I ve finally finished the building of my wood fired pizza oven.
Wood fired pizza oven concrete slab.
This base will help to carry the weight of the oven raise it to an operational cooking level and the thick floor will help to insulate the oven.
Many do it yourself pizza oven builders as well as importers of authentic italian brick ovens are big advocates for using vermiculite or perlite mixed with concrete.
The first step in building a wood fired oven is to construct a solid stand.
Building a brick dome for a wood fired pizza oven setting out first course.
But it has worked out good as it is a free standing slab and i know there is no way its going anywhere.
Pros and cons of vermiculite or perlite.
This pizza oven must weigh about 300kgs so it needs to be well constructed.
But the brickie who helped me did his calcuations wrong and made the concrete double strength.
1 you will need to build a base with a 15cm thick concrete slab for the oven to sit on.
Check to make sure that the longer stud sits inside the shorter stud and that the frame opening is the right dimension.
The concrete slab sits straight on top of the framework.
These builders will use a 5 1 6 1 or 7 1 parts insulator to one part concrete to build their hearth and skin the pizza oven dome.
I started by laying a concrete slab 155cm x 175cm x 10cm.
It took a while to put everything together however the final outcome has been completely worth it.
If necessary hold the frame in place with wood stakes.
The materials were sometimes tricky to find however generally i found them at hardware and oven refractory places.
The slab is around the 12 13 inches thick mark yes very thick with enough reo bar in it the build a house on.
Excavate your pizza oven foundation photo 1 then frame the slab with 2 x6 lumber set to the correct height.
It s good fun and i find it easier than mixing the pizza dough.
An outdoor pizza oven is essentially a contained wood fire so you will need a solid fireproof base.
While you can create a base out of concrete pavers a rough concrete slab cast specifically for this purpose gives you the greatest flexibility in terms of size and appearance.
Mixing the refractory concrete this way without a concrete mixer machine is not a very hard job.