Avoid These Mistakes When Building Your Pizza Oven Kit

You have decided to build your pizza oven in your garden or on your terrace yourself. The advantages are obvious: cost-effective, individual, and timely. But despite the excitement for the new project, you should know our tips for building - and above all, do not make these mistakes:

There are materials that are more or less suitable for the substructure of your pizza oven kit. Concrete slabs, for example, are not well-suited, as they can, in unfavorable cases, draw heat away from the oven. In this case, you must ensure good insulation between the concrete and oven using calcium silicate blocks. Aerated concrete blocks or hollow bricks under the oven are better. In our construction manuals, we explain in detail and with sketches how the optimal substructure should look.  

The insulation is crucial for your pizza oven kit. You should use high-quality materials in sufficient quantities. If you purchase your pizza oven kit from us at pizza-ofen.de, we offer you package solutions with the correct amount of insulation materials. These always include calcium silicate blocks and ceramic fiber wool. You can also purchase the right mortar directly from us. 

The stones of the kit should not be wetted. They are partially handcrafted in Italy and were dried there. It would take a long time for the oven to dry again and be ready for firing and cooking. We strongly recommend buying and using the coordinated insulation material from our shop. The refractory bricks for the floor must not get wet.

Fireclay plates are laid on the floor of the pizza oven. These should be placed loosely and not tightly together, as they can expand or contract slightly with weather and heat in the oven. This is important to prevent them from cracking. Do not connect the fireclay plates with mortar or other materials. Cracks in the fireclay plates in the oven floor are not a problem; they do not negatively affect the heat storage capacity of the stones.

You have done it; your pizza oven kit is fully assembled, and your outdoor kitchen is completed to your liking. Now you want to start baking pizzas and cooking. But please, with caution. The stones of the oven, both the dome parts and the fireclay plates on the oven floor, still contain residual moisture from production. Fire up the oven over several days at low temperatures and for short periods. Gradually increase the burning duration each day. Your oven might drip a little. That's not a problem. The heat will dry the oven. After about a week, you can cook and bake to your heart's content. You can find a detailed guide to firing up in our blog. Also in our blog, you will find valuable tips for building a pizza oven kit.