If the summer BBQ has become a bit too staid for your open-flame cookout tendencies, consider building an outdoor pizza oven—because who doesn’t love a wood-fired pie? Whereas a grill costs money and requires a whole process to fire up and scrub afterward, a DIY pizza oven build is cheap, quick to assemble (and break down), and produces piping-hot pies in mere minutes.

Everything you need for a minimal pop-up pizza oven can be found at Home Depot for less than $100, and the build itself will take about 30 minutes. Ahead, Utah-based home-improvement content creator Kelly Ballard, a.k.a. CityGirl Meets FarmBoy, shares her advice on a successful DIY pizza oven build—and how to avoid common mistakes.

Gather your materials

For a basic DIY pizza oven, you’ll need a set of small bricks and large flat pavers that are smooth, have no holes, and, most importantly, are made to handle extreme heat and fire. “You must use clay or fire brick for safety,” says Ballard, who learned after extensive research and trial and error, that using wrong materials like concrete or pressed brick would cause her pizza oven to spall from repeated thermal shock.

Fire brick and clay brick, on the other hand, have low thermal conductivity and require far less energy for heat insulation. Naturally, they can also withstand very high temperatures. “Do your research and then you can make your own decision on what type of materials to use,” Ballard says.

Other than the bricks for the pizza oven, you’ll also need a level, optional work gloves for handling the bricks, and a bag of crushed gravel for base-layer leveling purposes.

Set the foundation

Find an open area with a firm and flat surface, away from anything flammable and where other people or animals frequently walk. Ballard quickly realized that her first pizza oven was set up too close to her deck—so she relocated her second pizza oven to a more open spot in her backyard.

If the ground is slightly uneven, this is where a base layer of crushed gravel will come in handy since gravel can help level out the first layer of foundational bricks. Use a level to make sure the bricks are absolutely horizontal to avoid building a lopsided pizza oven or one that’s at risk of toppling over.

Figure out your build

There are myriad tutorials and YouTube videos for assembling DIY pizza ovens—some which require you to cement a dome using an exercise ball and others which are as simple as stacking a bunch of bricks together and hoping for the best. You may want to check out a few to see what type of build will work best for you since there are variations in designs based on what brick sizes are available to you. Ballard wasn’t able to find the same paver from one of the video tutorials she watched, so she combined two different build techniques to create her own.

Ballard’s pizza oven design ended up being a mix of ChefSteps’ all-brick tutorial and Scott Brooks’ brick-and-metal-braces tutorial. But no matter what type of design you opt for, it’s crucial to create a proper vent for airflow—every DIY pizza oven tutorial will include a step-by-step guide on proper brick placement so that there’s a chamber where heat can pass through from the fire up to where the pizza can cook.

Grab pizza-making tools

Before you invite your friends and neighbors for a classic pizza party, get equipped with the appropriate tools and supplies! You’ll need a digital laser thermometer, firewood, a pizza peel, a pizza wheel or chopper, and aluminum pans for cooling and serving. ChefSteps shares a handful of tips and tricks for how to cook your pizza to chef’s-kiss perfection.

Break it down

DIY pizza ovens are low-maintenance since it’s assembled using a bunch of loose bricks—you can build one virtually anywhere outdoors. When it comes time to clean up, Ballard simply lets the fire die down. Once all parts of the oven have cooled, simply disassemble the bricks and set them aside for the next pizza-making session.

If you’d rather have a more permanent pizza oven that’s set up all year round, consider building a bigger, more complex design (that includes a dome and chimney) held together with clay and cement. Keep in mind a permanent pizza oven also requires upkeep—account for waterproofing and other protective measures so that your oven continues to serve up delicious pies for years to come.

Top image by Hugo Goudswaard/Getty

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