Customer Build Story · Connecticut
DIY Outdoor Pizza Ovens: How the Lacroix Family Built Theirs
A retired chef who had never cooked with wood fire. A family that loves having friends over. One Connecticut backyard, turned into the spot where everybody ends up.
- Built By
- The Lacroix Family
- Year Built
- 2021
- Location
- Connecticut
- Number of Photos
- 35
- Homeowner Review
- ★★★★★
Build Time-Lapse
Watch It Get Built
Every photo from this build, from bare dirt to a roaring fire, in about 15 seconds. Press play, or grab the slider and scrub through it yourself.
Every family has a place where everyone ends up. For the Lacroix family in Connecticut, that place is now a red brick pizza oven they built themselves. The man behind the trowel is a retired chef who had never done wood-fired cooking before, and by his own description he is “a chef and not a mason.” What he had was a set of BrickWood plans, a Mattone Barile Grande kit, and a family to feed. Here is how it came together, one step at a time.
Step 1 of 7
It All Starts With a Solid Slab
Every oven that will feed a family for years starts the same way: a solid, level concrete pad. It is the least glamorous step of the whole build, and it is the one everything else stands on.
Step 2 of 7
Building the Base and the Hearth
Next, cinder block walls went up course by course to form the oven stand, with an opening left underneath for firewood. On top, the hearth slab was formed, reinforced with rebar and poured in one piece with a rounded front edge.
That single monolithic slab does two jobs. It carries the firebrick cooking floor, and it extends out front as a prep counter, so there is always a spot to set down a pizza or a peel.
Step 3 of 7
The Barrel Takes Shape
This is where the kit does the heavy lifting. The Mattone Barile Grande foam form sets the exact shape of the oven, so every firebrick lands right where it belongs. Course by course, the barrel rises around the form until it closes over the top, with the chimney base set at the front.
“I chose the barrel type design over the traditional dome type mostly because I think it afforded me more flexibility to do more than just pizza.”
The homeowner
Once the mortar cured, the inside was a clean firebrick chamber, ready to soak up heat and send it back down onto the cooking floor.
Step 4 of 7
Dressing It in Classic Red Brick
With the barrel mortared, the family moved on to the finish that makes this oven theirs. Red brick went on the oven and the base, the brick chimney went up, and a brick arch framed the firewood storage below.
Then came the moment every builder waits for: the very first fire.
Step 5 of 7
The Finished Oven
Here it is, fired up and ready for dinner. Every detail on this oven was a choice the family made. Explore them below.
Hover over the dots (or tap them on your phone) to see what went into this oven.
- Brick ChimneyFinished in the same red brick as the oven, so the whole build reads as one piece.
- Red Brick VeneerClassic red brick laid over the firebrick barrel gives the oven its timeless look.
- Firebrick Cooking FloorThe fire burns right on the firebrick floor. In his words, the oven “absorbs and radiates heat to the cooking surface.”
- Extended Prep CounterThe monolithic hearth runs out past the oven, giving the cook a landing spot for pizzas, peels and tools.
- Red Brick BaseThe cinder block stand is wrapped in red brick to match the oven.
- Firewood Storage ArchA brick arch under the hearth keeps a full load of firewood dry and within reach.
Day 1Finished
Drag across the photo (or just move your mouse) to go from bare slab to roaring fire.
When he sent us these photos, he had fired the oven 8 to 10 times and reported it was “working quite well.” Coming from a chef, that is high praise.
Step 6 of 7
A Place for Friends and Family
The oven was only part of the plan. The family also finished the landscaping and built a pizza bench right next to the oven. He framed it with pressure-treated lumber and hog fence, then topped it with reverse-cast concrete and colored beach glass, wet sanded until the glass showed through and the surface was level.
- Pizza oven completed
- Landscaping completed
- Pizza bench completed
There are many reasons I chose this design but with that said it does pizza very well! This has been a great layout for us when entertaining friends and family and suspect it will for years to come!
The Lacroix Family · Connecticut
Step 7 of 7
What’s for Dinner?
A chef with a wood-fired oven does not stop at pizza. Tomato and basil, mushroom, pepperoni and thin crust, then cast iron skillets roasting right inside the barrel. That is exactly the flexibility he was after when he picked this design.
In His Own Words
★★★★★The Lacroix Family · Connecticut · 2021
As a retired chef I’ve never done wood fired cooking before and I was most impressed with the way this oven absorbs and radiates heat to the cooking surface… a great design! I choose the barrel type design over the traditional dome type mostly because I think it afforded me more flexibility to do more than just pizza. I am most impressed with the plans from Brickwood Ovens and the support from their forum. As I mentioned I’m a chef and not a mason and the plans for the DIY outdoor pizza ovens were well done and thorough. I made the bench out pressure treated lumber, hog fence, and the top was reverse casted concrete with colored beach glass that was wet sanded to make the glass show through the concrete and to level it. I’ve fired it up 8 to 10 times so far and is working quite well.
Your Turn
Build One for Your Family
The Lacroix family built this DIY outdoor pizza oven with no masonry background. Your family can too. Start with our free pizza oven plans and materials list, then pick the Mattone Barile Grande kit that fits your backyard.
