The Butera's home Brick Oven

Here are some photographs we took as we built our oven, along with brief descriptions of each one. I will add some more details as time permits. Click on each thumb-nail to see the enlarged version of the picture. Our oven was built using plans from Ovencrafters.

Form boards, re-bar and wire mesh set for pouring of slab.

Slab has been poured.

Base blocks have been set.

Plywood form to support oven slab has been put in place.

Vermiculite mixture has been poured and re-bar is in place for pouring oven slab. Note plywood form in front which keeps space open for ash drop.

Setting the firebricks on top of the oven slab.

Red bricks for oven walls are set and braced in preparation for building the arched oven ceiling.

Building the arch. The most exciting and satisfying part of the whole oven-building ordeal.

Oven has been covered with concrete, and block walls are up.

A close-up before the front walls were finished and the vermiculite insulation was poured in.

This is looking down into the oven housing from the front. At the center back are two plastic vents (one would probably have been enough. The rough concrete is the 2" - 3" layer covering the bricks of oven ceiling. The iron L-shaped rails running from the front to the back were used to support a 3/4" plywood roof. The underside of the plywood was lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. The roof is fastened down with hurricane straps and covered with stucco. The only problem we had was a thin crack in the stucco which formed in the back where the plywood met the concrete blocks. We believe this happened because we did not use enough hurricane straps which allowed for some flexing of the plywood.

The housing is almost finished. You can see the hurricane straps sticking out from the tops of the walls. They were concreted in place then bent over and screwed down into the plywood roof.

The chimney is finished, the base coat of stucco is on, and the first fire is lit in the oven.