Okay, so I decided to build a brick pizza oven, fired by gas. Sounds crazy, right? But I really wanted to give it a shot.
First thing I did was pick a spot in my backyard. I needed somewhere that wasn’t too windy and had enough space. I mean, this thing was gonna be pretty big, so I had to make sure there was room for it and room for me to move around it. I spent some time measuring and visualizing how big it would be in my backyard.
Then, I started to dig. I made a form for the concrete slab using some 2×10 wood pieces. I laid out a pad that was just about 8 feet wide. This was going to be the base, so it had to be solid and the foundation of the oven.
After the digging, I poured the concrete. I used a concrete slab about 5 1/2 inches thick. I read somewhere that it’s a good idea to reinforce it, so I did that. I used some 2×6 studs to frame it, which wasn’t too expensive. It was a bit of work mixing and pouring all that concrete, but it felt good to get it done. And of course, I let it sit and cure for a while so that it would be strong enough for the next steps.
Once the foundation was solid, I started to work on the oven chamber. But I didn’t want to deal with wood, so I went with gas. I figured it would be easier to control the temperature that way. Plus, gas ovens need venting too, just like the traditional wood-fired ones, so it wasn’t that much of a difference in terms of setup. I spent a few days going back and forth between home improvement stores to buy the things I needed.
I won’t lie, it was a lot of work, and a bit of money. I decided to tile the outside of the oven to make it look nice. I could have saved money by leaving it plain. I definitely put in more effort than I expected, but hey, it was my project, and I wanted it to look good.
Building this oven was a real challenge, I had to plan everything out step-by-step. I kept having to pause and check what the next step was or if I was doing things the right way. It was a long process, but I learned a lot along the way. Would I do it again? Maybe. But I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. Now, I can make some awesome pizzas, and I have a cool story to tell about how I built the oven myself!
