Which Pizza Oven Kit Should You Build? Our 4 Kits Compared

A feature-by-feature guide to our four unique DIY pizza oven kits, comparing how they’re built, how they cook, their sizes, and everyday usability.

BrickWood's four DIY pizza oven kits: Mattone Barile, Mattone Barile Grande, Cortile Barile and 28-inch Mattone Cupola

BrickWood offers four DIY-friendly pizza oven kits, but each one is designed a little differently depending on how you want to build and cook. The Mattone Barile and Mattone Barile Grande are traditional hand-laid firebrick ovens with taller 17-inch and 19-inch ceilings and larger oven openings. The Cortile Barile and 28-inch Mattone Cupola are built with castable refractory formed around an EPS foam form, giving them lower 14-inch ceilings and smaller openings that help create an efficient cooking chamber for pizza, bread, and other wood-fired foods.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the real-world differences between each model, including how they’re built, how much food they can cook, how quickly they heat up, how well they retain heat, what kind of base they require, the materials used, and what each oven is like to use on a regular basis. By the end, you should have a much clearer idea of which BrickWood oven best fits your space, cooking style and DIY goals.

What Are the Four BrickWood Pizza Oven Kits?

Choosing the right BrickWood oven kit really comes down to two things: how you want to build your oven and how you plan to use it once it’s finished. If you like the look and experience of building a traditional firebrick oven, the Mattone Barile and Mattone Barile Grande are built by hand-laying firebrick over an expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam form. If you prefer working with castable refractory, the Cortile Barile and 28-inch Mattone Cupola are created by pouring and packing the refractory material directly inside the foam form.

Whichever style you choose, all four models are high-performance, wood-fired ovens designed for outdoor home use. And because you build the finished exterior yourself, you can make your oven match your home, patio, or outdoor kitchen using stucco, brick veneer, stone, tile, mortar, or another weather-resistant masonry finish. The result is a wood-fired oven you build yourself and an outdoor cooking centerpiece you can make completely your own.

How Do Our Four Pizza Oven Kits Compare Feature by Feature?

BrickWood pizza oven kits compared
Feature	Mattone Barile	Mattone Barile Grande	Cortile Barile	28-Inch Mattone Cupola
Construction method	Firebrick laid over a foam form	Firebrick laid over a larger foam form	Five-piece, barrel-shaped castable refractory shell packed into EPS foam forms	One-piece, dome-shaped castable refractory shell packed around an EPS foam form
Primary build work	Bricklaying, mortar, cutting, insulation, stucco shell	Same as the Mattone Barile at a larger scale	Mixing, packing, curing, foam removal, insulation	Mixing, packing, curing, foam removal, insulation
Firebrick used for	Oven walls, arch and cooking floor	Oven walls, arch and cooking floor	Cooking floor and oven opening	Cooking floor
Cooking surface	700 sq in	1,050 sq in	810 sq in	650 sq in
Ceiling height	17 in	19 in	14 in	14 in
Oven opening	Large (can be built smaller)	Larger	Standard	Standard
Base footprint	47 x 56 in	47 x 60 in	47 x 56 in	47 x 56 in
Gathering size	Up to 6 people	Up to 20 people	Up to 15 people	Up to 15 people
Best for	Family pizza nights, bread, roasting, barbecue	Large gatherings and high-volume cooking	Quick heat-up and 4–5 hour events	All-day or weekend cooking on stored heat
Cooking emphasis	Broad versatility	Versatility with more capacity	Efficient, low-profile cooking	Long retained heat

Swipe the table sideways to see all four ovens.

All four kits give you the same basic experience: a durable outdoor masonry oven that absorbs heat and uses that stored heat to cook your food. The main differences are how each oven is built, the size and shape of the cooking area, the amount of material used in the oven, and the type of cooking each model is best suited for. Use the comparison table as a helpful starting point when choosing your oven. For exact measurements, materials, insulation, chimney and exhaust requirements, curing instructions, and finishing details, always follow the current building plans included with your specific BrickWood kit.

How Do the Two BrickWood Construction Methods Differ?

Hand-laid firebrick construction

The Mattone Barile and Mattone Barile Grande are built one firebrick at a time over a shaped foam form. The form does more than simply create the oven’s shape... it is sized to give the oven the proper height, width, and length for balanced airflow, efficient heating, and reliable cooking performance. The raised placement ridges help guide each firebrick into the proper position as you build the oven walls and arch with high-temperature refractory mortar. This is a very hands-on building method. You can watch the oven take shape one row at a time, make small adjustments as you go, and learn basic masonry skills during the process.

The cooking floor is laid in a herringbone pattern and is not mortared in place. This creates a smooth, level cooking surface so your pizza peel can slide easily in and out of the oven. It also allows the floor bricks to expand and contract naturally as the oven heats and cools while the oven walls and structural firebrick are mortared together using high-temperature refractory mortar.

Pour-and-pack castable refractory construction

The Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola are built with castable refractory instead of individual firebricks. Castable refractory is a high-temperature, concrete-like material made specifically for ovens and other high-heat applications. It is mixed with the correct amount of water, placed into the foam form, packed into shape, and allowed to cure before the foam is removed.

This construction method replaces the process of laying hundreds of individual bricks with a more focused mix, pour, pack, and cure process. You still need to build a strong, level base, install the cooking floor, add insulation and reinforcement, apply a weather-resistant exterior finish, and follow the proper curing and first-fire instructions. The main advantage is that the oven shell is formed in larger, accurately shaped refractory sections instead of being built one brick at a time.

The two construction methods simply offer different building experiences. Firebrick construction is a great choice for someone who enjoys hands-on masonry and wants the traditional brick-by-brick building process. Castable construction is better suited for someone who would rather mix and form the oven shell in larger sections and complete the main oven structure in fewer steps.

What Is the Mattone Barile Designed to Do?

The Mattone Barile is BrickWood’s medium-size hand-laid firebrick oven and a great introduction to the traditional backyard brick-oven experience. It offers about 700 square inches of cooking space, a 17-inch internal ceiling, and a large open-mouth design that gives you easy access to the cooking chamber.

Cooking features

The Mattone Barile is designed to handle much more than pizza. Its 17-inch ceiling and wide front opening give you plenty of room for bread, roasts, casseroles, turkey, larger pans, and wood-fired barbecue. The open-mouth design also makes it easier to move food, pans, and firewood in and out of the oven. If you prefer a smaller opening, the builder can reduce the mouth size during construction. A smaller opening can help the oven hold heat longer, giving you some flexibility to tailor the oven to the way you plan to cook. Its cooking floor is large enough for family pizza nights and small gatherings without requiring the larger footprint of the Mattone Barile Grande.

Construction features

The Mattone Barile is built by laying individual firebricks over the shaped Mattone Barile EPS foam form. The form provides the correct oven shape and dimensions while the raised placement ridges help guide each brick into position as you build the walls and arch. The standard insulated design uses a 47 x 56-inch base, ceramic fiber blanket insulation, and a reinforced stucco, mortar, or other weather-resistant exterior finish.

Build experience

The Mattone Barile is a hands-on masonry project. You will place the firebricks one at a time, mix refractory mortar, and make the required brick cuts as the oven takes shape. For many homeowners, that is one of the most enjoyable parts of the project. You get to watch the oven come together one brick at a time and end up with a true hand-built firebrick oven as the centerpiece of your patio or outdoor kitchen.

Best matched use

The Mattone Barile is a good choice if you want a medium-size oven that can handle pizza and bread on a regular basis while still giving you room for roasting, turkey, barbecue, and larger cookware. It offers a nice balance of cooking space, versatility, and footprint, with the added benefit of an open-mouth design that can be left wide or made smaller to better match your cooking style.

Shop Mattone Barile Kits

What Changes with the Mattone Barile Grande?

The Mattone Barile Grande is built the same way as the standard Mattone Barile, using individual firebricks laid over a shaped EPS foam form. The biggest difference is size. With about 1,050 square inches of cooking space, compared with about 700 square inches in the standard Mattone Barile, the Grande gives you noticeably more room to cook, manage the fire, and serve larger groups. It is also BrickWood’s best-selling oven kit, thanks to its combination of cooking space, versatility, and traditional firebrick construction.

Cooking features

The larger cooking floor gives you more room to make several pizzas, use larger pans, or create separate hot and cooler areas inside the oven. The Grande also has a 19-inch internal ceiling and a large front opening, giving you plenty of room for pizza, bread, roasts, turkey, barbecue, and larger cookware. If you like the cooking style and hands-on build of the Mattone Barile but want more space for family gatherings, parties, or entertaining, the Grande gives you that extra room without changing the basic oven design.

Construction features

Because the Grande is larger, it requires its own 47 x 60-inch insulated base. The standard Mattone Barile uses a smaller base, so it is important to follow the plans for the specific model you are building. The larger oven also requires more firebrick, mortar, insulation, and exterior finishing materials. Before you begin, make sure you have enough room around the project for materials, mixing, cutting, and construction.

Build experience

The Grande uses the same basic bricklaying process as the Mattone Barile. The technique is not more complicated; there is simply more oven to build. You will be placing more bricks, mixing more mortar, and spending more time making sure everything stays level and properly aligned as the oven takes shape.

Best matched use

The Mattone Barile Grande is a great choice for homeowners who expect to cook for larger groups or simply want more room inside the oven. It is especially well suited for larger families, frequent gatherings, backyard parties, and pizza nights where several pizzas may be cooking one after another. If you like everything about the Mattone Barile but want a larger cooking area and more room to work, the Grande is the natural next step.

Shop Mattone Barile Grande Kits

How Is the Cortile Barile Different from the Other Kits?

The Cortile Barile is BrickWood’s patented pour-and-pack oven, designed for homeowners who want a true wood-fired masonry oven without building the entire shell one firebrick at a time. It offers about 810 square inches of cooking space, and its lower 14-inch ceiling, smaller opening, and castable refractory construction make it especially well suited for pizza, bread, and everyday wood-fired cooking.

Cooking features

The Cortile Barile has a lower ceiling and smaller oven opening than the Mattone Barile models. This creates a more compact cooking chamber that heats efficiently and keeps the fire and heat close to the food. It is an excellent choice for pizza, bread, casseroles, skillet meals, roasting, and other lower-profile foods. The oven is designed to heat relatively quickly and provide a typical cooking window of approximately four to five hours, making it a great fit for family pizza nights, parties, and weekend gatherings. The smaller opening also helps keep more heat inside the cooking chamber while still providing plenty of access for managing the fire and moving food in and out of the oven.

Construction features

Instead of building the main oven shell from individual firebricks, the Cortile Barile is made from five castable refractory sections: the front, back, top, left side, and right side. The kit uses three EPS foam forms to create those pieces. One form creates the front panel, another creates the back panel, and the third creates the top and both side panels.

The builder mixes the castable refractory and packs it into the foam forms. As each bag of refractory is mixed, 1 pound of stainless steel reinforcing fibers is added. The stainless steel fibers are included with the kit. Each 1-pound bag contains thousands of small stainless steel fibers that become spread throughout the refractory. Think of them as miniature pieces of rebar inside the oven walls. They help reinforce the refractory from within, creating a strong, solid oven shell and helping reduce the possibility of cracking as the oven repeatedly heats and cools.

Once the forms have been packed, the refractory is allowed to cure for seven days. The foam is then removed, the five refractory sections are cleaned and assembled, and the oven shell is completed. The Cortile Barile also uses firebrick for the cooking floor and around the oven opening. The cooking floor is laid in a herringbone pattern and is not mortared in place. The completed oven is then insulated with ceramic fiber blanket, reinforced, connected to the proper exhaust system, and covered with a weather-resistant masonry finish.

Build experience

Instead of spending much of the project laying individual firebricks, the main oven shell is created during a concentrated mix, pack, cure, and assemble process. With the materials, mixer, helpers, and work area ready, the main pour-and-pack portion can be completed in about 90 minutes.

There is still plenty of hands-on work involved, including mixing refractory, packing the forms, removing the foam, assembling the oven sections, installing the cooking floor, insulating the oven, and completing the exterior. For homeowners who would rather work with castable refractory than build an entire oven shell brick by brick, the Cortile Barile provides a straightforward and rewarding DIY project.

Best matched use

The Cortile Barile is a great choice for homeowners who want a wood-fired oven primarily for pizza, bread, casseroles, skillet meals, roasting, and family gatherings. It is especially well suited for someone who wants an oven that heats relatively quickly, provides several hours of cooking time, and uses a pour-and-pack construction method instead of a full hand-laid firebrick shell.

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What Makes the 28-Inch Mattone Cupola Different?

The 28-inch Mattone Cupola is a dome-shaped castable refractory oven built around an EPS foam form. Like the Cortile Barile, it uses a pour-and-pack construction method, but the Cupola is designed with a round cooking chamber of about 650 square inches and much thicker refractory walls. The biggest difference is the amount of refractory material. The Cupola uses about 260 pounds more castable refractory than the Cortile Barile, giving it more mass to absorb and hold heat.

Cooking features

The Mattone Cupola has a low dome-shaped ceiling and smaller oven opening, creating a compact cooking chamber that concentrates heat around the food. It is especially well suited for pizza, bread, casseroles, skillet meals, roasting, and other lower-profile foods.

Where the Cupola really stands apart is the amount of refractory material surrounding the cooking chamber. Its thick walls absorb a large amount of heat while the oven is firing and then slowly release that heat as the oven cools. That gives you the opportunity to cook in stages. You might start with pizza at the oven’s highest temperatures, then move on to bread, roasting, casseroles, or slower cooking as the temperature gradually drops. The Cupola takes longer to fully heat than the Cortile Barile, but it provides a much longer cooking window once all that refractory material is hot.

Construction features

The 28-inch Mattone Cupola is built by packing castable refractory around a shaped EPS foam dome form. Its thick walls require considerably more refractory material than the Cortile Barile, giving the finished oven its heavy, solid construction. Just like the Cortile Barile, 1 pound of the included stainless steel reinforcing fibers is mixed into every bag of castable refractory, reinforcing the dome from the inside and helping reduce the possibility of cracking as the oven heats and cools.

After the refractory has properly cured, the EPS foam is removed and the oven shell is cleaned. The oven is then completed with the firebrick cooking floor, ceramic fiber blanket insulation, reinforcement, the proper exhaust system, and a weather-resistant exterior finish. Following the proper curing schedule and gradually increasing the temperature during the first few fires is also an important part of preparing the oven for regular use.

Build experience

The Mattone Cupola gives homeowners the same basic mix, pack, cure, and finish experience as the Cortile Barile, but it is a larger refractory project. Because the Cupola has thicker walls and uses more castable refractory, expect more mixing, more material handling, and more time packing the form. However, you are still forming the main oven shell with castable refractory rather than laying the entire structure one firebrick at a time. For a homeowner comfortable using a mixer, measuring water carefully, and working through the project in stages, the Cupola provides a very hands-on way to build a traditional dome-shaped masonry oven.

Best matched use

The 28-inch Mattone Cupola is a great choice for homeowners who want a castable refractory oven and plan to make the most of a longer cooking day. It is especially well suited for someone who wants to make pizza first, bake bread afterward, roast food later, or continue cooking as the oven slowly cools. If you enjoy the idea of firing the oven once and using that heat for several different types of cooking throughout the day (or even into the next day), the Cupola is designed with that style of cooking in mind.

Shop 28in Mattone Cupola Kits

How Long Does Each Build Take?

There is no exact number of days that applies to every BrickWood oven project. Weather, your schedule, the exterior finish you choose, material delivery, and required curing times can all affect the timeline.

The Mattone Barile and Mattone Barile Grande spread most of the work across individual firebrick placement, and the Grande simply has more bricks to place and more mortar to mix. The Cortile Barile concentrates the main oven shell into a single pour-and-pack session of about 90 minutes, followed by a seven-day cure before the foam forms are removed. The Mattone Cupola follows the same process, with more mixing and packing because of its thicker walls.

Whichever oven you choose, the easiest way to keep your project moving is to read through the plans before starting, have your materials ready, prepare your work area, and allow every concrete and refractory material to cure for the required amount of time. For a closer look at the work and the budget involved, see How Hard Is It to Build a Brick Pizza Oven? and How Much Does It Cost to Build a Brick Pizza Oven?

What Base Does Each Oven Need?

Every BrickWood oven needs a strong, level base capable of supporting the weight of the oven, cooking floor, insulation, chimney, and exterior finish. The Mattone Barile, Cortile Barile, and 28-inch Mattone Cupola all use a 47 x 56-inch insulated base, while the larger Mattone Barile Grande requires a 47 x 60-inch insulated base. BrickWood’s base system also allows much of the insulated hearth to be built in sections on the ground. While those sections are curing, you can work on the foundation and block stand, helping different parts of the project move forward at the same time. Always use the base plans for the exact oven model you are building. Foundation depth, drainage, frost protection, setbacks, soil conditions, and local building requirements will vary depending on where the oven is installed. Our step-by-step pizza oven base guide walks through the process.

Which BrickWood Kit Fits Your Cooking Style?

Each BrickWood oven can make excellent pizza, bread, and wood-fired meals, but the four models are designed around different cooking styles, group sizes, and building preferences. The best fit usually comes down to how much cooking space you want, what kinds of food you plan to make, and how you want to build your oven.

Choose the Mattone Barile when

Choose the Mattone Barile if you want a medium-size, hand-laid firebrick oven that gives you plenty of flexibility without taking up as much space as the Grande. Its 17-inch ceiling and large open-mouth design give you room for much more than pizza. You can bake bread, use roasting pans, cook casseroles, roast meats, make barbecue, and even handle larger foods that may not fit as easily in a lower-ceiling oven.

The open-mouth design also gives you easy access to the cooking chamber. If you prefer a smaller opening, you can make the mouth smaller during construction to help keep more heat inside the oven.

The Mattone Barile is a great fit if you want:

A traditional brick-by-brick building experience
Plenty of room for pizza, bread, roasting, and barbecue
A medium-size oven that does not require the footprint of the Grande
A taller cooking chamber for larger foods and cookware
An oven that works well for family meals and smaller gatherings

For many homeowners, the Mattone Barile offers a nice middle ground between cooking space, versatility, and overall project size.

Choose the Mattone Barile Grande when

Choose the Mattone Barile Grande if you like everything about the Mattone Barile but want more room to cook and entertain. With approximately 1,050 square inches of cooking surface, the Grande gives you considerably more space for multiple pizzas, larger pans, bigger fires, and larger gatherings. Its 19-inch ceiling and wide front opening also provide plenty of room for turkey, roasting, barbecue, casseroles, and larger cookware. The Grande is especially useful when more than one person is working around the oven or when you want room to keep the fire on one side while cooking several foods on the other.

The Mattone Barile Grande is a great fit if you want:

More cooking space for parties and larger gatherings
Room to cook several pizzas in a row
Extra space for larger cookware and roasting
The traditional hand-laid firebrick building experience
A larger oven that gives you more room to manage both the fire and the food

The Mattone Barile Grande is BrickWood’s best-selling oven kit, making it a popular choice for homeowners who want plenty of cooking room without moving away from traditional firebrick construction.

Choose the Cortile Barile when

Choose the Cortile Barile if you want a true wood-fired masonry oven but prefer a pour-and-pack castable refractory build instead of constructing the main oven shell one firebrick at a time. Its lower ceiling and smaller opening create a compact cooking chamber that heats efficiently and keeps the heat close to the food. That makes it especially well suited for pizza, bread, casseroles, skillet meals, and everyday wood-fired cooking. The Cortile Barile is designed around a typical four- to five-hour cooking session, making it a natural fit for family pizza nights, parties, or weekend gatherings.

The Cortile Barile is a great fit if you want:

A castable refractory oven instead of a full firebrick shell
A more concentrated mix, pack, cure, and assemble building process
An oven that heats efficiently for an evening of cooking
Pizza, bread, casseroles, and skillet meals to be your main focus
A compact cooking chamber that keeps the heat close to the food

For homeowners who want the wood-fired oven experience without spending as much time laying the main oven shell brick by brick, the Cortile Barile offers a very different (and very approachable) DIY option.

Choose the 28-inch Mattone Cupola when

Choose the 28-inch Mattone Cupola if you like the castable refractory building method but want an oven designed for longer cooking sessions and extended use of stored heat. The Cupola has a low dome-shaped ceiling, smaller opening, and thick refractory walls. Those thick walls absorb a large amount of heat while the oven is firing and slowly release it afterward. That makes the Cupola especially useful if you enjoy cooking in stages. You might make pizza at the highest temperatures, bake bread afterward, roast food later, and continue using the remaining heat as the oven slowly cools.

The Mattone Cupola is a great fit if you want:

A traditional dome-shaped oven
Castable refractory construction
Longer cooking sessions
Pizza followed by bread, roasting, baking, or slower cooking
An oven that continues to be useful well after the active fire has been reduced
A cooking style that makes the most of the oven’s stored heat throughout the day

If your idea of a wood-fired oven is something you want to use for more than one round of cooking, the Cupola is the model designed most strongly around that style of use.

What Should You Consider Before Choosing Your Oven?

By now, the differences between the four BrickWood ovens should be fairly clear. Before ordering, there are a few practical things worth thinking through: how you want to build, what you want to cook, how much space you have, and how often you expect to use the oven.

Choose the Building Style You’ll Enjoy

One of the biggest differences between the four ovens is the way you build them. The Mattone Barile and Mattone Barile Grande give you the traditional experience of building a firebrick oven one brick at a time over a shaped EPS foam form. If you enjoy hands-on masonry and like the idea of watching your oven take shape brick by brick, these are the models to consider. The Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola use castable refractory instead. You mix the refractory, add the included stainless steel reinforcing fibers, pack the material into or around the EPS foam forms, allow it to cure, and then continue with assembly, insulation, and finishing. Neither method requires you to be an experienced mason. They are simply two very different DIY experiences.

Be Realistic About What You Want to Cook

All four ovens can make excellent pizza and bread, but think beyond your first pizza night. If you want room for larger roasting pans, turkey, barbecue, casseroles, and taller cookware, the larger openings and taller cooking chambers of the Mattone Barile and Mattone Barile Grande give you more flexibility. If your cooking will center around pizza, bread, skillet meals, casseroles, and other lower-profile foods, the compact chambers of the Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola are designed around that style of cooking. And if you enjoy the idea of firing the oven once and continuing to bake, roast, or slow-cook as the temperature gradually drops, the thicker refractory construction of the Mattone Cupola is designed especially well for that type of extended cooking.

Think About How Many People You Usually Cook For

Bigger is not automatically better. For most family meals and smaller gatherings, the Mattone Barile or Cortile Barile may provide all the cooking room you need. If your backyard regularly fills with friends and family (or you simply want more room to manage the fire and food at the same time) the Mattone Barile Grande provides substantially more cooking space. The goal is to choose an oven you will enjoy firing regularly, not simply the largest oven that will fit in your yard.

Make Sure the Oven Fits Your Space

Before ordering, make sure you consider the overall footprint of the finished oven, not just the size of the cooking chamber. You’ll need enough room for the base, insulation, exterior finish, chimney, and a comfortable cooking area in front of the oven. The Mattone Barile, Cortile Barile, and 28-inch Mattone Cupola all use the standard 47 x 56-inch insulated base. The Mattone Barile Grande is the only model that requires the larger 47 x 60-inch base. Also think about how the finished oven will fit into your patio or outdoor kitchen. Leave enough room to comfortably move a pizza peel, add firewood, handle hot cookware, and prepare or serve food. A little extra working space around the oven can make cooking much easier and more enjoyable.

Remember That You Choose the Finished Look

The BrickWood kit creates the working oven underneath, but you decide what the finished oven looks like. Your oven can be finished with stucco, brick veneer, stone, tile, mortar, or another suitable weather-resistant masonry finish. It can be simple and traditional, built into a larger outdoor kitchen, or designed to match your home and landscaping. Whatever finish you choose, protecting the oven from rain and moisture is an important part of the finished project.

Choose the Oven You’ll Still Want to Use Years From Now

The best way to choose between the four models is to picture an ordinary Saturday a few years from now. Are you firing the oven for a couple of pizzas with your family? Hosting a backyard full of people? Roasting a turkey or cooking barbecue? Baking bread after pizza? Or spending the entire afternoon cooking several different meals as the oven slowly cools? That picture will usually tell you more about which BrickWood oven is right for you than any single specification on a chart.

Choose the oven that fits the way you actually want to cook, build, and entertain... and you are much more likely to keep enjoying it for years to come.

BrickWood Pizza Oven Kit FAQ

Can I build a BrickWood pizza oven if I have never done masonry before?

Yes. BrickWood oven kits are designed for DIY homeowners, including builders with little or no previous masonry experience. The Mattone Barile and Mattone Barile Grande use shaped EPS foam forms to establish the size and shape of the oven and help guide the firebrick placement. The Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola use EPS foam forms with castable refractory, so the main oven shell is formed rather than built entirely from individual firebricks. Whichever model you choose, the key is to follow the plans step by step and allow the concrete, mortar, and refractory materials to cure properly. For an honest look at the work involved, see How Hard Is It to Build a Brick Pizza Oven?

What is the biggest difference between the four BrickWood oven kits?

The biggest differences are how you build the oven, the size and shape of the cooking chamber, and how you plan to cook with it. The Mattone Barile and Grande are hand-laid firebrick ovens with taller cooking chambers and larger openings. The Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola use castable refractory and have smaller openings and lower cooking chambers. All four are high-performance wood-fired ovens, but each offers a different building and cooking experience.

What is the difference between the Mattone Barile and Mattone Barile Grande?

They use the same basic hand-laid firebrick construction method, but the Grande is larger. The Mattone Barile has a 17-inch ceiling and approximately 700 square inches of cooking space. The Mattone Barile Grande has a 19-inch ceiling and approximately 1,050 square inches of cooking space. The Grande gives you more room for food, larger fires, bigger cookware, and entertaining larger groups.

Which BrickWood oven gives me the most room for larger foods and cookware?

The Mattone Barile and Mattone Barile Grande offer the most vertical room because of their taller cooking chambers and larger front openings. That extra space is helpful for turkeys, roasts, barbecue, casseroles, larger pans, and other foods that need more height. The Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola have lower cooking chambers that are especially well suited for pizza, bread, skillet meals, casseroles, and other lower-profile foods.

Which BrickWood oven heats up the quickest?

The Cortile Barile is designed around a relatively quick wood-fired cooking session. Its compact cooking chamber and moderate amount of castable refractory allow it to heat efficiently for a typical family dinner, pizza night, or party. A normal Cortile cooking session is approximately four to five hours, depending on your fire, fuel, weather, and cooking temperature.

Which BrickWood oven stays hot the longest?

The 28-inch Mattone Cupola is designed to make the greatest use of stored heat. Its thicker castable refractory walls absorb a large amount of heat while the oven is firing. It takes longer to fully heat than the Cortile Barile, but that additional mass allows you to continue cooking as the oven slowly cools. That makes the Cupola especially useful if you want to make pizza first, bake bread afterward, roast later, and keep cooking for the rest of the day.

Which BrickWood oven is best for pizza?

All four BrickWood ovens are designed to cook excellent wood-fired pizza. The better question is what else you want to cook and how you want to use the oven. If pizza is part of a wider menu that includes larger roasts, turkey, barbecue, and taller cookware, the Mattone Barile or Grande gives you more room. If pizza, bread, casseroles, and skillet meals will make up most of your cooking, the compact chambers of the Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola are very well suited to those foods.

What is the difference between the Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola?

Both use castable refractory and EPS foam forms, but they are designed around different cooking styles. The Cortile Barile uses a five-piece oven shell and is designed to heat efficiently for a typical evening of cooking. The Mattone Cupola uses a dome-shaped chamber with considerably thicker refractory walls. It takes longer to heat but stores more heat for extended baking, roasting, and cooking after the main fire has been reduced.

What are the stainless steel fibers used for in the Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola?

The castable refractory used in the Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola is reinforced with stainless steel fibers included with the kit. For every bag of refractory, 1 pound of stainless steel fibers is mixed into the material. Each pound contains thousands of small fibers that spread throughout the refractory and work much like miniature pieces of rebar. They help reinforce the refractory from the inside, creating a strong, solid oven structure and helping reduce the possibility of cracking as the oven repeatedly heats and cools.

Do the Cortile Barile and Mattone Cupola still use firebrick?

Yes. Although their main oven shells are made from castable refractory, both ovens still use a firebrick cooking floor. The firebrick provides the durable, high-temperature surface that your fire and food cook directly on. The cooking floor is laid level in a herringbone pattern and is not mortared in place, allowing the bricks to expand and contract naturally as the oven heats and cools.

What size base does each BrickWood oven require?

Three of the four ovens use the same base size. The Mattone Barile, Cortile Barile, and 28-inch Mattone Cupola use a 47 x 56-inch insulated base. The larger Mattone Barile Grande uses a 47 x 60-inch insulated base. Always build from the base plans supplied for your exact oven model.

Can I make the opening on the Mattone Barile series oven smaller?

Yes. The Mattone Barile has an open-mouth design, but the homeowner can make the finished opening smaller during construction if desired. Reducing the opening can help keep more heat inside the cooking chamber. This gives the builder some flexibility to balance the large, easy-access opening with the way they expect to use the oven.

Can I finish my BrickWood oven any way I want?

You have a great deal of freedom in how the finished oven looks. Once the oven is built and insulated, the exterior can be finished with materials such as stucco, brick veneer, stone, tile, mortar, or another suitable weather-resistant masonry finish. That allows the same BrickWood oven kit to look completely different depending on your home, patio, landscaping, or outdoor kitchen. The important part is that the finished exterior properly protects the oven from rain and moisture.

Which BrickWood oven should I choose if I entertain a lot?

The Mattone Barile Grande is usually the model to consider when cooking space is the priority. Its approximately 1,050-square-inch cooking floor gives you more room for multiple pizzas, larger cookware, bigger fires, and more food at the same time. That additional working room makes it especially useful for large families, backyard parties, and frequent entertaining.

How do I know which BrickWood oven is right for me?

Start with three questions:

How do you want to build it?
Choose the Mattone Barile family if you want the traditional experience of building a firebrick oven one brick at a time. Choose the Cortile Barile or Mattone Cupola if you prefer working with castable refractory.

What do you want to cook?
Choose a Barile model if you want extra room for larger foods, cookware, roasting, and barbecue. Choose a Cortile or Cupola if pizza, bread, casseroles, and other lower-profile foods will be your main focus.

How do you expect to use it?
Choose the Grande when you want more room for entertaining. Choose the Cortile for efficient evening cooking. Choose the Cupola when you want to fire the oven and continue using its stored heat for baking and roasting afterward.

More questions? See our Expanded FAQ Page or visit the BrickWood Forum