bosshog wisely suggested i come get y’all’s advice.
I have a kitchen ca 1922 that i have demo’ed down to the plaster and lath and am going to be redoing completely, walls, floors, cabinets etc.
There is a corner in the kitchen that is just begging to have a wood-fire pizza and bread oven. It’s the wall where the original stovepipe vented out, with a 8″ x 8″ opening continuing all the way up an old brick chimney that looks good and has a nice cap on the exterior. I have the estimate for a new vent pipe to go in this space and am searching around the internet for ideas for the oven. do any of you guys have one, or have you built such an oven for clients? any thoughts on features, optimum size, etc?
Replies
Get ready to drool!!
Been following this guys blog for years...the actual blog is towards the bottom of the page if you wanna check it out but his Rumford oven which includes a pizza oven is...
http://www.rumford.com/oven/Massie.html My next house will have quite a bit of what he's already accomplished which was why I've been checking him out and it started with the Rumford ovens
http://www.cliffordrenovations.com
http://www.ramdass.org
Edited 1/10/2009 12:54 am ET by andybuildz
Quite the project this guy has going on. How did you run across this blog? do You know him? I'm not far from kentucky and would like to meet him and look his place over up close.
There was an article on a wood fired pizza oven in a family home in yesterday's S.F. Chronicle (4Feb09). The print edition had more information on the oven itself, but only the feature article seems to be on the S.F. website (this is a single website URL, so you will have to piece it together in the locator window of your browser):http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/04/DDPL15EG7S.DTL&type=homeandgarden
This not an answer to your question, just an observation. There is a house down the street and around the corner from my house that has just gone through a major remodel. They had built a pizza oven in the kitchen. It was massive. It was the first and last thing that you saw in the kitchen. I don't know if they are by their very nature this big, but if they are, I hope you have a very large kitchen.
Many that you can buy online for indoors are small. about the size of an average toaster oven.
Look at the pic Mike attached above, in post #8.
That's the size I was thinking of for my kitchen; can't speak for anyone else. Restaurant pizza ovens are massive indeed, and IMO overkill for a home unless it's a huge hungry family or the owner runs a baking business from home.
Google Masonry Heater Association. Great history of pizza ovens.
A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Check your library for books on Royal Barry's architecture. He liked brick, wood-fired bread ovens in the kitchens... pretty cool, well...okay...hot<G>http://www.tvwsolar.com
I went down to the lobby
To make a small call out.
A pretty dancing girl was there,
And she began to shout,
"Go on back to see the gypsy.
He can move you from the rear,
Drive you from your fear,
Bring you through the mirror.
He did it in Las Vegas,
And he can do it here."
Just for you info. in case you were interested.
I was a jobsite super for a Pizza restaurant Co. When we put in a pizza oven it had a hood over it to exhaust heat generated by the oven.
The doors to the oven opened on one side. That is where the even operator stood to put the pizza in and take it out.
The pizza guy would overheat and the heat would spill into the general kitchen area unless the hood was there exhausting it.
But unless makeup air was supplied it really wouldn't work.
So there were two vents that came down above and behind the pizza guy with conditioned air. One off his left and right shoulder.
This kept the kitchen cool and the operator able to work in front of the oven.
I just wanted to let you and others know what goes into some things.
Pizza ovens are HOT and big.
Edited 1/10/2009 10:51 pm ET by popawheelie
Here's some more reading:
http://www.masonryheaters.org/
http://heatkit.com/html/gallery.htm
i owned and ran a wood fired pizza restaurant for years before i started swinging a hammer when we built ours we had to use an oven we a ul rating it was vented we an 8" triple wall pipe that needed sweeping at least once a month as far as heat went it wasn't bad as it was well insulated but if you let it cool down it would take two or three days before it was hot enough to cook in
noah
Funny you should ask -- Mine is firing right now, and should be up to temp in about 30 minutes! Bread's rising and supper's coming.
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First thing to know is that not all ovens are created equal. If you're just going to cook pizza, you want a thin-walled oven -- it heats faster so you save on wood. Check out fornobravo.com. They sell some pretty nice tile kits. But, if you want to cook pretty much anything else (I use mine for just about anything I can cook in an oven or on the grill -- it makes pulled pork to die for!), you'll wanna build your own. Custom jobs can be tailored for heat retention and size. Mine's about 2'X3' and the dome is 7" to 8" thick -- fire brick and reinforced cement -- topped off with copius amounts of vermiculite insulation. If you wanna go there, look up ovencrafters.com & Alan Scott. It's pretty much THE reference for custom wood-fired ovens.
Alan has a book, "The Bread Builders" that has pretty much everything you need to know, and he also sells stock plans, which I bought to keep the building inspector happy. There are some things you need to get right, which the plans and book point out, if you want the oven to draw and heat properly. I recommend both the book and the plans.
Shoot me an e-mail if you want more info.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
I guess that the economy isn't as bad as it's being portrayed, if one can have their own wood fired pizza and bread oven, probably more for bragging rights than actual use, I'd ponder. As is probably the case with most of the stuff people with money to burn put in their kitchens and then eat out anyway. Why is this being indulged with how to do it responses rather than a big question of why in the world? I'm sure that this person already has an industrial quality convection oven that he's bored with, but it'll make as good a pizza or bread as what he's proposing. Give me a break. Makes me want to get a glass of wine from my fridge, since I don't have a built in cooler for it. Tastes as good, by the way.
Edited 2/5/2009 9:56 pm ET by BARMIL
Personally, I think wood fired pizzas and bread (like anything grilled or cooked over a real fire, including campfires) taste far better than ordnary oven-cooked.In my case, since tearing out the old kitchen was a must, i discovered what appeared to be a perfect spot with very little extra work or money involved. As it turned out, when the chimney inspector came, we discovered there wasn't near enough space in the bump-out as needed, so I'm not going to do it after all. I'm re-using all the old appliances until they croak, and I'm going for good quality but minimal quantity of cabinets. The floor under the layers of vinyl appear to be good oak so far, and I will sand and finish those myself as I did in my old house. I'm saving enough money that I felt like a fun splurge would be worthwhile, especially in this neighborhood where it's worth upgrading in terms of resale. Iit would have been a true waste of money in my old neighborhood as all the houses there are being bought up for demolition to expand local businesses. I rarely eat out, and want to start entertaining at home for my friends and my son's friends, and a small pizza oven would have been great fun and a good resale feature.
If you have a yard, don't give up on the oven! They rock!
The only people who aren't blown away by the food we create in ours are those who think overboiled noodles covered with cream of tomato soup is gourmet Italian cooking. ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Hi Mike- The trouble is that my new yard is soooo small. I could try to put an oven out there, and it would certainly be fun. The yard was completely concreted over and I will be having some of it removed in the next month or 2, so I'll keep an outdoor oven in mind as I make my plans...
"The trouble is that my new yard is soooo small."
Smaller than your kitchen? If not, installing an oven can help transform a yard from just open space into an outdoor room where it's fun to congregate. A 4'X6' corner should do it.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
LOL, it's not smaller than my kitchen but it isn't much bigger The part of town I moved to has very little green space. But you are right, it's a cool idea to have it outside; and there will be less restrictions on size etc..
Edited 2/10/2009 10:16 am ET by msm-s
Ps- I don't have money to burn, don't eat out and don't have, need or want an "industrial quality" oven, quartz countertops, or anything else high-end.
Just doing a necessary kitchen renovation (actually un-doing a really bad 1960's renovation on a 1922 house) and trying to think outside the box. Saw what appeared to be an opportunity too perfect to pass up for the wood oven but it didn't work out. Sorry I don't fit your stereotype.
Edited 2/6/2009 3:49 pm ET by msm-s
The stereotype is too many people with too much credit building monstrous kitchens with too much stuff they never use, just to impress others. If you don't fit that stereotype, my apologies, and power to you.
ITA with you; it makes me crazy. ESPECIALLY the %@!* flippers, who buy up houses to turn around and sell, that need little or no work and they go and "improve" them waaay out of the price most people needing a home of that size or in a specific neighborhood can afford.
I'm just a humble soul, installing laminate countertop (gasp!) who thought i could have a li'l pizza oven.PS- I have no problem with a flipper who buys an eyesore or a house that is so bad no one else will touch in order to improve a neighborhood. But flippers who snatch up decent houses to create elaborate white elephants are doing modest neighborhoods a great disservice.
Edited 2/7/2009 1:33 am ET by msm-s
Wow, way to be exactly what you claim to hate: a superficial, judgemental, arrogant @$$hole. Clearly our friend here created a labor of love that he enjoys in his own home. Clearly, you have issues judging those who have what you don't.
I can't afford a pizza oven in my kitchen but dang, it is cool. My dad retired after 40 years of working his butt off and build one in his back yard - fun for the whole family.
Barmil, I suggest you spend more time filling in your profile and being part of the community of builders and less time being a judgemental jerk to the rest of us.
Been drinking a little to call me names, at 2:20 AM? You've obviously tarnished the civility of this place. I did apologize, or did you miss that?
Edited 2/9/2009 10:18 pm ET by BARMIL
I work late, usually taking a few moments to enjoy the breaktime community until returning to the books. Winning business these days is a 24/7 job for business owners, and it is a responsibility that I take seriously - there are 14 families depending on me. Attributing my vigil to debauchery is sad, but expectable.
No need to continue the squabble - back to pizza, eh?
Edited 2/11/2009 8:05 am ET by BradG
I thought that I had stopped the squabble with an apology. You guys are ruthless. I stopped Dominos when they started charging separately for delivery, so I go out now or go frozen.
You didn't tarnish anything, thanks for standing up for me. It's all settled now.
And BTW, I'm a lady. got the building itch from my dad, who was brilliant and good at creative problem solving too.