Why should you consider building a diy pizza oven?
It’s hard to find a person who doesn’t like pizza. No wonder that pizza is one of the most delicious dishes in the world. Having your own wood-fired pizza oven sounds like a dream come true. It’s a great facilitator because it allows you to bake the pizza precisely – with the dough becoming crispy, tender and really tasty.
You can enjoy the taste of your favourite kind of food anytime you want. You can serve pizzas to your family and friends on family celebrations, feasts, house parties and film nights. You can try your hand in preparing different types of pizza. Margherita? Pepperoni? Capricciosa? Experimenting on your own is better than ordering pizza every single time.
What are the advantages of a wood fired oven vs a regular one?
Firstly, preparing dishes in a garden oven is much quicker. Secondly, aromas of the meals baked in an outdoor pizza oven are incomparably better. Thirdly, the taste of garden made pizza will be long remembered by everyone who will try it. Fourthly, meals are rich in nutrients because of using good quality wood. Fifthly and finally, you can prepare much more than pizza – try making your own bread, vegetables and meat. Save your money and time!
What do you need to know before you start building?
Obviously you have to find a good place for your pizza oven. What is a guiding principle in choosing a place? The clue is not to build pizza ovens in the area of trees in order to avoid fires and accidents. It’s much better to place the oven near some wall. However, it is not the only option. What you need the most is a stable construction so that you could cover your backyard pizza oven.
You should also know how outdoor ovens work. You have to light a fire at the back or on the inside of the oven in order to preheat it. The best temperature to bake pizzas is between 300 and 400 degrees Celsius. Now you are ready to build a pizza oven with this knowledge!
What to start with?
Preparing the best pizzas is possible only in a proper oven. You can build it on your own, even if you are an amateur. Creating it from scratch will surely give you a lot of satisfaction. Ovens for gardens are usually rather small and they look a little bit like a grill. Besides, they have to be efficient and long-lasting. It is possible thanks to the best materials. It means that the first thing you have to do is to buy the right materials!
What materials are required to build the best homemade pizza oven?
You should definitely bet on purpose made fire bricks and some other refractory materials. You ought to visit Vitcas – online shop with fireproof materials. The offer is wide and created especially for homemade pizza lovers.
You will find there fire bricks, heatproof screed, arch bricks, ceramic fibre boards, ceramic fibre adhesives, ceramic fibre blankets, wire meshes, and outdoor oven cements. These materials are required to build a wood-fired pizza oven. You will probably need a few more things, such as sharp sand and builders sand, a trowel for bricklaying, spade and so on.
Three. Two. One. LET’S BUILD!
You should lay a concrete foundation in a chosen place. Use concrete, house bricks, breeze blocks or railway sleepers as a support for your diy pizza oven. In case of breeze blocks or bricks – use cement in order to connect them. Wood elements? You have to screw the pieces together. Keep in mind that, no matter what, the plinth must be steady. Do you have some free space left? Yes? That’s great! Prepare it for storing logs.
Lay the bricks
Let’s get down to creating the base of the oven from bricks. Lay them flush to each other. Do it on a layer of sand. Your goal is a smooth and level surface. Choose the best quality bricks with no cavities in order to achieve the best possible effect!
Make the arch
The next step is making the arch. You can use the semi-circular sand mould. Then put it brick by brick. It is also possible to use polystyrene or wooden templates. You are also allowed to use specially tempered firebricks. It will make the job significantly easier.
Construct the dome
If you want to reach the effect of a barrel shaped dome, you should build a supporting structure for a clay or brickwork. On the other hand, if you want to achieve the shape of a circle, place rings of bricks one on top of another. The second solution doesn’t require any support. If you would like to have a chimney, remember about leaving a hole between an arch and doom.
Add the door
… if you want to prepare not only pizzas but also loaves of bread. In this case you should buy cast iron doors. Another option is having one made to fit. You ought to use an appropriate adhesive and fire rope so that you could create a tight seal.
Insulate
You have two options. The first one is buying ready made insulation concrete plinths. The second one is insulating under the base of the oven, using a ceramic fibre board. The choice is yours. Insulate the dome with some thermal blanket. Then use chicken wire or some different similar material in order to create a key. Covering of outdoor oven cement will be possible thanks to it.
Summary
Building your own outdoor pizza oven is quite easy, especially with this guide. The only things you have to do is to buy necessary materials and patiently build your oven step by step. You can combine the practical with the pleasurable here. Imagine that after building your garden oven you will enjoy the taste of homemade pizzas (and not only pizzas!). Baking and cooking in the fresh air together with your family and friends? Building your own oven is definitely worth it.
