Building your own wood fired pizza oven is one of those backyard projects that sounds simple until you start looking at everything involved. What size should the oven be? Which bricks can handle the heat? How thick should the insulation be? And do you really want to cut every brick yourself?
That leaves most DIYers with two options: build a wood fired pizza oven completely from scratch or start with a DIY pizza oven kit.
Both can give you a proper wood fired oven. The difference is how much designing, sourcing, measuring and cutting you want to take on yourself.
Building From Scratch vs Using a DIY Pizza Oven Kit
Building from scratch gives you complete control over your pizza oven, but it also means working out the design, sourcing the right refractory materials and handling much more of the technical side of the build yourself.
A DIY pizza oven kit still gives you the satisfaction of building your own oven, but much of the complicated work has already been taken care of. For many home DIYers, it offers a practical middle ground between building everything from zero and buying a completely finished oven.
What Does Building a Wood Fired Pizza Oven From Scratch Involve?
A proper wood fired pizza oven is more than a brick dome with a fire inside it.
If you're starting completely from scratch, you'll need to plan the dimensions of the oven, build a suitable base, source the right materials and work out how the cooking floor, dome, entrance, insulation and flue will come together.
Depending on the design, you'll also need to cut and shape bricks to form the dome.
The typical process includes:
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Choosing the size and location of your oven
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Building a suitable foundation and base
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Sourcing fire bricks and refractory materials
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Building the cooking floor
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Cutting and positioning bricks for the dome
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Constructing the oven entrance
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Installing the flue
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Insulating the oven
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Applying your chosen exterior finish
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Allowing the oven to cure correctly before firing it properly
If you want to see what the construction process looks like in more detail, read our guide on how to build a wood fired pizza oven.
For experienced DIYers, building from scratch can be an incredibly satisfying project. But if this is your first pizza oven, there's a lot to get right.
What Is a DIY Pizza Oven Kit?
A DIY pizza oven kit is designed to remove some of the guesswork while still allowing you to build the oven yourself.
Instead of starting with a pile of materials and working out every component independently, you're working with an oven system that has already been designed around the finished result.
This is an important distinction.
A DIY kit doesn't necessarily mean someone else builds your oven for you. You still get the hands-on experience of creating your own wood fired oven and can customise the finished outdoor area around it.
The difference is that you're not starting completely from zero.
You can explore our DIY wood fired pizza oven options to see how the kit approach works.
DIY Pizza Oven Kit vs Building From Scratch
So which option makes more sense?
That depends largely on your experience, how much time you want to spend on the project and how much of the design process you want to handle yourself.
| Building From Scratch | DIY Pizza Oven Kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | You design and calculate the oven yourself | Core oven design is already established |
| Materials | You source materials individually | Core components are supplied as part of the kit |
| Brick cutting | Usually requires considerably more cutting | Can reduce the amount of complex cutting required |
| DIY experience | Full build from the ground up | You still build the oven yourself |
| Skill level | Better suited to confident DIYers or trades | More approachable for home DIY projects |
| Customisation | Complete freedom over the entire design | Exterior and surrounding area can still be customised |
| Time | More planning and preparation required | More streamlined starting point |
| Potential mistakes | More decisions need to be made correctly | Critical oven design decisions have already been considered |
Neither approach is automatically right for everyone.
If designing and constructing the oven itself is the part of the project you're most excited about, building from scratch might be exactly what you're looking for.
If you're more interested in building a great-looking wood fired oven without having to engineer every detail yourself, a DIY kit may make more sense.
Is It Cheaper to Build Your Own Pizza Oven?
It can be, but comparing the price of a kit with the price of a few bricks doesn't give you the full picture.
When you're working out the cost of building a pizza oven from scratch, you need to consider everything required for the finished oven.
That can include:
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Fire bricks
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Refractory mortar
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Insulation
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Flue components
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Oven door
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Base materials
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Brick-cutting equipment
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Other tools you don't already own
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Delivery costs
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Material wastage
There's also your time.
Sourcing different materials, calculating quantities and making additional trips because you're missing something all become part of the project.
A scratch build can make financial sense, particularly if you already have masonry experience, tools and access to suitable materials. But don't assume it will automatically be the cheapest option until you've priced the complete build.
How Difficult Is It to Build a Wood Fired Pizza Oven?
You don't necessarily need to be a professional bricklayer to build your own pizza oven, but you should be realistic about your DIY ability.
A scratch-built oven requires accurate measuring, planning and masonry work. The dome can be particularly challenging because each course of bricks needs to form the correct shape while remaining structurally sound.
A kit can make the project more approachable because you're following an established design rather than inventing the oven as you build it.
Think of it this way: you still get to build the oven, but you don't have to solve every engineering problem along the way.
Why Do Pizza Ovens Need Refractory Materials?
This is one area where cutting corners isn't a great idea.
The inside of a wood fired pizza oven is exposed to very high temperatures and repeated heating and cooling cycles. The materials used in the oven therefore need to be suitable for that environment.
That's why purpose-built ovens use refractory materials designed to withstand and retain high heat.
Ordinary construction materials aren't automatically suitable just because they look similar.
If you're sourcing everything yourself, make sure you understand what each material will be exposed to and whether it is appropriate for use inside a wood fired oven.
What Size Wood Fired Pizza Oven Should You Build?
Bigger isn't automatically better.
Before choosing an oven size, think about how you're actually going to use it.
Are you mainly cooking a couple of pizzas for the family on Friday night? Do you regularly entertain large groups? Will the oven become part of a complete outdoor kitchen? Do you want to cook bread, roasts and other dishes as well as pizza?
You should also consider how much space you have available.
Remember that the cooking chamber isn't the entire footprint. Your finished installation needs room for the oven structure, insulation, exterior finish, landing and surrounding bench or entertaining area.
Choosing the right size at the beginning is much easier than discovering halfway through the project that you've built more oven than your backyard needs.
Can You Customise a DIY Pizza Oven Kit?
Yes. Choosing a kit doesn't mean your finished pizza oven has to look like everyone else's.
The oven itself is only one part of the finished project.
Depending on your outdoor area, you can build the oven into a larger entertaining space and choose finishes that complement your home and backyard.
That could include different exterior finishes, benchtops, storage areas, surrounding brickwork and landscaping.
So while the internal oven system follows an established design, there's still plenty of opportunity to make the finished installation your own.
When Does Building From Scratch Make Sense?
Building completely from scratch may be the better option if you:
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Have masonry or advanced DIY experience
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Want complete control over the oven's dimensions and construction
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Are comfortable sourcing refractory materials yourself
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Have the necessary tools
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Don't mind cutting and shaping bricks
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Enjoy solving the technical parts of a project
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Want the build itself to be as much of the experience as cooking in the finished oven
For the right person, that's part of the fun.
When Does a DIY Pizza Oven Kit Make Sense?
A kit may be the better fit if you:
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Want to build the oven yourself
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Don't want to design an oven completely from scratch
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Want to simplify material sourcing
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Prefer working from an established oven design
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Want to reduce complicated brick cutting
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Like DIY projects but aren't an experienced oven builder
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Want more certainty about how the major components fit together
It's still a genuine DIY project. You're simply starting several steps ahead.
So, Should You Build From Scratch or Buy a DIY Pizza Oven Kit?
If you have the experience, tools and enthusiasm to design a wood fired pizza oven from the ground up, building from scratch can be a rewarding project.
But if your goal is to build your own oven without having to work out every technical detail yourself, a DIY pizza oven kit gives you another option.
You still get to do the building. You still get to customise the finished space. And you still get that moment when you light the first fire in something you've built in your own backyard.
You just don't have to start with a blank sheet of paper.
If you're ready to start planning your build, explore The Wood Fired Co's DIY wood fired pizza oven range and find an option that suits your backyard and the way you want to cook.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I build a wood fired pizza oven myself?
Yes. Many home DIYers build their own wood fired pizza ovens, either completely from scratch or using a DIY pizza oven kit to simplify the process.
Is it cheaper to build your own pizza oven?
It can be, but the total cost depends on the materials, tools, insulation, flue components and other parts required. Compare the complete cost of the project rather than the cost of the bricks alone.
How hard is it to build a wood fired pizza oven?
The difficulty depends on the design and your DIY experience. Building completely from scratch requires more planning, material sourcing and masonry work, while a DIY kit can simplify some of the more complicated parts.
Do I need special bricks for a wood fired pizza oven?
The cooking chamber is exposed to high temperatures, so materials used in this area need to be suitable for that environment. Refractory fire bricks are commonly used because they are designed to handle and retain high heat.
What comes in a DIY pizza oven kit?
Kit inclusions vary depending on the oven and supplier. Check the exact inclusions of the kit you're considering so you know which components are supplied and which materials you'll need to organise separately.
How long does it take to build a DIY pizza oven?
Build time varies depending on the oven size, design, experience of the builder and the surrounding structure you're creating. You'll also need to allow appropriate time for relevant materials to set and for the finished oven to be cured according to the supplied instructions before normal use.