DIY Brick Oven

Cooking outdoors is a great experience but did you know that you can do much more than just grill meat and chicken? As a matter of fact, you can even bake your food without using your kitchen oven. Although making a brick oven on your own can take days or weeks, what you will get in the end is a useful cooking equipment for pizzas and other delicious dishes that you can come up with.

How to Build Your Own Brick Oven

  1. Choose a spot. Check your place out and decide where to put your oven. Lay out four rows of cinder blocks to act as base then add more rows until you are about three blocks high. Make sure that you apply cement adhesive in between the blocks to secure them in place. Let the adhesive dry for two hours at least.
  1. Add loose stones, rubble, rocks in the middle. Once the adhesive has dried, fill the center of the container with rocks, loose stones, rubble, or even pieces of cement up to 12 inches below the rim.
  1. Add gravel and sand. Add at least four inch layer of gravel and sand followed by a layer of vermiculite then tamp down the layers firmly. Add another 3 inches of sand and make sure that you tamp it down so that it will be even with the rim.
  1. Install a layer of firebricks. Install a layer made from firebricks and make sure that you tap them into place using your rubber mallet to straighten them all out. See to it that even the edges are covered with firebricks.
  1. Make two circles. Using a string and a pencil, draw two circles with one being 28 inches in diameter and the other one is 42 inches.
  1. Use wet sand. Build a dome shape from wet sand in the smaller circle. The sand should be moist as you work on it so start spraying with water if it is difficult to shape.
  1. Measure the dome’s height. Determine the height of the dome. Using a tarp, fill the center with a mixture of 1 part clay and 3 parts sand. Add water then mix the contents together so that when you drop a small piece on the ground, it won’t flatten or even break apart.
Image from Henning House
  1. Build the dome. You should add at least 3 inch thick walls around the oven. Let it sit for the night.
  1. Mix sand and clay. After the first layer has set, mix some clay and sand then about an armful of chopped straw. Again let it set before applying another layer. This time, add 2 armfuls of chopped straw to the mixture.
  1. Measure the height of the dome. To determine the height of your dome, simply multiply the height of your dome by 0.63.
  1. Create the door. Using a knife, cut out the shape of the door for your oven. The opening should be enough to access the inside.
  1. Remove interior. Scrape out excess sand from the interior of the oven using a trowel and brush off any excess firebrick.
  1. Install the door. Draw the shape of your oven door on a wood and cut it. Make sure that the edges will fit the opening perfectly. Install a handle on the door so you can open it easily.

Although building a brick oven from scratch sounds like hard work, the end result will definitely be to your advantage especially when you can bake and cook any food that you like.

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