Build this homemade brick pizza oven in your backyard with recycled used clay bricks and a recycled metal mattress frame. And the pizza oven is portable! You can assemble this in 20 minutes, make homemade pizzas, then take it apart and store it. Most backyard pizza ovens are big and permanent, this homemade brick oven is great because its easy to break down again until your next pizza baking party.Here are the pizza oven plans shown in photos, our oven uses used clay brick and 24" angle iron we cut from a old bed frame. You have to heat up the oven for an hour to get it up to temperature. The brick pizza oven has to be on sturdy sawhorses or cement blocks. We used cement tile board to insulate the plywood table from the heat of the brick oven. Stuart, author of the Bread Oven book, emailed us, cautioning that he felt the 2 layers of cement tile board was not enough insulation to keep the plywood from scorching, he suggests a base of cement, as shown on his blog here.
Clean the bricks that will be used for the floor of the oven, that's where your pizza dough will be sitting. We didn't have a thermometer, but I'm told the floor of the brick oven can reach 700F. We also found its good to keep some of the coals in the front part of the oven, so the heat is more even. We had to turn the pizza once during baking to have it cook evenly.
I have a few ideas for more modifications, which we will post later on. Keep children and animals away from this and all fires, this is for adults.
base of pizza oven
building walls of pizza oven
pizza oven roof using angle iron
Backyard Brick Pizza Oven
More Pizza Oven Plan Photos Here
Watch all of our pizza oven and pizza dough recipes here
Our backyard pizza oven is based on one in the book Bread , Earth, & Fire by Stuart Silverstein. Stuart's book has a bunch of plans and info on building backyard ovens, go buy it here. it is available as an ebook or paperback. Read Stuart's blog here.
Randy
Ok, Eric, that officially rocks. I've put off this project for years. Now I'm thinking of all sorts of variations of this design, like piling more brick or sand on this design to make a less portable but still not permanent version. I worry that this design might not have enough thermal mass to bake bread, though for pizza it's obviously fine. Thanks for yet another video that will make my wife shake her head when I try a similar project.
Dennis
I'm with Randy.... I was thinking of a way to put a chimney out the back by removing 1 brick and using some duct piping and pushing the smoke away from the front. Thank you Eric!!!
Gfr_mike
I imagine someday someone will recycle this brick and there will be a building with a room or multiple rooms that inexplicably smell like pizza
Eric Gunnar Rochow
thanks randy, let me know what variations you do, take pictures for us! eric.
Eric Gunnar Rochow
a chimney might help. i'm no expert, but i think the diameter of the pipe should be 3-4" to keep the heat in. thx! eric.
Sandy
What was that pizza dough recipe?
Tim Lewallen
Great job as always! I plan on putting a wood fired oven into my next shop. Hopefully this summer!
Randy
I'm thinking no chimney, but more mass - making an oven you use after the coals are swept out, and a plywood or planking door... I do have a pile of 90-year old clay brick over at my rental house.....maybe a plywood outer box 6 inches or so larger than the brick, filled w/sand. Still pretty portable if one tires of the oven or needs to relocate. My head hurts. Too many ideas for a snowy holiday morning.
Eric Gunnar Rochow
the pizza dough recipe is on our site, the link is in the post above, here it is again: http://www.gardenfork.tv/how-to-make-pizza-dough-and-bake-pizza
Willard Wood
Eric: super cool! and the dogs never knocked the oven over! Kudos -W.
Heart inWisconsin
Love the video. Is it ok to put the pizza directly on the old brick? I'm just curious if there should be baking stone or something in there. Just in case your bricks used to be in an usavory place.
Kris Watson
Here's the one I built two years ago. Been using it frequently. Even finished the Thanksgiving turkey in it. Technically, it is portable...but not by a 60-year old grandmother with a bad back!
http://krissimplyliving.blogspot.com/2011/02/today-i-played-with-fire-pic-heavy.html
Don&Lois Rochow
Eric***Another great job done by a ROCHOW proud to say your my nephew.
Keep up the good work. Now that you cut up your bed frame does that mean that your sleeping on the floor with hounds? Three cheers for the Rochow's.
Don&Lois
Ivan
Eric, I think i'm going to do this at somepoint in the next few weeks. 2 mods I think I might make are one using quarry tile for the pizza stone and, as mentioned before, a chimney in the back. Really looks cool. Thanks!
Andi Strong
Eric,
Wonderful idea! I heard you and Mike talking about also using the oven for baking bread by increasing the mass and adding a wooden door. Where does the smoke go? Do you need to create a chimney? Love Garden Fork! Thanks, Andi
Mike Freeman
Wooow...I'm soooo gonna make this come spring!
makis
Wow thats a pizza oven! I've been thinking about dry fitting but didn't know how to build it. Thanks man!
What are the dimensions of the oven?
For opimisation:
- a chimney on the front (see most italian ovens)
- insulation under the floor (vermicrete or perlicrete for cheap about 6 inches),
around and on top (DIY vermicrete blocks weight is half that of a concrete block)
Have a good time!
Tonia Moxley
I wonder if one brick were left out of the back course of the roof, if that would make a little chimney to even out the heat and keep smoke from rolling out of the front.
Steven Spahr
I was wondering how this oven holds up in the wind. I live in a rather windy area. I am concerned that swirlling winds will pick up hot embers causing a fire danger, let alone a mess. Any thoughts?
admin
@steven, can't really address how it does in wind, we don't have high winds here on regular basis. be careful, thx, eric.
John Hickey
Just got hold of an old bed frame, now to find some fire brick and build this brick oven. I do hope to eventually construct a permanent brick oven, probably following the Alan Scott design.
Thanks for the video and info on this small scale brick oven.
John Vaughters
Eric, this looks really cool. We're thinking about building one for a mothers day gift. I'm in Japan, so it's a bit harder to find bed frames here. What are your thoughts on using a single large piece of sheet metal as a base for the top bricks?
Thanks for a great project. Looking forward to browsing more of your blog.
Evan Beckwith
That's what I like quick and easy and easily moved. Not sure how many days it would last in Christchurch New Zealand. Still having aftershocks. Only three yesterday, largest a magnitude four.
Daniel Siegel
Eric, You inspired me to make one of these. I made a few modifications, like a lower edge to the top of the front of the oven to help keep the heat in. And a chimney to direct the smoke and flame. I used new firebrick for the floor but used clay brick for the rest. It's working out great and I plan to leave it in place for a good while. I keep it covered with a tarp when not in use. Thank you so much for the info/video/and inspiration... You can see it at: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,24207.0.html
Eric Gunnar Rochow
i'm looking at my stack of bricks and thinking pizza in the near future for us. thanks for the link too, eric.
Alisa
What a great tutorial! We made it right away. Thanks for a great website!
Here is a picture of the oven:
http://pinterest.com/pin/164733298839923043/
Here is a picture of a door I made with more scraps:
http://pinterest.com/pin/164733298839923055/
Here is a picture of yummy pizza made in the oven:
http://pinterest.com/pin/164733298839923074/
Maddie
Hi Eric,
I can't wait to build this oven. I will buy firebrick for the floor and clay for the rest. I am counting 94 bricks not 96, am I correct? Do you have any modifications on the oven yet? Thanks
Louis
Love the idea but im a little concerned about the angle iron--What kind of steel is preffered? An online search of angle iron at LOwes, HD, gives me "galvanized steel" and Aluminum angle iron....Can those a) take the heat, and b)are they really safe to heat 10 ~1000F? As far as I know, galvanized steel should NOT be heated like that, as it can produce toxic fumes....IS your bed frame steel different? (I dont have extra bed frames lying around, or a saw to cut them)/
CHeers,
Louis
Sebastien
Why not cement bricks in between to make it more stable ? (and maybe not portable anymore)?
Being Florida, bricks get wet - should they be protected from humidity somehow ? thank you
Eric Gunnar Rochow
you could do all sorts of things with this DIY pizza oven plan, check out stuart silverstein's book for more info! eric.
Michael
Thanks for putting this out there. I built this for myself this weekend just as you demonstrated. I let the fire run for an hour and when I stuck the pizza in I had a big problem! The curst burned all around the pizza and the bottom of the pizza would not cook through, as if the bricks weren't hot enough. I'm not sure what's going on. One thing I did differently was used whole wheat dough from Whole Foods. Let me know if you have any tips. Thanks again!
Eric Gunnar Rochow
Hi Michael, The oven works best with thin crusts, but not sure why it didn't cook through for you. ? eric.
Mike
Looks way awesome! Looking for materials to build one. Do you know how hot it gets in side the oven?
Robert Cox
Just got all the materials to build this... only modification I'm making is dropping the front 2 wall bricks for the final roof, to create a dropped roof and retain more heat in the oven.
I've managed to do it with about 130~ UK engineering bricks (with 3 holes) laid sideways for the base and walls.
ken mcbroom
This is a great idea. I have wanted a simple pizza oven and this is it.