# Forum Home Renovation Brickwork  pizza oven building

## coxy68

hi im trying to build a pizza oven and im up to the stage of getting a concrete slab to go on top of my brickwork. Does anyone know where i can order one already made or do i have to make my own on top of my brick base. im in perth wa. cheers  :Confused:

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## mike_perth

Gotta pour it really mate - people have tried and succeded in using hebel (aerated concrete) blocks/sheets - easily cut available in "sheets" at around 1200 x 600mm but isnt exactly cheap also acts as a good insulator as its full of air. 
But at the cost of concrete, sand, aggregate and a mixer and some steel mixing your own concrete on-site and pouring can work our fairly cheap. 
Mike

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## coxy68

thanks mike for ya feed back. ill look into trying to pour my own slab on top of brick wall base. Do you know where i can get some information how to do so? thanks

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## Belair_Boy

G'day Coxy 
I have been involved in building several brick pizza ovens now.  
As they say on TV "here is one I prepared earlier" 
Ready to pour the base. Leftover Bondek was used to support the wet concrete and thus no additional supports were needed.  An easy way to form the slab if you can scrounge a couple of metres left over from a suspended slab pour. Brick walls formed the edge form on two sides in this case but timber could be used all round. A bit of reinforcing mesh and a couple of hours on the mixer and a you have the base to build the oven on. :Smilie:

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## Belair_Boy

The base for this oven is a cast concrete slab.  The outer leaf of the double brick wall acted as edge formwork in this case.  The concrete was poured on some old corrugated iron with minimal support.  You don't see the underside of the slab so appearance was not important.   
This slab is for a full outdoor kitchen, BBQ and pizza oven (right hand side of slab)
Full timber formwork used here, formply base, timber supports and edgeform.   
After the formwork was stripped out and ready for polishing the concrete top.  Oxide and selected aggregate was used in the final 30mm or so, the bulk being regular concrete.  
The first cut has just been done and the final polishing will be started in about a weeks time. I will upload some more pictures when the job has been done.  :Smilie:

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## watson

> thanks mike for ya feed back. ill look into trying to pour my own slab on top of brick wall base. Do you know where i can get some information how to do so? thanks

  G'day coxy,
Have you checked the concreting section of the Forum Library??

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## coxy68

thanks belair_boy, great pics and info. Looks easy enough. what grade of concrete should be used?. thanks

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## Belair_Boy

> what grade of concrete should be used?. thanks

  I have always used 32 MPa concrete.  If you keep your water : cement ratio 1:2 you should be about right. 
 The easiest way to add strength is to add cement. The factor that most predominantly influences concrete strength is the ratio of water to cement in the cement paste that binds the aggregates together. The higher this ratio is, the weaker the concrete will be and vice versa*. Every desirable physical property that you can measure will be adversely effected by adding more water*. 
  The water to cement ratio (W/C) is the weight of the water divided by the weight of cement.                                Water                           20 litres W/C =       ------------                = 0.5                                Cement                      40 kgNote: 1 litre of water weighs 1 kilogram.
  The lower the ratio, the stronger the concrete.W/C =  1.0      =>     10MPa                          0.75  =>     20MPa                          0.5     =>     35MPa

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## coxy68

Belair_boy, thanks very much for ya help.. i will post on here the pics when i finally finish this big mission .. Ive just finished building my patio and getiing that concreted and brick work done with built in bbq and brick work for the pizza oven.Its taken 5 months to get to here. ill try put pic here cheers

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## coxy68

here is a more up to date pic

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## coxy68

pizza oven built and rendered   phew!

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## watson

That's a bit neat coxy!!
Almost a code violation for DIY  :Hahaha:

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## jago

Nice space  for an outdoor kitchen ...good work.

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## Belair_Boy

G'day Coxy 
Great job with your oven. 
The oven for the latest outdoor kitchen (see previous posts) has been built and is ready for render.  
What render did you end up using Coxy?  
We fired it up Sunday night to give it a little test, any excuse to cook some pizza.

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## Tomo

Gday Belair Boy, 
What material have you used for the front base of the oven? 
Cheers
Tomo

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## Belair_Boy

G'day Tomo 
The base of the oven is a flat fire brick which has a sheet of stainless steel in the doorway and folded down the front.  It is just sitting there and can easily be removed for cleaning etc.  We had a thought of using slate but an experiment with a piece in another over showed the heat would cause it to delaminate.  I have earmarked a large slab of slate for a bench top alongside my oven though.

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## Tomo

Thanks Belair, 
We are in the early planning stages at the moment. 
Just running through all options. 
We considered a stainless steel workbench for pizza prep. 
Not sure how it would last in the weather 24/7. 
Cheers

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## jago

I wouldn't use slate tooo soft and prone to delaminating,oil stains it as well through practical experience I used to have welsh slate table...never again.

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## coxy68

belair_boy,  yeah im fairly happy with the end result of the pizza oven. Fired it up the other night and baked bread rolls  and pizzas . The render i used was my own mix ( not bought from bunnings). brickies light and brickies yellow sand. 1 to 8 mix .  Hey your oven looks bloody good. What sort of cement do you use between the bricks?.

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