Over 40 years ago we read an article in “Mother Earth News” about a backyard wood fired oven and decided that was something we would like to do.
Now at age 72 and having no experience, if we were ever going to it, the time was now. Last year during a very cold, snowy winter I spent a great deal of time surfing the web and ran across your plans and ordered a CD’s. After a great deal of research, study and your details with photos we pushed forward. The winters in Cache Valley Utah are cold and snowy, delaying our foundation start until May.
My wife and I dug the hole, mixed and poured the concrete ourselves. We made daily trips with our 4wheeler and trailer to the gravel pit for the next days project. After 3 months of daily labor we fired up our finished oven. With the appropriate curing time we invited a few friends for our first pizza party. We didn’t realize how many friends we had until the summer was over and snow returned. We had made and served over 300 pizzas so far.
Our thanks to you for putting together a program we could follow.
Dennis and Carolyn
Utah, USA
Dennis, thank yo for sharing this. Very inspirational!
That is right, it is worthy project for the future – practical and very pleasing in so many aspects, there is no need to hurry. Did you have some of your friends helping along with the building or it was only you and your other half, Carolyn, who worked it with you?
Now you’ll have 28+ long years enjoying the oven. How many pizzas and roasts and breads there will be produced?!
We are sorry to have taken so long to reply to your question:
Carolyn and I did the bulk of the work by ourselves.
We did have a couple of friends who came by to help on two different days. These friends are our age and we were a little concerned we were overworking them. We noticed they didn’t come by again while we were working.
When it got time to do the finishing we had a young friend who does brick work and was out of projects help us with the outside brick.
We also realized we couldn’t get on the roof so we hired a 15 year old who does yard work for us to get up there and set the tiles. Dennis laid them out on the ground and handed them up.
This was a very exciting and challenging project and all our neighbors watched in amazement. However, they all enjoy the pizza. We are all looking forward to this summer.
A Note From Carolyn:
Dennis did all the measuring, checking, hauling concrete and setting the domes with only one eye. He wears a patch on his left eye and can only do close work for short periods of time. He is very particular and exacting so that accounts for the length of time it took us. I only mixed the concrete, hauled block and brick and was his main cheering section.
You guys are amazing! The oven looks beautiful. I just built a paver patio two years ago, and an oven like this would be the perfect compliment for it. I’m also getting up there (66), but at seventy-two years young, you’re an incredible inspiration! Thank you!
Please can you tell how I can build brick oven?
Thnak you
Can you send me your directions on how to build this great pizza oven? My husband loves it.
Great Job. My wife and i also built a great pizza oven in Ohio, 17 Miles east of lancaster ohio. Yoy can see our finished pizza oven on face book Gary DeMarco.
Dennis,
Fantastic oven. I live in Cottonwood Heights and have my oven operational but not enclosed. If you are open for visitors, I would love to come by and see what you have done. Email me anytime.
Kind regards, Kevin
Kevin, I would be happy to have you come see our oven. We still have the oven winterized. You know what a cold winter we have had in Cache Valley. Soon we will be getting ready to cook. Get in touch with us and we can make arrangements for you to come. Thanks for the comments. Dennis
Dennis and Carolyn,
Your oven is really outstanding!
My father and I have done a similar oven (based on Rado’s instructions) but I must say it doesn’t match the look of your oven.
We us our oven a lot…probably too much (considering the weight we are gaining).
Cheers,
Martin
Gothenburg – Sweden
Your pizza oven is exactly what we’re looking for. Can you send me the information on where/how you got the instructions. Coincidentally, our names are Dennis and Carolyn.
Greatly appreciate it. Thank you.