BUON APPETITO!
The aroma of wood smoke mingled with that of garlic, toasted cheese, tomatoes, and basil … a glass of wine and the company of good friends. What could possibly be better?
When we originally published an article on how to make your own pizza oven, Shed readers enthusiastically took up the challenge. Several years later I wrote an update of that feature sharing the tweaks I’d made to the design and building process to make it easier after learning a few lessons building many pizza ovens for others. I have used some alternative materials that became available but the overall shape and design of the actual oven have not changed, just the way it is put together.
We’ve had so many requests for the article that updated the original design that we decided to publish it again for all those keen pizza-loving sheddies. One recurring question we get is whether you can make the oven larger or smaller. The answer is: yes, it can be made larger, but no, it should not be made smaller. You can scale the oven up or down but the flames stay the same size. The original oven is optimal for a good, efficient flame pattern to consume all the fuel and produce minimal waste. A smaller oven would tend to choke and burn inefficiently.
A larger oven increases the number of flames, so to speak, and the fire will burn efficiently up to a point. But if it’s too big you would rarely light it and that defeats the purpose of the exercise. This oven can cook food for more than 20 people easily yet still be convenient for only one without consuming vast amounts of fuel.
Foundations
The oven rests on a foundation that has to be calculated for the weight it bears. The footings that form this are excavations in the surface soil filled with concrete. The oven weighs about two tonnes and the footprint of the blocks is approximately 1m. That equates to 2kg per cm. If the footings are extended 100mm out all. The footings need to be only 100mm deep on average soil. If you have very friable volcanic soil, then extend the footings either down or out to reduce the load even further.
