Hi from CA

[Onojoe]

Hello Everyone, I am kind of a newbie here. Like most here I have caught the bug. I have a small semi portable stainless oven. I like it. but don't love it. The pros are it heats up fast and I can move it to the side of my house. The cons are, I can only cook one pizza at a time, it does not retain heat and the floor cools down too fast so after my 3rd pizza I get sub par crust. So I want to upgrade to an bigger built in oven.

Do to a small budget, I will have to build from scratch or a kit. My first question is, will there be a difference in performance between a cast in place refractory cement, a cast kit oven or one made with fire bricks.

Thanks,
Joe

[UtahBeehiver]

What do you consider a small budget? These ovens can get quite costly very quickly. Cast oven with a fire brick floor will be most likely less costly than a full firebrick floor unless you have access to very low cost fire brick. The key to high performance ovens is insulation. Ceramic fiber board and blanket are very efficient insulators but also costly so you need to investigate vermiculite or perlite/concrete DYI insulation. Do a search on the Forum on this topic. If you are a good scavenger then hit Habitat Restore stores or classifieds for you materials but you have to have patience going this direction. As far as cast oven, look at David S threads, he is our resident cast expert and can guide you correctly.

[Onojoe]

Hi Utah, budget would be under $2000.... hopefully.