Well, I wasn’t quite ready to start this discussion quite yet, but here goes. For many years I have been hankering to build a wood fired pizza oven out next to our deck. Finally in the summer of 2016, my son and I took the plunge and started work. Now, realize this is a lot like some of the projects we do here with our trains, structures and layouts in that it takes a lot of time. For most WFO you pour a slab foundation, lay a few courses of CMU’s, pour a concrete hearth and build the oven. For some reason, I always have to make things a little more complicated than they should be. I want to be able to access the WFO from my deck which is about 4 feet off the ground. So, instead of building a hearth that is usually 3-4 feet off the ground, I put mine about 8 feet in the air. This meant a larger foundation, an intermediate free spanning slab and more block. But we got that part done. It just took us 2 summers to make it happen. I’ll detail the work up to this point later, I’ve got a cookhouse (Mik’s Build Challenge) to build right now, but below is where we are today. Next up is the actual oven construction. Fire brick were delivered this past week but I am still waiting on some insulation board and fire clay to arrive so I can get started on the oven. More later.
