My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

[Dineomite]

This is a documentation of my journey through the pizza oven construction process. I've done a fair amount of research on talked to a lot of people that have also built ovens in their backyards. I'm very fascinated by the entire process.

Normally I wouldn't go to the trouble of writing all of this stuff down, but because others have taken the time to advise me, I feel obligated to add to the body of knowledge that already exists.

I'll kick this whole thing off retroactively by going back to May 2012 when I had to submit plans to my city's architectural review board.

Thanks for reading!

[moderator]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Hello Dineomite,

Thank you for wanting to share your journey with us. We look forward to reading what you post. Also, we wish you a happy and successful build. Happy Cooking!

Forno Bravo

[deejayoh]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Welcome! Can't help but ask. Cleveland requires architectural review for pizza oven?

[Dineomite]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Actually, the suburb I live in requires it. Anything requiring a footer 42" below ground is going to draw scrutiny from the building inspectors. I also poured a slab for the adjoining patio as well. I'm pretty sure the City of Cleveland would never catch such a thing.

[Dineomite]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

I guess it all starts with a plan. With two giant (horribly located) ash trees sitting between mine and my neighbor's house, I knew they needed to come down before I could even think about drawing up any kind of plans.

In my mind I knew I wanted a fence around my lot so my dogs could run free while we were out on our new patio (cooking delicious wood-fired things). As it stands right now, there is no fence and with the number of dogs in our neighborhood they last about 10 minutes before darting off.

The trees and their roots sat squarely in the path of the fence location, this coupled with the fact that they clogged the hell out of my gutters and weren't getting any smaller.

So on April 11th, 2012 the trees came down at a cost of about $750! I thought that was a ridiculously good price for being so large and in such a precarious location.

With the trees gone, I could now focus on drawing up plans for the patio and the oven. As mentioned before, our city requires architectural review most anything that requires a footer.

[Laurentius]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Now you have wood seasoning, before you build. Cool!

[jeeppiper]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Im curious, were the 42" footers a requirement of your zoning folks?...(that seems awfully deep)

[texman]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Welcome to the fun.
Can you post some pics of your site and your plan? Those footers are dddeeep! Must be a big oven or get really cold or soil is loose?
Tracy

[Dineomite]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Here in Cleveland it's pretty much heavy clay soil (that absorbs a ton of water) and winter temps have the potential to get pretty low. Combine soaking wet soils with freezing temps and you can get all kinds of fun things happening to foundations.

To get below the frost line here in Northeast Ohio, you could probably go 36" and not have a problem. Since I had to go through the city and didn't want to have to sit through another building review I made them 42" just to be safe. My father, who is an excavator suggested the 42".

Am I really worried about it heaving with footers at 36"? Not really; especially with the winter we had last year. I was actually concerned more about the city's building/architectural review more than anything.

I'll post some site plans as well as an oven elevation tomorrow.

[jeeppiper]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Id be more concerned about punching through the earth's crust and hitting magma!!!
....(just kidding)

[Dineomite]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

With the trees out of the way my next course of action was to produce some plans for architectural review. Having heard horror stories about people going back multiple times (waiting two weeks in between each meeting) until they passed inspection, I knew I had to try and nail it on my first shot.

I've attached a couple of PDF's that show not only a layout of the patio area, but also an elevation for the oven. As with most things construction little things changed as I went through the building process.

After watching three out of five people get told to come back for the next meeting, I was admittedly a little skeptical of my chances. As I went through the whole thing they were actually quite happy with what I submitted. The only things they said they wanted was masonry on the inside of the wood storage area (which I'm going to stucco) and a non-shiny stack.

They stamped my drawings and I was set!

[stormy]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Here in Portage County Ohio, the footers have to be 48" by code. I've never-ever dug into any soil in NE Ohio that was frozen deeper than 12 inches. Most years anymore, four inches is about the limit on soil that does not get traffic.

[texman]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Great job on those drawings! I am so glad that i didn't have to do that. That looks to be a great build to watch and i am looking forward to your progress. Cheers!
Tracy

[Dineomite]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

Totally agree Stormy, if the winters ever get to the point where it's frozen three feet down, I'm outta here! It really is overkill, especially since it's essentially being shielded from the wind on all but three sides.

[Dineomite]

Re: My Pizza Oven Build in Cleveland, OH

The whole pizza oven thing has been a dream of mine for probably a couple of years now. With harsh winters and unpredictable springs you pretty much have to figure out a way to knock something like this out in a summer and early fall.

Motivating myself to go through the BS with the architectural review was a milestone in itself. I told my dad that it had been approved, so whenever he had some down time in his schedule (he's an excavator) maybe we could dig this foundation.

No time like the present, huh? The following week he called me up and said, "Hey, we're just finishing up a job on your side of town. All my equipment is out that way, so why don't we plan on doing it tomorrow?"

Tomorrow!?!?!? Talk about a lighting a fire under my butt!

I was totally caught off guard, but sure enough he was there later that afternoon to drop off his mini.

"Get to bed early! We're going to dig, form, and pour this thing all in one day!"

Huh?