After lots of deliberating and research, the wood fired oven mark 1 build was underway.
I am not a builder or even an advanced DIYer, so I made mistakes, which I will point out as the build post progresses.
Basic footings for the base to be built on, its flat around the edges for the brick walls to be built on.
Walls are just breeze blocks, went up quickly and not too bad to use. Very easy to cut to size with a standard saw or similar. Base was filled with large amounts of hardcore from the garden path that had recently been removed. Floor of oven was laid using a large lump of marble from Italy that I had been using in the oven as a pizza stone! This was surrounded by standard red engineering bricks.
This was the first big mistake, had I looked into it further I should have insulated the floor of the oven from the base it was on! As this caused heat from the oven to move from the oven into the base. Also i should not have used sand between the bricks on the floor the first pizzas were a bit gritty to say the least.
A thermal break between the oven and the base will reduce firing times to reach the desired cooking temperature therefore using less fuel and time. It will also increase the time the oven will stay hot even after firing, so can be used for roasting, baking and slow cooking.
However I think I was quite lucky as I was able to use it for pizzas and then after could still slow cook food over night. If the oven reached 400°C+ for pizzas a joint of beef or gammon could go in last thing at night and still be over 100°C in the morning.
I am not a builder or even an advanced DIYer, so I made mistakes, which I will point out as the build post progresses.
Basic footings for the base to be built on, its flat around the edges for the brick walls to be built on.
Walls are just breeze blocks, went up quickly and not too bad to use. Very easy to cut to size with a standard saw or similar. Base was filled with large amounts of hardcore from the garden path that had recently been removed. Floor of oven was laid using a large lump of marble from Italy that I had been using in the oven as a pizza stone! This was surrounded by standard red engineering bricks.
This was the first big mistake, had I looked into it further I should have insulated the floor of the oven from the base it was on! As this caused heat from the oven to move from the oven into the base. Also i should not have used sand between the bricks on the floor the first pizzas were a bit gritty to say the least.
A thermal break between the oven and the base will reduce firing times to reach the desired cooking temperature therefore using less fuel and time. It will also increase the time the oven will stay hot even after firing, so can be used for roasting, baking and slow cooking.
However I think I was quite lucky as I was able to use it for pizzas and then after could still slow cook food over night. If the oven reached 400°C+ for pizzas a joint of beef or gammon could go in last thing at night and still be over 100°C in the morning.
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