DIY Pizza oven Build

Wabbit Ears

Hi,

I mentioned I was doing this build on the pizza oven forum and was asked to post some details so this seems like the best place.


I looked at a load of pizza oven builds on Youtube and took a lot of inspiration from this build : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftce6DbLjFA

I really don't like the dome style finished look so decided to go a bit bigger and make a full brick archway.

The bulk of the oven will be cement/vermiculite mix on a brick 3 and a bit sided support wall.

Material used/needed so far:

• Scrap wood and some old MDF wardrobe doors for templates
• 2x100L bags vermiculite (from Goodwins, Mulhuddert) will need 2 more!
• 3 bags Sand/cement mix morter for the foundations. Will need two more (goodwins)
• 4 bags cement to mix with vermiculite (arro balbriggan)
• Clingfilm and some packing foam
• 10L fire cement (goodwins)
• Firbrick (goodwins)
• Steel rebar for plinth support (scrap from my dads allotment)
• mixing bucket and cement mixer attachment (arro)

Need to get:

• Red brick from Murdocks balbriggan
• Sand and cement from murdocks
• A pizza oven door from amazon

Wabbit Ears

some pics

bamayang

Dying to build one of these. Is that the exercise ball method? What are you doing for what the base will sit on, is it block walls plastered or brick walls?

Wabbit Ears

bamayang wrote: »

Dying to build one of these. Is that the exercise ball method? What are you doing for what the base will sit on, is it block walls plastered or brick walls?

Yes, Exercise ball method. The balls been removed to allow the underside to dry. Hopefully these terrible skeches will show kind of what I'm aiming for:

Muahahaha

Great thread.

Wabbit in the Youtube videos you've watched do any of them talk about internal volumes that will create a good draw, the positioning of the chimney, use of baffles, etc?

bamayang

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

Yes, Exercise ball method. The balls been removed to allow the underside to dry. Hopefully these terrible skeches will show kind of what I'm aiming for:

The sketch makes sense!! Are you doing a long arch type of construction over the top of the ball, as opposed to a dome/sphere?

Wabbit Ears

bamayang wrote: »

The sketch makes sense!! Are you doing a long arch type of construction over the top of the ball, as opposed to a dome/sphere?

Yes, Im filling the entire arch with the concrete vermiculite mix and then doing a brick arch on top of that for aesthetics.

I coudl have used that insulation blanket stuff to pad it out and save on the concrete/vermiculite but I reckon the thickness of it will be grand.

Wabbit Ears

Muahahaha wrote: »

Great thread.

Wabbit in the Youtube videos you've watched do any of them talk about internal volumes that will create a good draw, the positioning of the chimney, use of baffles, etc?

The guys does say he was advised 65% of the height of the dome for the tunnel is optimal.

I was very scientific* about it. I used the biggest ball I could get on Amazon that would work in my given dimensions (75 cm) and I made sure the tunnel would fit a cast iron door using the dimensions shown in the amazon adverts for pizza oven doors. The chimney was precisely measured so that it fit using the randomly sized piece of packing foam that was in the box I used to cover the tunnel. So, in conclusion, no, I did not optimize anything to do with size and flow.

Muahahaha

yeah I had just wondered as I know with the Ooni when it is going full pelt and you open the door the flames are literally licking over the top of the pizza, it gives the edge of the pepporoni that beautiful char. Its a clever design in terms of airflow and so Id just wondered how it might work in a much larger space like a brick oven.

Wabbit Ears

Muahahaha wrote: »

yeah I had just wondered as I know with the Ooni when it is going full pelt and you open the door the flames are literally licking over the top of the pizza, it gives the edge of the pepporoni that beautiful char. Its a clever design in terms of airflow and so Id just wondered how it might work in a much larger space like a brick oven.

TBH I dont have an ooni so cant comment. My friends pizza over will turn a pizza into an unrecognizable charred circle in about 1 min and browns cheeze and peperoni perfectly when done right. So its plenty hot enough.

bamayang

Please post lots updates, planning on doing one some stage of next 12 months!
Pizza will be unreal out of it.

Wabbit Ears

The big hold up right now is bricks, or the lack thereof..

A quite unforseen covid supply problem. The bricks i wanted are nowhere to be found (to match the built in BBQ beside it).

I have a plan B

Wabbit Ears

Ordered bricks today. I only needed 280 but there is a huge supply issue. Murdocks in newry had 300 on a palette of a type that I used to build a flowerbed previously so, while not the same as the BBQ beside it, its not completely out of character in the garden. SO I just got the 300. I also ordered 5 bags of cement and 10 bags of Sand. Ive to finish the base, do the brickwork and build a plinth to hold the actual oven so hopefully thats enough.

To help the oven dry I removed the templates. Some of these will go back on when the oven is in place. The weight is a big factor so I am not padding out the oven any more until its all in situ. the idea is to fill both semi circles completely to and then build an arch directly attached to that.

I have to find my butane blowtorch to burn off the bits of stuck clingfilm in the tunnel and dome. once those are removed Im going to use fire cement to do a kind of internal render to make the dome and tunnel smoother. This is mainly for aesthetics. Ill get that done this weekend so Ill have had a week or more to dry before its moved onto the newly built base.

Some progress pics from today

Wabbit Ears

More

Wabbit Ears

Small update,

Bricks have not arrived yet but I did get some sand and cement and made my base yesterday evening.

Went to check on it this morning... the dog had walked across it leaving pawprints in my nice flat concrete.. Ah well. its a feature now.

Got some scrap wood and made a Jig to keep the brickwork even and eventually be used to build the concrete plinth on.

Hopefully bricks delivered tomorrow (they wont be, but what do we have if we dont have hope?)

Wabbit Ears

Right, So Murdocks Balbriggan failed miserably to supply the bricks they said they would.

I called them today and talked to a guy who said they hadn't even been ordered and perhaps I should try Outhaus. That was kinda funny because I was standing In outhaus while I made that call and it was a last ditch courtesy call.

Outhaus is surreal, Its a brick warehouse trying to be a high end fashion boutique, with massively inflated prices to match. So I bought basically the same brick for twice as much and 5 times the delivery cost.

Bricks arrive Wednesday so hopefully will have a progress update by the weekend.

listermint

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

Right, So Murdocks Balbriggan failed miserably to supply the bricks they said they would.

I called them today and talked to a guy who said they hadn't even been ordered and perhaps I should try Outhaus. That was kinda funny because I was standing In outhaus while I made that call and it was a last ditch courtesy call.

Outhaus is surreal, Its a brick warehouse trying to be a high end fashion boutique, with massively inflated prices to match. So I bought basically the same brick for twice as much and 5 times the delivery cost.

Bricks arrive Wednesday so hopefully will have a progress update by the weekend.

Note. You should try reclamation yards for this stuff if your getting that level of runaround. There's a huge one on the N7 beside rathcoole Kingswood. Bricks of all varieties ready on pallets to go right away.

Muahahaha

Yeah thats Landmark Architectural salvage on the main street in Newcastle village. Their yard is an absolute treasure trove and always worth a swing by if youve time to kill. They can have everything from old cast iron post boxes, Telecom Eireann phoneboxes, railway sleepers and lots and lots of reclaimed bricks.
http://landmarkarchitectural.ie/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6NvnxZiq6gIVRbDtCh2FuwELEAAYASAAEgI2aPD_BwE

I love landmark Architectural,well overdue a visit.
I got the bricks for my greenhouse off them and a load of real railway sleepers .
1e a brick for the reclaimed bricks.
There is a new (well the moved from north dublin) salvage yard open in Naas.
Just on corbins lane in the old factory.

Wabbit Ears

Small update. After a forever of rain stopping play I finally got a bit of brickwork done. I should note now that my bricklaying skills are non existent and I still have a LOT of tyding up to do. Its mostly straight and level-ish.

I got a certain height and then had to check my brick supply and make sure I had enough to get to where I needed to be.

Good job,
Keep it up!

Wabbit Ears

Got the base built to a suitable height so I wont have to crouch to work with the pizza. I then put in my template boards, stacked it on bricks and leveled it out using shims of spare wood cut to size.

I added the rebar and poured in concrete. I let a thin-ish layer dry overnight and then made up some new concrete and set in the firebricks. Ill fill the gaps in the firebricks with fire cement once the concrete is dried a bit. Next step is to get some lads over to lift the actual oven bit onto the base which should be interesting as its really really heavy. I managed to move it to kind of position with the help of a friend but it was way to heavy to move onto the base with only two people.

I should note that these photos were taken before Id mixed additional cement and smoothed it out.

Hopefully will get the oven bit in place tomorrow evening.

Wabbit Ears

A pretty decent sized update, the finishing line is in sight!!

My door hasn't arrived yet from amazon but thats ok, Im not ready for it just yet.

So..... Challenge #1 was to get the half finished oven itself onto the brick base. I had loads of plans but ended up going old-school, like pyramids and newgrange oldschool and used wood and leverage to lift, put in a plan, lift add another, rinse and repeat ad-nauseum. anyway, in the end I managed to move it by myself which felt great.

I put a bead of fire cement around the bottom of the base oven and dropped the oven onto it to form a seal. i then lit a wee tempering fire using dry pinewood to dry and set the heat cement.

Wabbit Ears

After a few tempering fires to set the fire cement around teh base and in teh gaps between the fire bricks I put back on the wooden templates and built up the oven with cement vermiculite mix to for the arch I was aiming for.

This oven is a beast, there is 4x 100 liter bags of vermiculite and ~ 8 bags of 25kg cement. When we're all obliterated by the impending nuclear holocaust this oven will be still standing!!

Once this has dried overnight Ill do a few more tempering fires and hopefully give a pizza try on Saturday.

Afterwards there is still all the asthetics to complete such as the brick arch to complete, install the oven door,render the front and tidy up the brickwork by filling the gaps etc.

ted1

What’s the story with the 🧱 bricks over the door ? Is there no support?

Wabbit Ears

ted1 wrote: »

What’s the story with the �� bricks over the door ? Is there no support?

Well spotted :D The bricks above the door had a groove cut in them and a dirty great rebar cemeted in place. This was done separate ahead of time on a plank of wood so it was straight and set when put in place. So basically that entire row was placed in as a single piece with rebar running through it. Its plenty strong to hold up.

That washing line must be wrecking your head when trying to work !

looksee

I watched the series of videos and thought, yes, I could do that, and that seems straightforward...till he got to the bit about cutting bricks and saying 'I can't show you how to do this, its dangerous. If you can't do it yourself get someone else to do it'! Right! we all have helpful guys with brick cutting machines just waiting to take over a dodgy job! Maybe back to the mud/cob/adobe method, or just forget the bricks.

Fair play to the OP though, be interesting to see it in use!

Wabbit Ears

BrownFinger wrote: »

That washing line must be wrecking your head when trying to work !

God help me

Wabbit Ears

looksee wrote: »

I watched the series of videos and thought, yes, I could do that, and that seems straightforward...till he got to the bit about cutting bricks and saying 'I can't show you how to do this, its dangerous. If you can't do it yourself get someone else to do it'! Right! we all have helpful guys with brick cutting machines just waiting to take over a dodgy job! Maybe back to the mud/cob/adobe method, or just forget the bricks.

Fair play to the OP though, be interesting to see it in use!

You can cut bricks with a small angle grinder and stone cutting disks. No great difficulty. You have to be carefull and wear eye protection but its one of the easier jobs tbh.

It makes sense he not show people how to do it, potential for injury with any driill/saw/grinder etc is to high in the wrong hands.

You can even chop them with a miter saw if you have the right blade.

MadYaker

That's bloody awesome. You'll have to post pics of the pizzas that come out of this!

Edit: are those some sort of ceramic coated bricks on the base of the inside of the oven?

Wabbit Ears

MadYaker wrote: »

That's bloody awesome. You'll have to post pics of the pizzas that come out of this!

Edit: are those some sort of ceramic coated bricks on the base of the inside of the oven?

Firebrick with fire cement between the bricks. Wont crack or break up even at really high temperatures so is used as a surface to cook on.

https://www.goodwins.ie/fire-brick-amp-cement/c-1114.html

NewCorkLad

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

Firebrick with fire cement between the bricks. Wont crack or break up even at really high temperatures so is used as a surface to cook on.

https://www.goodwins.ie/fire-brick-amp-cement/c-1114.html

Thanks to you this will be my project for next year, having gotten my patio down this summer , any idea of roughly how much it will cost you all in?

Wabbit Ears

NewCorkLad wrote: »

Thanks to you this will be my project for next year, having gotten my patio down this summer , any idea of roughly how much it will cost you all in?

This build is stupidly over done. There is no need for the amount of Vermiculite or concrete used nor is there any need to build the base out of redbrick.

But rough costs:

Bricks 600 ( Could have gotten for far less but got at outhaus which is silly money and their delivery cost is outrageous @ 70 quid for 20 mins up the M1
Vermiculite 100 (4X bags of 100 liter from goodwins)
Cement, About 10 bags so 60 quid various diy shops
Sand, About 20 bags at 4 quid so another 60 quid
firebrick and fire ceemnt ~100 from goodwins
Oven door from amazon, 100 quid
Large exercise ball, 20 quid amazon
steel rebar for support, wood frames, templates screws etc all salvaged


So total in and around a grand plus many many hours of work. If I went with blocks for the base, kao wool as filler and a rendered dome finish probably would have been able to do it for 300 odd quid, but wheres the fun in that?

NewCorkLad

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

This build is stupidly over done. There is no need for the amount of Vermiculite or concrete used nor is there any need to build the base out of redbrick.

But rough costs:

Bricks 600 ( Could have gotten for far less but got at outhaus which is silly money and their delivery cost is outrageous @ 70 quid for 20 mins up the M1
Vermiculite 100 (4X bags of 00 liter from goodwins)
Cement, About 10 bags so 60 quid various diy shops
Sand, About 20 bags at 4 quid so another 60 quid
firebrick and fire ceemnt ~100 from goodwins
Oven door from amazon, 100 quid
Large exercise ball, 20 quid amazon
steel rebar for support, wood frames, templates screws etc all salvaged


So total in and around a grand plus many many hours of work. If I went with blocks for the base, kao wool as filler and a rendered dome finish probably would have been able to do it for 300 odd quid, but wheres the fun in that?

If you are doing it you might as well do it right, Ill be looking to source red bricks for it but I have the year to gather everything so will take my time. Thanks

Wabbit Ears

So, started on the arch but rain stopped play, again. I had a inch by 3/4 piece of timber which I just cut into small pieces to use as shims. All the gaps will be filled and tidied when its done.

Ive been lighting tempering fires and the outer part of the oven doesn't even get anything beyond warm. like you can rest your hand on any part for however long.

Looking forward to a proper firing and cooking of pizza on Saturday, even if it rains!!

It's coming together now !
How much do you reckon it cost all in ?

Wabbit Ears

BrownFinger wrote: »

It's coming together now !
How much do you reckon it cost all in ?

up above

Richard tea

Very impressive OP. What temperature do you expect the oven to reach?

Wabbit Ears

Richard tea wrote: »

Very impressive OP. What temperature do you expect the oven to reach?

Tested on the weekend,. only fired it for about an hour and a half and used it when the cooking floor was about 370 degrees C and the walls were off the charts on my ~550 degree ir gun.


Will be firing it up on Sunday for a proper run so will see how hot it gets then.

First pizza was a disaster, second one came out better, It was raining so didn't take pics of the few other test runs.

Wabbit Ears

Got the arch finished and started doing a bit of tidy up on the bricks. Not perfect but My bricklaying skills are non-existent so I have my standards set nice and low.

GLS have failed to deliver my Door so I wont have it on for my pizza party on Sunday which is really really annoying but sure not the end of the world.

listermint

You tiling the front ? Something Mediterranean themed ?

bamayang

Great work, you’ve flown through it

Wabbit Ears

listermint wrote: »

You tiling the front ? Something Mediterranean themed ?

I was just gonna add the door and render it but the kids want to be involved so I'm thinking something like that

JJJackal

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

I was just gonna add the door and render it but the kids want to be involved so I'm thinking something like that

Unreal work! Very well built
Your support structure for the oven looks very solid to support all that weight

Wabbit Ears

JJJackal wrote: »

Unreal work! Very well built
Your support structure for the oven looks very solid to support all that weight

I was worried that the top which the oven would sit on would collapse so the 5 lengths of 3/4 inch rebar I salvaged and cut to size was perhaps overkill but there's no chance of it coming apart


Had a bit of a pizza party over the weekend, Didn't take to many photos but we cooked at least 20 pizzas and naan breads. Skewers done on the BBQ eaten in naan bread straight from the oven is heavenly.

The oven door arrived late, on Tuesday (due last week), so now just have to fit it which will be a challenge in itself!!

Wabbit Ears

Long-time no update. Finally got started on getting the door put on. One of the problems I foresaw is that the lip of the door frame has nothing to grip and the door itself is quite heavy so it could easily come undone when being left open or slightly ajar.

To prevent this I decided to weld on some big steel nails that will give it extra support when I concrete it in. Turned out I had no welding gas in the bottle so its welded without gas, meaning its a big horrible mess of weld, but they're stuck on and thats what matters. Bodgery at its finest.

I've spray painted it with stove paint and its now drying. No pics of that now, will do when done.

Thats class.
There was a fella on Gardeners world last Friday using his to make sun dried tomatoes !

matban

Good job, there is a real skill in using these ovens, the pizzas's you will be making in 12 months will be off the charts

gooddarts10

Hi do you have a link to the door you used ? I can’t find one on Amazon that’s ships to Ireland