Building a brick kiln takes only a couple of days of hard work, although it will then take several weeks for it to dry. When it is ready, you can cook pizza, bread and even roast meats and vegetables outdoors. In addition to the fact that you will beautify your garden and you can cook delicious lunches, an outdoor oven will free you from the hassle of cooking at home during the scorching summers. Keep these instructions in mind when building your brick oven.
Steps
Step 1. Decide where to install the oven inside your property
Step 2. Arrange 4 rows of cinder blocks to form a square, then continue placing other blocks until you have a cube three bricks high
Remember to spread some mortar between one row and the other.
Step 3. While building the cube in height, always spread some mortar to fix the various bricks and wait for it to set and dry for at least 2 hours
Step 4. Fill the cavity inside the 4 walls with stones, pebbles, rocks, broken pieces of concrete and other inert material
You must stop when you are 30 cm from the top edge of the cube.
Step 5. Add a 10cm layer of sand and gravel followed by 12cm of vermiculite, pressing each layer well
Step 6. Add 8cm of sand
Press it carefully and evenly, so you have reached the edge of the cube.
Step 7. Arrange the refractory bricks by placing them gently on the last layer of sand and fixing them to it with a rubber hammer until they completely cover the entire upper surface of the cube, including the edges of the concrete blocks
Step 8. Draw two concentric circles on the refractory bricks, the first with a diameter of 70 cm and the second of 105 cm
Help yourself with a pencil and string.
Step 9. Model a dome of wet sand inside the smaller circle and spray it with water to keep it moist
Step 10. Measure the height of the dome and take note
Step 11. Spread a tarpaulin on the ground and fill it with a mixture of 3 parts sand and 1 part clay
Step 12. Add water to this mixture and mix everything until you can create clay balls the size of golf balls that, when thrown on the ground, do not crack or flatten
Step 13. Build the furnace dome by placing clay “lumps” on top of the sand dome
You need to get a 7.5 cm thick layer.
Step 14. Wait for the clay to stabilize and dry overnight
Step 15. When the first layer has become dry, prepare another mixture of sand and clay, this time adding an armful of straw
Step 16. When this layer has also dried and stabilized, prepare more sand and clay mixture with two armfuls of finely shredded straw
Step 17. Place a second layer on the dome that is 7.5 cm thick and wait overnight for it to dry
Step 18. Smear a third 2.5cm thick layer and again wait for it to dry overnight
Step 19. Calculate the height of the oven by multiplying the height of the dome by 0.63
Step 20. Cut out the oven opening from the sand using a knife
You can give it the shape you prefer and the height you calculated; make sure it's wide enough for your culinary purposes.
Step 21. With great delicacy, scrape off the sand from the inside with the help of a trowel or your hands; it eliminates any residue that is deposited on the refractory surface
Step 22. On a piece of wood, draw the shape of the opening and cut it out to fit the "mouth" of your oven
Step 23. Add a fancy handle you have in your house (or buy one) to the door by screwing it into the center of the piece of wood
Step 24. Put the door on the opening and let the oven dry; it may take several weeks
Advice
- Light small fires in the oven as it dries to speed up the process.
- Cut the straw for the second and third layer with a brush cutter inside a wheelbarrow.
- You can add dyes to the mixture of sand and clay to improve the appearance of the oven.
Warnings
- Always light the fire in the oven slowly, to avoid breaking the structure.
- Always wear safety goggles and a face mask when cutting straw.
- Always mix the materials of the oven so as not to compromise the integrity of the finished product.
