How to build a wood-fire pizza oven

If you want to know how to build your very own wood fire pizza oven, Fairport is the right place to be. In this blog we will go through step by step what you will need to build a wood fire pizza oven and how to construct one from scratch in your own back garden. This is not a task for the faint-hearted and will take a weekend or two.
Step one:

The first step is to build the foundation to your oven and this will need to be solid. Clear the ground around the area where you are going to build your oven and dig a shallow trench of 120cm x 120cm square. Get your wood pieces and place them in a square surrounding the middle of the shallow ditch, remembering to screw them securely together. When this is complete you should have a square box around 1 metre high and 120cm square.
Once this is complete you will want to put a layer of stones and rubble in the centre of the box then add a layer of sand and glass bottles, this will radiate heat back up through the oven once warmed up.

Finally you will want to top this off with a layer of smooth bricks that will be level with the top of the square box; this will then become your oven floor and the surface you will eventually cook on so it is imperative that the bricks fit perfectly together.
 

Step two:

This is where you will start to make the roof for your oven, make a mound (half a sphere) of damp sand to form your clay around. You will need about 120kg of sand to make it the right size. You will want to centre the mound on the plinth that you have just built and gradually construct the dome from the bottom of the mound upwards with your clay. This will need to be 80cm in diameter at the bottom and around 40-45cm high. Through the process you will need to keep checking on it from above to make sure your dome is round. When finished you need to cover the dome with newspaper to stop it from drying out while you puddle the clay.
 

Step three:

At this stage you will need to roll out the puddled clay into sausage shapes (20cm long, 10cm thick). Now you want to build them up in circles from the base of the sand dome (leaving the newspaper on) remember to smooth the outside of the clay with your hands while covering the dome. The layer should be around 7-10cm thick. Once this is done leave the clay for 4 hours to dry.
 

Step four:

Once the clay has dried you will need to take the kitchen knife and cut out the entrance to your oven. Remember this will need to be big enough to fit a tray through it but also small enough you keep the heat in, this should be around 30cm wide and 20cm high. Once the entrance has been cut out then you can scoop out all of the sand inside. Now you will have to wait overnight for the dome to fully dry out, the next morning you should light a fire inside of the dome to dry the clay further.
 

Step five:

You will now want to build an archway to fit around the entrance by using bricks and more sand/ clay mix as mortar to create the angle for the arch. You will want to secure the archway to the entrance to the dome using more clay mix.

Next cut a hole in the dome (near where you have attached the arch to the dome) and build a clay collar to hold the chimney. There are many ways you can construct your chimney, you can use a plant pot, buy one or make one with the clay you have left.
 

Step six:

Here you want to make 4 litres of slip (a mixture of clay and water that is a thick as cream). Stir in 6kg of wood shavings into this mixture until it is mixed well, this will be the insulation for the oven. Layer this onto the clay dome so that the dome is equally covered then leave to dry for 2 hours.
 

Step seven:

Finally we are going to create the outer shell; this is the same as the first layer just slightly larger. Mix the clay and sand together by puddling it, make more sausage shaped bricks and press them firmly together to cover the insulation layer it is around 7-10cm thick all the way around. Smooth the surface again as you have done previously and then all there is left to do is leave it for two days to properly dry out and clear out any remaining sand inside. Once done you should have your garden pizza oven.