Is the Pompeii oven "as good as it gets" for a pizza/wood oven?

[Snoochers]

I am looking to have a wood fire oven built. The oven itself will sit outside, but the opening will be accessed from the inside of the house. There are fire code issues to contend with but I believe it is doable.

I believe a custom job is best given the intricacies of the design. I have two tradespeople available to build this oven for me. The first is an experienced builder of pizza ovens and he would do whatever he usually does in terms of dome pizza ovens. The second is an experienced mason but has little experience with pizza ovens (he's worked on a couple but wasn't the main guy). I believe he could competently build anything I ask him to and he would also be much cheaper I suspect.

I want to use the second mason to save money, but I wouldn't know what plans to give him to build. I've seen these Pompeii oven plans and they seem detailed and the actual build seems simple enough. My mason doesn't seem to concerned. My question is this: Is the Pompeii oven "as good as it gets" for a pizza/wood oven? In other words, are there superior designs I could hand to my mason? Would a mason following this design create something functionally equivalent to the best out there?

I am leaning towards utilizing the experienced pizza oven guy since he might have a lot of tips and identify issues along the way, but I am brainstorming.

I will be making pizzas and using it as a general oven for roasting and bread etc.

[P3 Stoaker]

G'day Snoochers,
Appears as if your looking for opinions, so I happy to say mine. I'm in the middle of a fairly standard build, just raising the brick work to form the vent over the arch. I've never built an oven before this.
I don't believe brick laying skills are needed initially to build an oven, I had zero. What is needed is the ability to research the many many decisions that need to be made and co-ordinate it all together. Almost everything being done affects the next thing and likely many more as well. The experienced option may well end up costing less as he should know the "how" already and all he will need to do is incorporate your individual requirements. Someone else that may well be very capable will still need a hell of a lot of direction, some from you and the rest from other sources, all taking time and therefore dollars.
Anyway, just my thought, good luck.
Regards

[JRPizza]

I would suggest you get familiar with the basic FB design and maybe even read up on some of the threads that discuss what builders would do if they built again. There have been some horror stories on the forum of people hiring an expert and getting an oven that was "marginal", with shortcomings such as no floor insulation. The FB plans are good but I am not sure an inexperienced builder could build from scratch without having to consult the forum or follow a few builds to "fill in the gaps".
I'm probably biased but the Pompeii design, especially as fine tuned as the most recent builds have become, is the best bet for all around cooking. We cook lots of pizza and always roast something (or multiple somethings) in the days after. I have not put in the time to fine tune bread baking in my oven (mostly getting the right amount of moisture for a small load) but others here have good success.

[Baza]

Snoochers - an interesting question to bring to a bunch of builders of ovens - from all skill-set starting points! It seems you have landed on someone else doing the work - that's fine, all of us have come to wood-fired cooking from many angles! Point is - you want to join the fun!

As far as the designs - honestly - like Greg above, I had very little/no skill in brick laying (save for being a labourer one summer for bricklayers - never been more exhausted and fit all at once! HA!). That said, the plans were clear, numbers solid and Forum help like none other! The plans as they sit have been morphed on this site by really good builders - engineers and the like. If you are handing them to an experienced mason - that person should have NO problem getting the work done. The key thing, to me, is GOOD MATERIALS - get proper brick, mortar, insulation and the like - your mason will manage fine.
Dino_Pizza did a great build and worked up some really detailed plans that got me going ... you can find them HERE.

Good luck to you and enjoy the process!
Barry

[Snoochers]

Snoochers - an interesting question to bring to a bunch of builders of ovens - from all skill-set starting points! It seems you have landed on someone else doing the work - that's fine, all of us have come to wood-fired cooking from many angles! Point is - you want to join the fun!

As far as the designs - honestly - like Greg above, I had very little/no skill in brick laying (save for being a labourer one summer for bricklayers - never been more exhausted and fit all at once! HA!). That said, the plans were clear, numbers solid and Forum help like none other! The plans as they sit have been morphed on this site by really good builders - engineers and the like. If you are handing them to an experienced mason - that person should have NO problem getting the work done. The key thing, to me, is GOOD MATERIALS - get proper brick, mortar, insulation and the like - your mason will manage fine.
Dino_Pizza did a great build and worked up some really detailed plans that got me going ... you can find them HERE.

Good luck to you and enjoy the process!
Barry

Thanks for the info! So it sounds like the “basic” vanilla Pompeii plans aren’t quite up to the right standards without extra consultation or plans or details?

[JRPizza]

Exactly! I'd recommend finding a few builds here that you wish were in your yard, then either show your builder and tell them it is what you want (get an estimate) or bite the bullet and start your building journey.

[Snoochers]

Exactly! I'd recommend finding a few builds here that you wish were in your yard, then either show your builder and tell them it is what you want (get an estimate) or bite the bullet and start your building journey.

Thanks for this. The problem is I don't really have the time to read through threads and research this given that I'm having a whole house built and we have a newborn etc., so I was hoping to just give my contractor a set of plans and have him go at it. It sounds like the Pompeii is missing stuff perhaps, so maybe that is not the best way to go? I certainly can't tell him to go on forums and do some research, so I'm not sure how to proceed. If there are some comprehensive plans that cover everything that is needed then I should be OK, but now I am doubting if the Pompeii will cut it?

Note that aesthetics are not an issue at all here, just function.

[JRPizza]

I understand time constraints. Have you priced out a complete oven from our Forno Bravo hosts? If that is too rich for your blood get a quote from the seasoned builder but make sure he tells you what he plans to do. With that in hand you could compare it to the FB plans or post a summary here for comments. We just had a poster with an oven that has problems obtaining and holding heat and it turns out he has a less than optimum chimney placement and no insulation under the floor. That is why homework is so important before building something that is literally "set in stone".

[UtahBeehiver]

Agree with JR, look at a turn-key oven from FB, they are basically set and use and come in all sizes. Depending on you cooking needs, a smaller version and less costly model may work for you something like a Primavera.

[Snoochers]

I understand time constraints. Have you priced out a complete oven from our Forno Bravo hosts? If that is too rich for your blood get a quote from the seasoned builder but make sure he tells you what he plans to do. With that in hand you could compare it to the FB plans or post a summary here for comments. We just had a poster with an oven that has problems obtaining and holding heat and it turns out he has a less than optimum chimney placement and no insulation under the floor. That is why homework is so important before building something that is literally "set in stone".

Thank you! I'm considering turn-key. I looked at the Toscana but with tax and shipping it is about 8500$ CAD, which is a fair bit. One issue is that I want it to open inside my sunroom so there requires some custom work anyway, which somewhat reduces the benefits of the turn-key approach.