Building a Wood Fired Oven

Here's a treat, my first guest blogger is my husband. Here to explain how he set about building a wood fired oven. Thank you so so so much!!!

Having borrowed a wacking plate it was time to get started on a long awaited project for my dear wife - her wood fired oven.

 

Firstly I read up alot on a very informative website to get the basics right - traditionaloven.com 

Then it was time to get stuck in. I compacted the dirt behind a garden wall and filled it with road base and compacted it some more to get a solid base to start. Then it was time to call in the reinforcements to put a layer of sand on top.

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Stablising the sand with cement ready for a sheet of compressed 15-20mm concrete1800mm*1800mm approx.and getting the levels right

There is a few steps here just not captured by the photographer, the compressed comcrete sheet was laid on the bed in the previous photo and a concrete footing for the outside wall was poured around it between the brick and timber above then the fun part, a row of bricks layed to the outer edge of the compressed sheet.

 

Moving on, two rows are now layed on the outer edge and the internal filled with loose bricks filled with sand and clay mix for stability.

 

Here I and the apprentice grabbed some hebel and layed a bed for insulation under the fire clay tiles to hopefully retain the heat.

Hebel layed and taking shape

 

From a distance the barbecue on the right will need some TLC next.

On top of the hebel I’ve layed the fire bricks in a rectangular pattern with the entrance taking shape. It is nessary here to think about your choice of oven door and flue. I will be able to close off the flue and use an external door so I don’t need to step the bricks so the door has a ridge to seal against in the opening.

Now comes the floor refractory tiles 300*300 layed on the fire clay sand mix thin layer over the hebel so I can get the surface as even as possible.

Then the arch way, with patience and a grinder anyone can do it build a wooden former or have a fun like I did with packing

 

After it all set it was time to build some form work for the concrete roof unfortunately the camera wasn’t handy and I dropped the ball with taking photos a bit. But basically I used two semi circular pieces front and back and put ribs lengthways across the top I filled this with sand and covered the whole lot with plastic and started to mix the refactory concrete. This is where the kids got to have a little fun again the concrete needs to be packed by hand little by little and left to dry.

The two kiddies got to use it as a cubby house once they cleaned out the sand

With a little help I got a damper made up for the chimney so I could close it off when not in use and keep heat in too

 

Final clean out and patch up inside

*INTERMISSION*

Bren - We lost 3 days of work because husband dearest lost his ring. But 3 days is nothing as the whole oven took around 4 months in total to complete.

In desperation we rigged up a sturdy net made from chicken wire so we could sift through half a tonne of sand, one shovel full at a time, but to no avail. Eventually found it cemented into the oven....surprise surprise! Like father like son. Except my father-in-law never found his wedding ring. And my mother-in-law suspects he welded it into the pipework of their old family home!

But hey, it was totally worth it in the end! And no damage to the oven except for a small patch-up.

Happy days! Now back to work!!

Starting to take shape now I rolled out the fibreglass insulation blanket and covered it with chicken wire before adding the sand and cement render above the first coat is thin and messy but it gives you a solid base for the next coat when it dries

 

 

Two further coats of render and one still to come the final one is a premix acrylic render I got to give a nicer finish and hopefully water proof a little better

 

 

After a month of small fires we finally got it to a reasonable temperature to cook so with a few homemade tools its time to get cracking

 

Pizzas are cooking pretty good at approx. 300 to 320 degrees.

Using the residual heat for dinner the next day the heat holds over 24 hours above 180 so it’s great for slow cooking.

 

 

 

The finished oven with final cement layer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is some of the food we've made in the oven already:

 

Pizza

 

Lasagne

 

Overnight slow roasted pork

 

Beef casserole