What is the best material for pizza oven base?

Naturally, the formula is a tightly held but with over 100 years of brick manufacturing behind them, it's no secret the Valoriani firebrick floor is the best choice for wood fired pizza ovens!

What is the best material for a pizza oven floor?

Floor Thickness

The Forno Bravo oven uses 18″x18″x2 1/2″ true firebrick baking tiles—the optimal thickness and material for baking Pizza Napoletana. The 2 1/2″ floor can be fully heated to an 800ºF pizza baking temperature, which allows for continuous baking, without the floor cooling down.

What is the best base for a pizza oven?

The base - solid foundations

Supports for your outdoor pizza oven can be made of concrete, breeze blocks, house bricks, or even old railway sleepers, but they must be strong and level, as the oven is going to be heavy. If you are using bricks or breeze blocks connect them together using cement.

What do you put in the bottom of a pizza oven?

To make the under floor paste, mix 1 part fine sand and 1 part fireclay (photo 2) with water until you reach the texture of a sticky mortar (but without the cement). Spread the under floor using a notched trowel as the ridges will make it easier for you to get your floor perfectly level (photo 3).

What surface can you put a pizza oven on?

It's not a good idea to place the wood-fired oven on any wooden surfaces — we recommend stainless steel or a granite or concrete slab. If you choose granite, make sure to use a ceramic board under the oven.

Build or Buy Pizza Oven | Top 9 Things to Know

How thick should a pizza oven base be?

The layer should be about 7-10cm thick. Leave the clay to dry for 4 hours. Using a kitchen knife, cut out the entrance to your oven. It needs to be big enough to fit a roasting tray through it, but small enough to keep the heat in – about 30cm wide by 20cm high.

Can a pizza oven sit on wood?

1) You will need to build a base with a 15cm THICK concrete slab for the oven to sit on. This base will help to carry the weight of the oven, raise it to an operational cooking level and the thick floor will help to insulate the oven.

What is the floor of a wood pizza oven made of?

Natural materials like alumina, silica and kaolinite, can give clay refractory qualities — the ability to withstand high heat. When clay is high in alumina, silica and kaolinite, it is called Fire Clay. The first firebricks were simply fire clay dug from the earth, pressed and fired in a kiln.

Does a pizza oven need insulation?

While some brick ovens do not use insulation sheets, these ovens will have the heat drawn down much faster, using more fuel and making retained heat cooking more challenging. It goes without saying that without pizza oven insulation, your brick oven can be extremely hot to the touch on the outside.

Is vermiculite safe for pizza oven?

INSULATION MATERIAL: Vermiculite is a natural mineral high-temperature loose insulation material for insulation behind fire backs, around stoves and pizza oven. SUITABLE FOR: This vermiculite insulation is suitable for pipe insulation and insulation in wood fired pizza ovens.

Can you use pavers for a pizza oven?

These are just a few of the many reasons it is a much better idea to avoid using house bricks and pavers for the inside of pizza ovens. You can always use standard bricks around the outside and for building the stand -in fact we recommend it, as standard bricks are actually better in wet weather.

What kind of stone is used in a pizza oven?

Pizza stones are made of ceramic, cordierite, or a composite material, so they can differ in terms of heat conductivity from model to model. Composite and cordierite stones are more durable and usually a little more expensive than ceramic.

Is vermiculite safe to cook on?

Vermiculite fire bricks are great for cooking authentic, savoury meals. They are used for insulation purposes and allow your stove to burn efficiently. They also work as a heat barrier to protect the walls of your steel stove. Better yet, you can cut them into any shape and size to fit your stove.

Can cinder blocks be used for pizza oven?

They are strong, inexpensive, and BIG = less mortaring than the much smaller bricks. The most common size of cinder blocks in the US is 16x8x8. We highly recommend a height of 40"-44" for the cooking area, this will make your cinder block base either 4 or 5 blocks high. Use the level when building the walls.

Can you use concrete blocks for a pizza oven?

Using Concrete Is a Bad Idea

You may not have spare clay bricks lying around, but you might have concrete blocks. Unfortunately, these aren't going to cut it. These aren't fired and so haven't been hardened. They're very brittle and would crack easily under the heat.

What kind of wood is used for pizza ovens?

The best woods for burning in your pizza oven are undoubtedly seasoned and dried hardwoods such as oak, maple, and ash. Hardwoods are usually much denser than softwoods (duh).

Can you use pine in a pizza oven?

Wood That Shouldn't Be Used in a Pizza Oven

You should also avoid using woods with high sap content. These woods, like pine, produce soot and creosote that builds up on the floor of your oven and is also bad for your health.

What do you need for an outdoor pizza oven?

What can you use instead of firebrick?

Substitute for firebricks can be old red clay solid bricks. In ovens these alternative red clay bricks will heat up, retain heat, cook, bake, roast, re-fire, absorb conduct store and hold the heat from wood fire and perform the same way as proper refractory firebricks do.

Is concrete safe to cook on?

The only way a concrete brick is going to hurt you is upside the head. You still do not want to use them in your oven, but not for health reasons. Portland cement begins to degrade at 500 degrees. Actual firebrick contain silica in various proportions, but are 100% safe (except upside the head) and stable for cooking.

Are clay bricks fireproof?

Fire Brick is a high heat tolerant dry-pressed clay brick. The most common use of this product is for fireplace installations, indoor/outdoor brick ovens and outdoor kitchens. Fire Brick can be used during residential or commercial installations and are capable of withstanding temperatures up to 2460° F.

Can you use perlite for pizza oven base?

It's really light but a great insulator and so our insulation layer is made by mixing 5 parts perlite to 1 part cement. You can get a 100 litre bag for less than £20 on Amazon which is great value.