Anybody running a real deal wood fired pizza oven (wfo)? I did a search of the forum and didn't come up with any posts on wfo's.



I've wanted one for a long time and should be able to break ground on one next year as part of an outdoor kitchen area, wfo, bbq, prep area, etc., I'm leaning towards a 42" dia dome oven and am debating getting a kit with a cast dome vs. building one out of fire bricks. I'm trying to balance out the labor savings of a cast dome vs. the added cost vs. being able to get it built in one summer vs. dragging the project over two summers.

Post pics when you build one. We looked into buying a Tulikivi from Treeforms in Anchorage but they are pretty expensive. Still might get one someday.

I thought about going the indoor route, but I think they run around $10k and are fairly small ovens. What I'm envisioning is having a patio with an outdoor covered cooking area and a large enough pizza oven to cook 3 pizzas at a time for entertaining and then cook a weeks worth of bread afterwords. I figure for $10k in materials I should be able to build something like this.



But then it's the tradeoff, I'll definately use the indoor oven more due to convenience, but would much rather have the outdoor setup for nice days and having more room for guests to spread out.

I am officially green with envy seeing that. I know it isn't yours but wow!

There are some amazing outdoor kitchens out there.







I can't really figure exactly how I'm going to lay it out until we get the house finished so that the outside patio/kitchen compliments the house and takes advantage of the view. I'll probably need the help of an architect to make the most of it. I can tell what I like, what I don't like, and build from plans. But coming up with something that compliments the house and yard is beyond my expertise.

I know and our weather/environment/altitude is hell on them. I would love one.

I'm not so concerned with the pizza oven as it will be covered, but they can suffer a bit more from thermal shock in the winter months. I'm more concerned with getting the foundation right so it doesn't get jacked around with frost heaves.

I could do something like this off the deck but the deck would need to be at least double that size.



The upside is we'd have a better view from an elevated deck, but the downside is a large elevated deck to support that weight would be crazy expensive, and it wouldn't have overflow onto the lawn. If I have a smaller deck with stairs down to the outside kitchen it can nicely flow into the lawn area so we have the option of a more intimate setting for a small party, or open it up to the lawn for a large party.

I still have some alders to clear and may end up dropping some of the birch trees to get the full view.



With an elevated deck the rooflines of those houses should be right about level with the waterline and hence you'd have a good view of the mountains in the distance. With the patio at ground level you wouldn't have as spectacular of a view, but the cooking area could be positioned to essentially take them out of your field of view.

Hydroaxe!

I don't have that many alders left!

I've actually enjoyed taking advantage of the mild weather and spending time with my boys cutting and clearing the lot with chainsaws on the weekends.

Lifetime supply of alder chips for the smoker!



Should be able to fire a pizza or two.

Now there is the upside!

Technically I do, its called a Big Green Egg

Well, technically no, a big green egg is not a wood fired pizza oven.

But I bet it yields the same effect. The only down side would be only cooking one pizza at a time.

I have done two at a time successfully with the adjustable rig in my egg.

Actually, I think the cheapest one I saw was arounf $17k and that was before installation. The one I wanted, like the above unit, was closer to $25k and after install, would have been closer to $35-$40k. I don't need a wood fired pizza oven that badly.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure to post pics, i'm always looking for new ideas for additions to my back deck.

BGE pizza is great, don't get me wrong. The thing that sucks is the top doesn't get crispy like a true pizza oven. I stick my pizzas under the broiler to crisp them better.

Wow, that's crazy money for the inside oven! You can get a complete oven from Bravo Forno that you could put on your deck for ~$4k shipped http://www.fornobravo.com/products/

If you get an oven kit from Bravo Forno, the 44" oven shipped will be $4500, and that's a big oven. If you build it yourself from fire bricks you're looking at about $1500 in materials, plus a tile saw to cut them and a bunch of labor. I'd been debating the kit to save labor, until I got the shipping cost For what I'd save building with bricks I can get a Komodo or Egg and a several year supply of beer to keep me fueled while building the brick pizza oven.

While I have no doubt you can cook a great pizza in an egg or similar grills with a pizza stone, what they don't have is a large thermal mass to keep that high temperature above and below the pizza that cooks it so quickly. I can see us entertaining a few times a year when we'd want to bang out 50 or more individual sized pizzas and an egg isn't going cut it for that task.

I think this is more the setup I'm after



But its still cart before the horse as we still haven't chosen a floor plan or locked in with a builder and at this rate the soonest we'd be moving in is the end of this year.

Well, the cost does include a fireplace too.

Hell, I like my wood fired pizza ovens cheap and they don't come any cheaper than this. lol

Looks like a great location, and I imagine with the ear plugs on the cable spool table you'd just enjoyed a shooting session.

A buddy built a pizza oven in his back yard. Its brick with a cool helical chimney.

For one or two pizzas he said its not worth it.....takes a long time to heat up and its more of a pia than its worth.

I could see it being worthwhile for events like you describe.

Google "Cob ovens"

These are built with clay and hay and can heat up to 600-800 degrees or more.

Best part is, they are cheap! LOTS of great info out there on building them.

Here is an example (scroll down this page):

building a cob oven

Yeah, that pic was taken in Sept of 2011 at moose camp. We don't go hungry during moose season and that pizza oven kicks butt. lol

The masonry heater association builds one every year for their party.

Lots of info here. Check out the entire site.


http://www.mha-net.org/docs/v8n2/wildac05b.htm


I took this class. you can do it.


http://www.northhouse.org/courses/courses/course.cfm/cid/231