Making myself a pizza oven

[jrobertson50]

the plaster outside most ovens is a mix of viticulture and Portland cement. This is applied in a 2" or so layer and provides for a ton of insulation. More than water proofing I may cover it with a tarp or something. but i live in Vegas so i am not to concerned about water.

[Guy]

My first trade was as a brick layer. I can tell you that bricks are a lot more absorbent now than they used to be. Not sure is this is due to less clay and more filler of some sort or what. We have had started to have to seal up chimneys due to water leaks from long heavy rains. Back in the day we never had that problem. Just my two cents.

[Dr ROK]

This looks terrific! I don't know anything about bricks, but do you know if you will you need to cover the external surfaces of the brick with something to waterproof them? I'm assuming that's one of the reasons you see commercial brick ovens covered with something that looks like plaster.

[Marauderer]

JR it looks great and you can really be proud of yourself in that you constructed your own oven and........made some great looking pies.

[jrobertson50]

UPDATED WITH PIZZA PICTURES> check out the bottom of the post. http://jrobertson50.blogspot.com/201...izza-oven.html

and Jerod, if this doesn't earn me a badge of approval i give up

[jrobertson50]

Sorry for the late response. I didn't use refractory cement. I went cheap. basic stuff. i didn't build it to last a decade. just a couple years. Didn't want to spend more than 200. came in at 150. I put a small chimney opening up front. it was enough to be efficient and caused no issues. the oven works great. and the pizza was tasty. I would say go for it. use whatever you have laying around. takes a couple days to build, then a week to dry. then a week of small curing fires. But it was worth it. On Vday i lit it up took about 1.5 hours to clear all the soot (meaning its well over 1k degrees F all around) and cooked a ton of pizzas.

[troymeister]

Layout, materials, manpower, space, I have them all Time is the hard part I can do it.

[Jerod Broussard]

If you built it while you have something cooking, you'll be done in 2.5 days. I'm counting Friday through Sunday with you getting up at 0430 on Saturday and Sunday too.

[troymeister]

I love the simplicity of your oven. Great Job!!

Did you use refractory cement in your mortar mix?

Does not having a chimney cause a problem?

Building an outdoor oven has been on my to do list for some years now. In the spring am going to do something similar.

Great Job again.

Troy

[smarkley]

there is definitely a hole for an easy to build design that works.

[jrobertson50]

thats a tough one. could be cool to do though. I would just use a ton of clay bricks. the temps won't be very high so you don't have to worry much about refractory mateirials. hell my oven will do 1000 degree cooking and i didn't use them lol.

[jrobertson50]

i can't wait to try one lol

[jrobertson50]

no book. just pictures online of others ovens

[Beefchop]

I'm impressed with folks who can tackle masonry projects. I've been scouring the net for some plans for a brick smoker pit but am having trouble finding simple plans that are at my skill level! I'd basically like a brick offset (like the ones they use in Texas pictured below) but instead of brick I was going to pour some refractory cement molds or use cinder blocks and then line them with fire bricks. Can't find a reliable design though for backyard use.

[Marauderer]

Great build!! It looks like you had a lot of fun doing it also. Was there a particular book that gave you most of your info or was it bits and pieces from the net and other places.