How to Install Your Pizza Oven
Once you have chosen your Italian wood burning oven you can look forward to having a great time entertaining your family and friends. Building an oven from one of our kits is very easy.
When you order a Los Angeles Ovenworks oven, it is shipped via common carrier with lift gate to the curb of your home or business. Unpacked, the individual oven pieces are easily moved to the building site by two people.
Oven Kit
The different parts included in the oven kit are:
- floor elements
- dome elements
- two-piece chimney flue
- metal door with thermometer
- tub of refractory cement
- thermal insulating blanket (this is shipped separately)
Oven Accessories
Parts which are purchased separately or user supplied:
- Arch
- Simpson 6” DuraTech UL103HT anchor plate, chimney pipe, chimney cap and spark arrestor.
- Super Isol Board for insulation of the hearth
Foundation and structure
You will need to build a stand and a structure to accommodate the oven kit. For ideas on how to plan and build these and the structure around the oven use our downloadable specification sheets in pdf format:
Mediterranean-style Specifications:
Model 80, Model 90, Model 100, Model 110, Model 120, Model 140- Gable Roof with Concrete Masonry-style Specifications:
Model 80, Model 90, Model 100, Model 110, Model 120, Model 140 - Gable Roof with Steel Construction Specifications:
Model 80, Model 90, Model 100, Model 110, Model 120, Model 140
There are also ideas for pizza oven designs in our Outdoor Kitchen Design and Photo Gallery sections.
Making an insulating base
After you built the slab, you want create to an insulating pad on top of which you will install the oven. This pad below the floor elements will greatly enhance the oven’s heat-holding power. It can be done in several ways: with firebrick, or with a mixture of expanded clay and cement, or vermiculite concrete, or with Super Isol boards. The boards are the easiest, the fastest and the most efficient, and come in standard size of 24” x 36” x 2”. Simply cut the Super Isol boards to size (this can be done with any wood working tool). These boards absorb moisture, so you will need to slightly dampen them again before you place and grout the oven floor elements on top of them. It is important that you completely encase the Super Isol boards, leaving no part exposed to the elements to prevent them from absorbing water and creating steam under the oven itself. Use a mask and eye protection when drilling or cutting the boards.
Installation of your pizza oven
We are giving here just a general overview of the installation process, as more detailed guidelines are included with your oven kit.
Preparatory Dry Installation
First do a dry installation of the unit, including the arch, on the slab you built to house the oven. Measure and center the oven on the slab, making an outline of the oven with pencil, chalk, or spray paint. Remove the oven elements.
Mixing the refractory grout
Open the bucket of refractory grout, and save the water on top of it by pouring it into another container. Then transfer the grout into a larger container for easy mixing (a trough or a 5-gallon bucket should do). Slowly add the saved liquid while mixing, and stop when the grout is the consistency of peanut butter. There will be water left over, save it so that you can pour it back over the remaining grout before you store it.
Setting the floor elements
All the floor elements are installed with the smooth side up and should be level, as this is your cooking floor. Start with the small rectangular floor element in front of the oven. Put three individual globs on the underside of each floor tile, set and tap the floor piece level. If the tile is not level, then pull it up and add more grout, tapping the tile until level and move on to the next piece until all are set and level. Let the floor pieces sit for an hour or so before continuing. This will allow the floor to firm up thus preventing any accidental bumping from moving it. Return the remaining grout to its bucket, adding the extra water that you saved on top, replace the lid; keep in a cool, dry place.
Grouting the floor elements
Put as much grout as you’re comfortable with in a pastry bag and grout the floor tile, grouting only the seams between the tiles. The grouted seams should be depressed enough so that when you will run a pizza peel or casseroles across the oven floor they will not bump against the grout, thus chipping it.
Setting the dome elements
The dome pieces interlock snugly and need only a minimal amount of grouting. Grout only the female groove on the dome elements with about a 3/8 of an inch bead of grout. Do not grout the dome elements to the floor elements or to the refractory pad. Start by placing the male dome element (support it) then the female element with the slightly grouted groove. After the dome elements are set, look inside, you will notice a space all the way around where the floor meets the dome walls. Do not fill this space; this space is needed for the expansion of the floor elements when heated.
Sealing the dome joints
Apply a strip of refractory grout across the outside seams of the dome. Don’t grout the seams inside the oven.
Setting the arch
You can purchase the arch separately [link to the Pizza Oven Accessories] or you can build your own arch. If you purchased a Los Angeles Ovenworks arch, then put a little dab of grout on the bottom and generous amounts on the backside of the arch that touches the oven, set and hold in place. You can face the arch with another material such as stone, granite, tile, brick, etc.
Setting the chimney flue
The chimney flue consists of two parts: the chimney flue proper and a smaller connector that is placed on top, smooth side up. This attachment holds the required 6” pipe. Put enough grout at the base of the chimney element and the connector to make them level in all directions.
Thermal insulating blanket
The oven is now ready for the thermal insulating blanket to be placed over the dome as an added insulation. Overlap the seams of the blanket whenever possible by 2”. Use up the entire insulating blanket that comes with the kit, unless there’s a space constraint.
Chimney pipe
Use a 6” class “A” (UL103HT) chimney pipe. We recommend a double-walled chimney system for outdoor use (for best draw) and triple-walled for indoor use. Your chimney element can be easily adapted to receive the DuraTech 6” anchor plate. Simply adjust the anchor plate on top of your chimney element connector and add some of the refractory grout provided with the oven kit. Do not drill or use screws to set the anchor plate into the chimney flue.
Attach chimney pipe sections to reach the desired height. Please note that the top of the chimney must be at least 36” above the top of the oven enclosure and must be topped with a chimney cap with spark arrestor.
Curing your wood fired oven
Once you have built your oven, you will have to let it dry to eliminate any potential moisture that has accumulated within the walls and the floors. Not following this process could result in potentially damaging cracks in the clay elements.
Wait 10 days if you have used a thermal blanket as insulation for the dome and if your oven elements have not been exposed to rain or excessive moisture during construction.
Wait 20 days if you are building a Mediterranean style oven, or have used refractory mix to coat the dome for insulation. The same applies if your oven elements have been directly exposed to rain or excessive moisture during construction.
Tip: Look inside the oven and check if the walls have darker areas that indicate if moisture is still present.
When the oven is dry, you are ready to pre-fire.
Pre-firing
The purpose of pre-firing your pizza oven is to slowly and with relatively low temperature dry out residual moisture before starting your first fire. It is very important at this stage to provide even heat without any spikes or high flames. The simplest and safest way to do this is using a charcoal fire, using the plain barbeque charcoal (without starter fluid). Start the charcoal fire in a chimney starter or on your barbecue grill, and then transfer the coals to the oven, distributing them evenly in a single layer to cover the whole oven floor. Leave the oven door off during this process of pre-firing, allowing the oven to dry out.
Let the charcoal fire die out and the oven cool completely.
Repeat this operation after twenty-four hours for three consecutive days (a total of 3 pre-fires). On the fourth day the wood fired oven is ready for your enjoyment!
Starting the fire in your pizza oven
In the center of your oven, place a cube of Weber fire starter (this is a smokeless, odorless, non-toxic lighter) or similar fire starter or some crumpled newspaper. On top of fire starter add small pieces of dry, split firewood in lengths of 12” to 20”. Firewood should be seasoned hardwood, such as almond, oak, fruitwood. (For more information about wood look under Italian Oven Resources.) Do not use resinous wood such as pine or spruce or wet wood. It is very easy to start the fire in your oven, so once the small pieces have taken, add a couple of larger pieces. The flame will reach the top of the dome and come forward, this is normal, just make sure the flames don’t come too far out of the oven opening.
Continue to feed the fire until the center of the oven dome starts to turn white or clear, with no black soot, this will take about 20 to 30 minutes. Then, add wood to the sides widening the fire toward the walls, thus allowing the entire floor and dome to absorb the heat. Once the whole dome has turned white and the black soot has been carbonized by the heat (in another 45 minutes) the oven will have reached about 750° F.
To start cooking, simply move the fire or embers to one corner of the oven. Check out How to Cook and Italian Recipes sections for more information on how to cook in your Italian oven.
When you are building your pizza oven and have any questions, call us for unlimited technical support by calling (800) 516 5716 or by emailing us.
Before operating your wood fired oven carefully read the specific installation instructions and the warning provided with your oven kit.
Los Angeles Ovenworks, offers the finest Italian wood fired pizza ovens for home and backyard. Our wood burning ovens can be shipped to your home and easily built and assembled.
