead by a mile, even if it's just a pile of bricks....... :-)

Stay well
Ian

[handycrowd]

p.s. John, Lived up in Whangarei for a couple of years back in 2008! Loved it up there and that's where my Pizza Oven dreams began after helping a mate build one in Kamo....... Sure miss those long summers ;-)

[John Middleton]

Thanks. My work takes me all over NZ frequently so I regularly stay on Kamo.

[myke]

I totally agree most bases are over kill but in there defense it depends on the ground conditions of the country. (I have not cast a slab for my build just dug down to solid subsoil and no rebar either ) Really like your blog also the use of turnbuckles and wire to stablise the base.