Barrel Oven Build Start to Finish

[**Miles**]

I finished up a barrel style pizza oven build a few months back. I got a ton of help and inspiration from this forum, so I wanted to post what I built in hopes that it may help someone on their build, especially since I had a harder time finding barrel style oven examples. I plan to just post mostly pictures in chronological order with possibly a few clarifications here and there and maybe some key words to help with searches. I hope you enjoy the picts.

[**Miles**]

The foundation. You can't see it in these pictures, but there's a 4" slab of concrete under the brick. The brick is 6"x8"x16" fence block. Most all the block were filled complete with concrete.

[**Miles**]

The oven base or counter top. I didn't want to form up around the foundation block, so I poured four separate 3.5" thick slabs reinforced with rebar and lifted them into place (with three strong friends). Mortar was used under the concrete slabs to help with leveling.

[**Miles**]

Deciding I needed more of a plan. Started sketching and planning a bit better with the help of this forum.

[**Miles**]

Sourcing decorative materials. I got all the decorative stuff from a tile and landscape supply place in their scrap yard. Got a great deal. Definitely would recommend finding a place like this for your build. The material was mostly remnants from past jobs, but was plenty for a pizza oven.

[**Miles**]

Building the forms for the barrel oven. I used 1/8" hardboard and 2x4 lumber to frame it up.

[**Miles**]

The base of the oven. I used 3" thick ceramic fiber board under the firebrick floor. Two slabs that I sourced from Amazon. The two slabs together gave me about a 40"x40" surface for the oven floor. I put dry mortar under the insulation to help level and fill small gaps. Then I drenched the insulation to harden the mortar. Not sure I'd do that way again. I live in AZ where it is HOT and dry and it still took weeks for the insulation to feel dry.

[**Miles**]

Building the arch. There was a bit of a learning curve on this part for me. I was battling heat and dry air and my own lack of experience. I ended up at the local landscape supply store and waited around till a crew showed up buying a bunch of block. Nice guys that gave me some really good tips for using the fire mortar and keep it from cracking. I ended up tearing down a partially built arch several times. Annoying, but learned a lot and got to know the guys at the store where I was buying the fire mortar really well. The wet towels was one of the tips I got for keeping the fire mortar from drying too quickly and cracking.

[**Miles**]

Laying out and installing some of the decorative parts when I got annoyed with the fire mortar.

[**Miles**]

The buttresses. I made my buttresses out of 1" angle iron welded together. Then anchored it to the concrete slabs using some concrete screws. I filled any gaps between the arch and buttresses with fire mortar.

[**Miles**]

Removing the forms. We got a little rough with this part and ended up cracking the mortar in two spots. I was NOT gonna rebuild the arch again. I used some stainless cable and some turnbuckles to keep the arch in compression. Then I removed 4" or so of the mortar at a time where it was cracked and replacing it. Seemed to work okay. I think it will hold for a long time.

[**Miles**]

Building the oven entry arch.

[**Miles**]

The arch and vent over the landing.

[**Miles**]

The base of the chimney/top of the vent.

[**Miles**]

The back wall of the oven. The back wall was built inside the arch.