IN THE GARDEN OCT 18 15

How to build a
wood-fired pizza
oven
Our step-by-step instructions on how to build a
pizza oven in your own back garden using items
from your local DIY shop or, better still, picked
up for free.

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Meet the expert

In 2008 Simon Brookes attended a Build and Bake course at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River
Cottage HQ in Devon, where he learned how to cook in a wood-fired oven and how to build one. “I
came home and thought, ‘I’m going to build my own pizza oven,’” recalls Simon. “I’m not
practical; I can do basic DIY, but construction is out of my comfort zone. If I can do it anyone
can.”

While building his pizza oven Simon started a blog about the project and the food he was cooking
in the oven. Soon, would-be oven builders got in touch from all over the world, sharing photos of
their ovens and swapping tips. Eventually he put all his experience into an e-book called How to
Build a Traditional Wood-fired Clay Pizza Oven.

Simon’s project hasn’t been a mere flash in the pan. “It’s replaced our barbecue,” he says. “A
clay oven takes an hour to get up to temperature, but once it does, you’re cooking pizza in 60
seconds, with a crisp base and a fantastic smoky flavour.”

Wood-fired ovens cook at very high temperatures – around 400°C. Domestic ovens can’t get that
hot. They’re not just for pizzas, though. Once you sweep out the embers and let it cool a little, the
oven’s perfect for slow-roasting. “I’ve cooked joints overnight at around 130°C,” says Simon.

A bit of history

Far from being a new-fangled invention, clay ovens are thousands of years old. The ancient
Egyptians used clay ovens and examples have been unearthed in Roman Pompeii that would still
work today if cleaned out and fired up. Ovens like these were built in communal areas and
shared by families. By Medieval times, the ovens had become bigger and were used to bake
bread for entire villages. Many Italian homes had wood-fired ovens inside up until the middle of
the 20th century.

Pizza ovens: where to learn to DIY

Simon runs courses on building and cooking at the Sustainability Centre in Hampshire

River Cottage offers a Build and Bake course

Manna from Devon runs two courses on cooking in wood-fired ovens. One focuses on the
ovens and cooking at high temperatures. The other looks at using the residual heat for cakes,
pastry and slow-cooked pork and lamb. There’s also 
a free two-hour taster session.

Planning

First, decide where to site your oven. Unlike a barbecue, you can’t move a pizza oven around the
garden once it’s built. Choose an area with plenty of space around it – somewhere in full sunlight
is good.

How long will it take? You should be able to build it over a summer weekend if the weather’s fine.

What you’ll need…

You can get most of these items from builder’s merchants – if not, we’ve given other options

About 30 bricks: at least 20 will need to be smooth and solid, with no recess (frog) or holes
(perforations), to form your oven floor.

20 breeze blocks and 5kg tub of cement or twenty 120cm x 20cm x 20cm wooden beams, an
electric drill and long wood screws (for the plinth frame)

Rubble and big stones

10-14 bags of builder’s sand (20kg each)

125-175kg clay (the cheapest will do – try angliaclaysupplies.co.uk)

Assorted glass bottles

Chimney or plant pot (optional)

Large bag (14 litres or 6kg) of wood shavings (from pet shops)

You’ll also need…

Wheelbarrow

Tape measure

Large heavy-duty plastic or tarpaulin sheet

Plenty of water

Old kitchen knife

Heavy duty gloves

10 litre builder’s plastic bucket

Wellington boots

Lots of newspaper

Essential technique: puddling

Mixing the clay and sand is the hardest, most time- consuming part of the building process.
It’s best to mix this in batches as and when you need it.

For the first layer (step 3) you’ll need about three buckets of clay to six 10 litre buckets of
sand. The final shell (step 7) will need four buckets of clay to eight of sand (1:2 ratio
clay:sand).

You do the mixing (puddling) with your feet. Tip the sand onto a large plastic tarpaulin sheet,
break the clay into thumb-size pieces and, wearing wellies, tread the two together with a little
water. This is called puddling. The mixture is ready when a tennis ball-size piece dropped
from shoulder height holds together. If it splats, the mix is too wet; if it cracks, it’s too dry.

Step 1: Make the plinth

Takes about 4 hours

Step 1a

Step 1b

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This is the foundation of your oven, so it needs to be solid. You can build the plinth frame out of
bricks, breeze blocks or wooden sleepers. Clear the ground and dig a shallow trench 120cm x
120cm square. If you build the frame from bricks, or breeze blocks, use cement. If you’re using
wood, screw the pieces together. You’re after a solid, square box approximately 1m high and
120cm square.

Put a layer of rubble and stones in the centre (1a), then add a layer of sand and glass bottles.
These will act as a heat sink, warming up, then radiating heat back up through the oven. Finally,
top with a layer of smooth, solid bricks (1b) to form the oven floor. Bear in mind this is the
surface you’ll cook on, so the bricks need to fit snugly together.

Step 2: Make the dome mould

Takes about 1 hour

Make a mound of damp sand to form the clay around. You’ll need about 120kg sand. Centre it on
the plinth you’ve already built and gradually construct the dome up like a giant sand castle. It
needs to be 80cm in diameter at the bottom and 40-45cm high. Keep checking on it from above
to make sure it’s round. When it’s finished, cover with wet newspaper to stop it drying out while
you puddle the clay (see photo).

Step 3: The first oven layer

Takes about 2 hours, plus 4 hours drying

Roll handfuls of the puddled clay/sand mix into 20cm long, 10cm thick sausage shapes, then
build them up in circles around the sand dome, starting from the base (leave the newspaper on),
until the dome is completely covered. Work the clay lengths into each other, then smooth the
outside with your hands. The layer should be about 7-10cm thick. Leave the clay to dry for 4
hours.

Step 4: Cut the entrance

Takes about 1 hour

Using a kitchen knife, cut out the entrance to your oven. It needs to be big enough to fit a
roasting tray through it, but small enough to keep the heat in – about 30cm wide by 20cm high.
Once you’ve cut the entrance, scoop out the sand inside (you can reuse it). Let the dome dry
overnight. The next morning, light a small fire inside to help dry out the clay further.

Step 5: Build the brick opening

Takes 2-3 hours

Build an arch to fit around the entrance using bricks and more sand/clay mix as mortar and to
create the angle for the arch. Secure the arch to the clay dome with more clay mix. Next, cut a
hole in the roof of the dome near where the arch joins the dome and build a clay collar to hold
the chimney. You can use a plant pot as a chimney, buy one, or build up rings of clay to make one
(as in the photo).

Step 6: The insulation layer

Takes about 1 hour, plus 2 hours drying

Make 4 litres of slip (a mixture of clay and water with the consistency of cream). Stir in 14
litres/6kg wood shavings until well mixed. Slap the insulation layer onto the clay dome, then
leave to dry for 2 hours.

Step 7: The final shell

Takes about 2 hours

This is the same as the first oven layer, just slightly larger. Mix the clay and sand together by
puddling. Make sausage-shape bricks and press firmly together to cover the insulation layer
until 7-10cm thick all over. Smooth the surface as in step 3. Once the finished oven has had a
chance to dry out for a day or two (a week would be even better), clean out any remaining sand
or debris… And you’re ready to fire it up!

How to use your pizza oven

Cooking Obviously you need wood, and proper dried hardwood is best. “Light a pile of newspaper
and small sticks of soft wood in the entrance under the chimney,” says Simon. Slowly build the
fire by adding pieces of hardwood such as oak then, once it’s going, move it towards the back of
the oven – not too quickly, though, or it may go out. “Once it’s roaring, add just enough wood to
keep it ticking over,” says Simon.

Care and protection

When not in use, protect the oven from damp with a well secured tarpaulin.

Now you’ve got your oven, get cooking! You can find our favourite pizza recipes here.

Or, how about...?

Pancetta and rocket Three-cheese pizza Easy pizza sauce

pizza biancas

EASY 15 EASY 15 EASY 15

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Comments
Reviews
Read what others say...

My husband is currently building one,

13TH MAY 2019 AT 9:22 PM
ANDREA HOLLE
but we are finding it hard to dry out the
clay bit in our climate. First dome
collapsed, as clay wasn’t dry. The new
one has now dried, but cracked all the
way through in several places. What is
he doing wrong? (This is layer 1 only.)
And even if we end up building one that
doesn’t crack whilst building, how can
we be sure it won’t crack during use?

I would recommend using fire brick for

10TH OCT 2017 AT 7:55 PM
FIN JOHNSTON
the floor. We’ve used them for years
inside fireplaces. You can get full size
and splits. I built a very similar “horno”
as my mexican friends call it about 3
years ago. It’s amazing ! Love it..

Hello! Great instructions. i am building

3RD AUG 2017 AT 12:48 PM
THOMAS SPENCER
my oven at the minute and am just
looking at the oven floor. I have looked
at fire bricks but they are very
expensive. Specifically what bricks can
you use? I’mm worried they might
crack with the heat

Hi Simon, I just love wood fire pizza. My

13TH DEC 2016 AT 11:19 AM
LILLIANA GRANDY
farther has one and it is great for
parties!

Do you smash up the glass bottles that

15TH NOV 2016 AT 9:06 AM
JOHN BURBRIDGE
are used in the base? How many would
you suggest?

Hi John,
16TH NOV 2016 AT 10:48 AM
REBECCA BRETT
The bottles should be left whole – they act as a
heat sink, warming up, then radiating heat
back up through the oven. You should use
enough bottles to create a single layer. You can
find out more here:
https://clayoven.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/2-
the-plinth-foundation-plinth-and-brick-oven-
floor/
Hope that helps

I’d recommend
14TH NOV 2016 AT 6:44 PM
CHARLOTTE EVE
http://www.cobcourses.com for
fantastic pizza oven workshops! And
there’s lots of info there too on building
your own pizza oven. They do a pizza
lunch to die for and the cost is £120 and
takes place Devon/Dorset border near