Wood Fired Oven Build

I've been wanting a wood fired oven for a long time and now seems like a good time to start building one, so here goes! After all "The Beast" build went so well I can't help but think that I can probably pull this off. Full disclosure, I did work for a mason a couple summers in high school so I am not unfamiliar with that trade, but I am by no means talented at the craft.

I went back and forth on whether to build this on a cart or a separate permanent spot in the yard. I was leaning toward the cart until I glanced out of our bedroom window and I saw this spot by our patio, funny thing is that I couldn't picture it from ground level but from above I saw it right away. This pic is from my deck, but you get the idea.


Next it was time to dig a little to have room to build a good base. I dug down about a foot to have plenty of room for my base and a 6" thick concrete pad. Also, always a good idea to dig a little extra from all sides to make sure you have plenty of room when setting up your forms.


Then I set the forms, added a little of the dirt back and tamped it down so that my "hole" was about 10" deep. Next was the base, I used class 5 rock and the base layer is about 4" thick, that leaves enough space for my 6" concrete pad.


Now I have to get creative because I am building a portion of this over my current concrete slab patio that slopes quite a it to make sure water is running away from the house. Probably can't see it but there are "level" lines drawn on the 2x6's and we will do our best to pour to those lines.


Just another pic of a tip that will keep your from cussing later on, if you didn't already do so, go back around and make sure none of tops of your stakes, that are holding your forms in place, are exposed above the top level of your form. This makes it much simpler when it comes time to screed and finish your concrete.


I hammer drilled 5 holes into my patio and pinned some rebar shorts in them, then I added some longer sections of rebar and wire tied them together. It's not the prettiest job but I am using up some odds and end in this step. I also drilled 6 holes in the top of the patio and put some concrete screws in them to help the concrete hold on the over pour section. Not sure if this will help at all but I figured it couldn't hurt.


The concrete mixer and bags of concrete mix are ready to go tomorrow! I figured it to be about 26 - 60# bags so I bought 30! There is nothing worse than being short a bag or two when you need them, plus I will need concrete mix for a couple other steps of this build and have plenty of room to store them in the mean time.

HarrynVegas said:

Did you do all this in one day? By yourself? You're my hero. Where do yo get that much energy?

Click to expand...

No, I dug the hole last night, the rest I did today. It was a pretty productive day when you consider I had to haul all the dirt and extra class 5 away and my two boys (ages 7 & 5) wanted to help!

Which is fantastic because I love them taking an interest in these types of things but it sure doesn't speed up the process. But they had a good time shoveling dirt, tamping the base, using the drill to setup the forms, playing with the tape measure and levels when I was doing something that I didn't need their help on.

They even wanted to help me unload the 60# bags of concrete mix, but neither one of them can lift them! So then I had to teach them a little about leverage and how to spin them into place so I could grab them.

scarekrow said:

Great start. I want to see what kind of design you end up going with.

Click to expand...

Going with an "igloo" arched dome vs the barrel arch, interior cooking diameter of 42". Ceiling height of 17" - 18" with the door opening being approximately 21" wide by 11" tall. Will be using 2" ceramic fiber board underneath the cooking floor, medium duty firebrick for the floor and arch. Not sure on insulation for the dome, was thinking about building a "cocoon" around it and filling with either perlite or vermiculite to about 4-6" deep around the entire dome.

My biggest concern of the entire project is the exhaust, but I am sure it is one of those things that once you get to that point it will make more sense.

The finished housing will have a gable roof, not sure on roofing yet, but the exterior walls will be stone veneer unless the boss tells me otherwise.

A whole lot of work to build one of these!

Smoke Dawg said:

Looks good!

Just an Idea - If you ripped the form boards on the exsisting concrete along your "level line" you would have an easy time of working the concrete. Just a thought.

Click to expand...

That would definitely be the ideal but doing that brings in a few other variables in this particular instance. This being such a small area I will just have to make it work.

Woke up this morning refreshed and ready to get the pad poured.

Here it is about 1/3 of the way done, it ended up being easier to pour to the line on my 2x6 than I thought it would be.


Here the pad is poured and the screeding is completed. It took me about 1.25 hours to get from turning on the mixer to this point. I can mix 4 bags at a time in my mixer so that helps a lot.


Remember when I said I figured it to take 26 bags but I bought 30, well I ended up mixing all 30 and had this much left, probably 1.5 bags or so left. So I am guessing it ended up taking 28.5 bags.


Since virtually none of this will be seen, I just went with a simple brush finish.


Oh yeah, my helpers made their marks! I had them do it where the opening to the wood storage area will be, that way they can still see them after the project is complete.


I will take the forms off later today and then start sourcing the concrete block. Goal is to let this cure for 3-4 days, stack the block towards the end of the week and pour the hearth next weekend. I will be dry stacking the block and filling every other cavity with concrete which I will do at the same time I am pouring the hearth to make it one solid unit.