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Showing posts with the label wood-fired pizza oven

Adding Gravel to Pizza Oven Foundation Prep - Backyard Wood-Fired Oven - March 2024

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The last progress-report on our backyard pizza oven was earlier in March when I showed the cut-down concrete slab framing pieces (2x6's) that I cut to the final dimension s (Slab: 78" wide, 86" deep. 6.5' wide, 7'2" deep. Stand: 72 wide, 80 deep - 4.5 blocks wide, 5 blocks deep).  In that post, I talked about the next step is to fill the excavated cavity with gravel ahead of the rest of the slab prep. I went over to Menards and picked up 10 0.5 cubic foot bags of their multi-purpose gravel.  Each bag is supposed to cover about six square feet.  I wasn't sure how far these ten bags would go, but I figured that was about the limit that I wanted to push my car weight-wise.   I brought the ten bags home and hauled them (one-by-one) to the site and piled them up: Opening each bag and spreading it out, I quickly discovered that I was FAR short of the amount of gravel that I REALLY needed to complete the project.  Below, is what the site looks like after ten ha

Backyard DIY Pizza Oven Construction - Slab Framing - March 2023

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Over the weekend, I went out and picked up four 2x6x8 boards and brought them home to begin to figure out if I've done enough excavation for our wood-fired pizza oven project.  I've been using a tape measure to figure out how much I needed to remove and if my dig was large enough to support the slab framing - along with the necessary bracing.  But, that's an imperfect science, so I decided to just go out and cut the lumber down to the final dimensions and place them in the hole to see - without guessing - if I've excavated enough. As a reminder - mostly to myself - my final dimensions are based on 8x8x16 construction blocks:  Slab: 78" wide, 86" deep. 6.5' wide, 7'2" deep). Stand: 72 wide, 80 deep (4.5 blocks wide, 5 blocks deep) Leaving reveal of 6" total both dimensions. 3" all ways. This allows for 2" face brick and a 1" reveal. I cut the two side pieces of the frame to be 86" and the front/back to be 81" (to acco

Backyard Pizza Oven Construction - Foundation Slab and Stand Material Options and Details - March 2024

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With excavation started on the site of our backyard wood-fired pizza oven (on our drywell) , I need to move from the theoretical (What could an oven look like?  How high should it be?  What would it need to be made out of?  How many cinder blocks? What layout?) In my recent post on excavation , I ran through some mental math to figure out what size the hole needs to be, what size the slab will be and how wide the block foundation will be once constructed.  I ran through both a 10x8x16 block scenario and an 8x8x16 block scenario.   The 8x8x16 is the traditional block, but I was considering if the extra 2" block in the first (one or two) courses is appropriate to all for the footing of a brick face on the sides of the oven. Off I went to Menards to poke around in the construction block section.  Back in January, I posted the details of how there are L-shaped cinder blocks that help make proper corners and I wondered if I should be using those to make a square pizza oven stand .    I

Piling Excavated Dirt In Garden Beds For Berm - Smothered by Wood Chips - February 2024

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This past week saw the start of the excavation for my backyard wood-fired pizza oven .  After going back-and-forth with various versions of math...I settled on some dimensions.  The hole needs to be 90" wide and 98" deep.  That allows for a slab to be poured that is 78" wide and 86" deep.  12" each way to allow for framing, supports and what I'm calling 'wiggle room'.   I opted for the 'on top of the drywell' location ; which means that the excavation is going to be light in some parts (6 inches) and deeper in others (10-12 inches).   That means that I'm going to be removing A LOT of material.  Soil.  Clay.  Probably some rocks.   What do I do with it? What I'd *LIKE* to do with it is to either build a berm in our front yard .  Or...use it to build a waterfall for a backyard pond.   But, I'm not ready for the pond.  And, I'm too chicken to do the berm in front.   Will it look silly?  Will it look sloppy?  Will it look unfinis

DIY Wood-Fired Pizza Oven Construction - Initial Excavation For Foundation - February 2024

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This past weekend, I posted a list of 'early potential priorities' out in the yard and garden for the upcoming 2024 growing season .  That list featured a number of projects/ideas/areas that *could* be something that I'm going to prioritize in 2024.  But, it also featured one item that has certainty when it comes to being a priority:  the backyard wood-fired pizza oven construction. The location/site of the oven has been an open question for me ever since we moved in back in 2017.  I wrote about a couple of final options in the backyard in early January where I narrowed it down to two locations :  built into the berm/closer to the patio vs. down on the drywell, lower-elevation. With the run of warmer temperatures this week, I got out one night after work and just got busy:  digging the foundation.   I went with the drywell location.  Further from the house, but anchoring a secondary, lower-tiered patio.  Below is a look at the site - annotated to show the outline of the fou

Harbor Freight Cement Mixer - Pizza Oven Construction - Tools - February 2024

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After excavation, the first step of building my backyard pizza oven is framing and pouring a solid foundation for the oven to sit-on.  This foundation is going to be a 5.5" thick, reinforced concrete slab.  I've been probing for the boundaries of the in-ground drywell in our backyard ( post with photos here ) and have to decide on final location in the coming weeks.   Once that location is set, I can begin excavation.  Then, my brain will switch to construction material ordering - starting with bags of concrete/cement and concrete block for the foundation. The first consideration in that process is how I'll go about making/mixing the concrete.  One of the recommendations from the builder community on the Forno Bravo forums is to buy a 3.5 cubic foot cement mixer from Harbor Freight.  I went over to the local HF store this past weekend and sized the machine up.  Here, below is a photo of the cement mixer below: Here's the product page - shows the specs and the price : 

Roof Inspiration - Backyard Pizza Oven - January 2024

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Yesterday, I posted a photo of the 'drywell exploration' that I conducted to find the edges and depth of the drywell to discover if it would serve as a suitable subsurface for my diy backyard wood-fired pizza oven.   I've also recently posted about some brickwork inspiration here .    When thinking about the oven, the facade is a big part of the 'looks', but so too is the roofline.  I recently came across this Tiktok from RustyVanRanch  - embedded below - that shows a barn roof that has an extended peak out front at the top of the gable: @rustyvanranch ♬ original sound - Rusty Van Ranch Here's a screenshot of the roof in question: A little digging revealed that those are called " Hay Hoods ".  Some call them "Crow's Beaks".  It serves a purpose of providing a little bit more shelter over the hay loft door.  For my pizza oven, there's appeal in a little bit of protection WITHOUT creating a huge, overhead roof.   Filing this awa

Digging To Find Drywell For Backyard Wood-Fired Oven - January 2024

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A few weeks ago, I posted a couple of items related to my 2024 goal of building a wood-fired pizza oven in our backyard including a look at a couple of locations , some brickwork inspiration and how I could build the stand out of cinder blocks - including corners .   With the snow melting away this week, I went out to look at one of the locations and remembered...that ahead of the snow, I was digging around trying to find the 'edges' of the drywell.   Below is a photo showing a number of locations that I dug down to see 'how deep' the drywell is located and how I was probing to find the 'edge' of the well.   The drop from grade to drywell is variable across this six-foot-by-six-foot section.  Surprisingly so.  I also found (I think) two of the 'edges' of the drywell.  Which...if I sited the oven where I *wanted* to, would have a small portion of the foundation OVERHANGING the drywell.  That would mean that I'd have to bring in some gravel - which i

3rd Location - Backyard Pizza Oven - January 2024

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Analysis causes paralysis is a trope that people say in business and life.  But, I'm NOW feeling that very thing HARD in regards to our backyard pizza oven planning.  It was just a week ago that I VERY CONFIDENTLY posted about how I was down to just two finalist locations for our oven .  But, today?  I'm not so sure any longer.  What about a 3rd location, on the south side of the yard, about the same distance from the house.  But, tucked into a current bed where the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas are planted?  See below for this 3rd location at the bottom of the drawing: This 3rd location re-introduces one of the ORIGINAL sites that I contemplated as far back as 2017 .    What does this new site get us?  It certainly doesn't take advantage of the grade change, so that means that the full height and mass of the oven will be in-view.  That provides for a bit of screening.  But, it also means that the oven becomes a garden focal-point.  If site'd here, it would be the biggest dr

Using L-Shaped Cinder Blocks For Corners of Backyard Pizza Oven Stand - January 2024

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Earlier this week, I posted my 3-D model using LEGO bricks of my proposed wood-fired pizza oven stand that would be built from a couple different sizes of standard cinder blocks - 16x8x8 and 8x8x8.  In that post (and using the model), I determined that I needed 4.5 blocks deep (from front-to-back) and 4 blocks wide (side-to-side).  That gave me a 74" deep by 64" wide block stand.  Or 6'2" deep and 5'4" wide. But...there's a new development.  At least...new to me, the novice bricklayer.  Turns out, there are 'corner' cinder blocks.   I discovered this fact when I was at Menards looking over the block inventory.  Here's a few photos showing these L-shaped corner-forming cinder blocks  below and how they work together with normal blocks.  These are 12" block compatible. Below is a drawing from Menards that shows the dimensions of these L-shaped corner cinder blocks in 10" width: There are so many variables that I still need to work out

Lego Model For Wood-Burning Pizza Oven Stand - January 2024

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I've been busy getting to know Sketchup - in an attempt to create a true, accurate model of my (hopefully to-be-built-in-2024) backyard wood-fired pizza oven .  But, I also figured out a different, three-dimensional approach that will work (at least for me).  The stand of the oven is built from typical cinder blocks:  16x8x8 (16" long, 8" tall, 8" deep) and half-blocks of 8x8x8 (8" long, 8" tall, 8" deep) that are commonly available from any big-box hardware store.   I was playing around with sketchup one afternoon when I realized that I could build out a model using some common bricks.   I wanted to get a sense for how the stand would come together and also begin to build out a parts-list for the blocks.   I went up to the kids lego bins and quickly figured out how to build this: Part 3001 (2x4 brick)  has 8 studs on top and is the typical rectangle brick that you think of when you think of LEGO bricks.   Using a one-stud for 4" each direction, t

Bricklaying Inspiration and Pattern For Backyard Pizza Oven - January 2024

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A few days ago, I posted a look at a couple of locations for my (hopefully) wood-fired oven to be placed in our backyard.  In that post, I mentioned that I was going after a brick facade and gable roof structure.  But, besides the notion of brick, I haven't - until just now - given much thought into the type of brick and the pattern of brick.  Why am I thinking about that now?  Well... Recently, I saw this TikTok  from Hans Lorei Design ( here's the Hans Lorei Design Instagram Handle  where he posted the same video) about brickwork *used to be so much better* and with the modern way we are building things, the real *art* has been lost and replaced with brick faces on buildings being laid in a field pattern.   It is embedded below.  Click play, and turn on the volume.   @hansloreidesign Our brick work & buildings could be so much better if we embraced more patterns & detail #homedesign #architecture #architecturaldesign #interiordesign #oldbuilding ♬ original sound

Down to Two Pizza Oven Locations - 2024 Project - January 2024

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The notion of building a wood-burning oven in our backyard is one that I've mused about for years.  Dating back to our first house in Elmhurst, I dreamed up how I could build one and where it would go in the landscape.  I've posted about it a few times since we moved to Downers - including here in 2017 and again in 2020 and then one month later (also) in 2020 .  The first post in 2020, I talked about planning for a pond and oven .   That last post in September of 2020 , I mentioned building it on *top* of our large drywell.   When I go back and read those posts, I can see the evolution in thinking - from close to the patio to utilizing the lower elevation on the northside to placing it on the drywell to deal with any potential heaving.  They all make sense.  And, that's what I've been thinking the past few weeks as I've moved into real planning mode. I'd like to call 2024 the year of the pizza oven.  Or, at least...the pizza oven foundation and stand.  Let'