We love pizza!!! Especially NY style pizza. In fact, we took our grandsons on a Pizza Tasting Adventure a few years ago. We visited 4 build your own pizza restaurants. We watched them build and cook our pizza, which created an inspiration in us to do it at home.
We decided we wanted a wood fired outdoor brick oven, so we started to research how to build one. There’s a lot of oven options out there. Gas, wood, metal, brick, premade, or build. We decided to buy a DIY wood fired pizza oven kit from The Fire Brick Co.. The company is located in Australia. We purchased their D105 Oven Kit. Their attention to detail and support was phenomenal.
The process of building your own pizza oven is time consuming. If you prefer instant gratification, you may want to purchase a ready made metal one. We wanted one that looked authentic and we could use over and over again. We wanted to be able to see into the oven from our hot tub we installed in fall of 2022, creating a resort like atmosphere in our backyard.
July, 2023: Foundation & Base
We started to build the oven in our backyard in July, 2023. After we decided on which company to buy from, the next decision was yard location. We wanted it located near our back patio. We had to prep the ground before the kit arrived. The process of building it required a lot of concrete and rebar.
Point # 1: We recommend you have construction skills (or a friend with construction skills) to built a DIY wood fired pizza oven.
August, 2023: The Dome
It’s been over 1 month into this project. It took 2 weeks to complete the brick dome. Then we had to build a cover over it to protect it from the elements so it would not crack. That took 1 day.
Once the cover was done, the next steps were putting the insulation over the dome, finishing the front edge, and attaching the chimney so we could test the oven. That took 12 days.
September, 2023: First Fire
A little over 2 months into this project we were able to build 4 major firings in our oven AFTER allowing proper curing time as per the instructions.
October, 2023: Final Touches
All that was left was painting the dome (had to pick out the perfect paint color) and adding side walls to the covering. Total project time was a little over 3 months.
Not just a Pizza Oven!
The key to good pizza is the crust, the sauce and the CHEESE! We needed to find a good recipe for pizza dough/crust and sauce. The sauce was easy, but finding a perfect dough/crust we like was trial and error. We finally settled on a quick, thin crust recipe. You can view some of our pizza crust ideas on Pinterest board named: Roll it and pat it, and mark it with a P. (For Pizza Dough & ME!)
In addition to making pizza in our oven, we’ve grilled steaks, baked meatloaf, baked lasagna in an iron baking dish, smoked peppers & tomatoes for our homemade salsa. The oven stays warm over night, so we can easily use it the following day.
I gotta ask: “What would you cook in a wood fired oven?”
The Relentless Redecorator
We love our wood fired oven. I kinda wish we had one inside our house! And yes, we have to stock up on the proper wood to cook with. Our #1 choice: Oak.
We aren’t just a market, we are Rustic Country Market Living.
Inspiring Home Life ♥️,
