When you’re invited over to a friend’s home and they show you their handmade, outdoor brick oven, it is easy to admire the success that they have achieved, especially if the subsequent pizza meal is as great as you expect. When your talents lie elsewhere, you have the choice of asking your friend to build you an oven, employing a builder to complete the task for you, or purchasing a portable combustion oven that will ultimately, serve the same purpose.
Understanding the Difference Between Cement and Clay
When you consider that clay is fired at very high temperatures to make a range of pots, vases and crockery safe to eat from, it’s not surprising that clay with fine sand is the best recommendation for gluing bricks together. This is conflicting with the standard cement mortar that you would use to build a property. It’s the clay and the bricks that can stand the high temperatures as you build your outdoor brick oven. Cement may fail.
Work from A Plan
There are a wide variety of plans available to help you prepare and order the stock required, to build your outside oven. You will need to possess bricklaying skills because the oven must be able to stand high temperatures and you will expect to use it for many years into the future.
The plans will explain the exact numbers of bricks that you require and the shape and style of your oven, will be defined by your ability to turn building bricks into various shapes, such as an arch, as they are combined.
Your preparation will include a substantial and sturdy foundation, which your outdoor brick oven will rest on. Some individuals will use concrete blocks to build the foundation up to the correct height so that you can build a brick oven at a good elevation for cooking. Other choices include using bricks for the entire structure.
Fire bricks will be used to build a base and surround where your pizza will finally be cooked. As you may intend to finish your oven with a curved brick finish, your skills may be improved by watching YouTube videos or taking a short course in brick building and finishing.
While it’s great to admire those that have the skills to build outdoor brick ovens, the purchase of a portable combustion oven does provide you with other advantages should you wish to make your pizza elsewhere.
