I’ve made pizza about 10 tens now since finishing my oven this fall. I’ve read some of the other tips about keeping the floor warm. But it got me to wondering. how to commercial pizza ovens keep their oven floors warm all day long? I thought the initial step of spreading coals all over the floor brings it up to temp. Eventually it will cool even with a fire going in the back. Right? I never see the guys at Blaze Pizza spreading coals across the floor though.
Just in my research of this whole process, I have found that the insulated layer under the fire bricks needs to be at least 4 inches for heat retention longevity. These instructions only call for 2”. I have made an oven with 2” installation layer and it works well but definitely not long term cooking. You would also have to consider a damper in your exhaust stack. To keep the heat in. Then you have to address the door and escaping heat. A bad ratio of insulation can also have an affect on retention as well, if you made your own mix.
Hi all. Rob408 is correct. Our ovens through beautifully designed, they are not designed for Comercial use. Look, everyone has trial and tribulations.
When I first built mine I had this vision on how the oven will work and how the pizza will taste. You know what I’m talking about. When I started. It was a disaster. Cold floors . Couldn’t get the oven up past 600 degrees. I thought I failed.
Then I was talking to a owner of a Neopolitan pizza restaurant. Became real acquainted with him. I told him my troubles. He said to me. It’s all normal. His oven is Comercially made. He cured it in a controlled environment. He cooks in a controlled environment. And he knows what to expect.
Mine is outside. It takes longer to cure. Longer to heat upand quicker to cool. Every time I fire it up its a different environment. Practice makes perfect. You need to know your oven.
My advice. Get your oven up to 1000 degrees. Move coals to the side and clean floor. Feed fire to keep up coals. Wait until floor cools to 800 degrees make a pizza and throw it in. Watch it. Kepp turning don’t let it burn on the bottom.
After that you can probably cook 6 pizzas seamlessly in a row without having to heat up the floor again. After that you might have to.
But keep this in mind. Everyday is different. Humidity and outside temperature effects the oven and your dough. Only experience will tell you what you need to do. Main thing is to have fun.
Hope this helps.
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Agree with @423tommy and will add that an infrared thermometer calibrated for a brick surface is very helpful to ensure that you have a good floor temperature. I’ve found that by my fourth pizza, the baking area (I change the location between pizzas because the spot where I just baked is cooler than the adjacent spot) that I bake on drops from 750+F to around 650. I simply pull some of the coals forward onto the baking spaces, get a beer, and after 5 to 10 minutes push the hot coals back and thoroughly brush the baking area. This brings the temperature back up. I’ve also found that if the oven has going full tilt for say 4 hours or so, that the floor tends to get heat-saturated I don’t need to reheat the baking area.
It has been a frigid January where I live and I am dreaming about spring weather and my first 2025 pizzas, can’t wait!
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I have had my oven built for about 6 months now. I can get the inside temp to 1000 degrees with no problem but the floor temp only gets to about 350 max. I started a fire about 2 hours prior to cooking last week and let the coals burn down in the middle of the oven. I moved them to the back and kept adding wood to the fire. The floor only got to about 350 especially after I cleaned it with a wet rag. Any advice?
First things first: welcome to the BrickWood Forum!
And that’s a nice, clean, solid build you have there. So my questions center around the floor construction itself:
Did you build the insulated slab according to the specs and materials in the Mattone Barile instructions?
Is the oven getting wet between bakes? I notice what looks like wet streaks on the interior concrete in the base.
Generally when bakers are having an issue with a cold floor it traces back to either a lack of insulating material under the floor or water getting in to the slab and soaking the firebrick in the hearth.
I’m sure other folks here have ideas about what might be happening, and it would help us to help you if you can add a little information.
Hope this helps, and thank you!
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Agree with Matt. Nothing much to add except can you provide a picture of the inside of your oven? Might generate some ideas…
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Nice looking oven, looks like a great spot to make pizzas.
I agree with ‘Hawkeye’ @bikerbudmatt, it looks like moisture in the pedestal. If the interior gets soaked the moisture will transfer heat to the hearth and sides. Did the hearth or sides feel warm to the touch? If so, drying fires are needed to drive moisture out of the interior.
Getting a reading of only 350 degrees on the floor after a 2 hour burn is surprising, I would expect at least 600 degrees F. I noticed a thermometer on the door. Can you please elaborate on how you are measuring the oven temperatures? I use an infrared thermometer that is calibrated for brick and masonry surfaces.
Of course what matters most is the result of your pizzas. Are the bottoms consistently undercooked?
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I built the floor based on the specs given in the Brickwood plans. I wanted to use the insulating castable on the floor but I could not find it at any of my local suppliers. I settled for the perlite and Portland cement mix. I don’t think I have had any water infiltration into the slab but I am not ruling it out. All seems to be dry inside. The only water may be coming from the chimney as I have not put a cap on it to this point. I am open to any ideas as to what I can do to remedy this issue. The oven is well insulated otherwise. After reaching 800-900 degrees, it will still be 300 degrees 6 hours after the fire goes out. I just can’t get the floor to heat up as well. Our local grocery store bakery sells pizza dough balls that we are using to make our pizzas. The top of the pizza will burn before the bottom is done. With the time and effort I put into building this pizza oven, I want the pizzas to be exceptional. Any help would be appreciated. How can you tell that there is moisture in the pedestal? Is there anything in the picture or are you assuming that is the issues? I will send inside pictures later today. How do I prevent moisture from getting in the hearth?
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It’s important that you cap the chimney for two reasons:
- The water issue. Right now you have an open funnel above the hearth. Water goes right down that funnel and is absorbed into the firebrick.
- Sparks. The cap also has a spark arrestor screen. You have two large flammable areas I can see in the photo: the well-weathered fence that’s very close to the hearth, and the tree limbs in the next yard. In dry seasons the right spark can touch off a blaze. (I live in Connecticut which was not known for dangerous wildfires—until last summer.)
I’m looking again at your concrete block base (I first saw the photo on my mobile phone) and realize that what I thought was moisture looks more like latex mortar patching.
Wet hearth brick won’t be obvious to the touch. But you’ll recall from building that you’re advised to soak the firebrick before cutting it, to keep down dust and produce a more accurate cut. It’s one of the reasons for the curing fire cycle, because the brick will later appear to be dry even though it’s saturated.
What’s your climate like? Are you having frequent rain/snow/drizzle or other moisture?
For sure, you would be well advised to cap the chimney as soon as you can. I know that current materials costs have made stainless steel caps more expensive, but it’s both a safety and performance issue that you’ll be addressing.
The final point to address is pizza tops cooking before bottoms. That could be a question of fire placement as well as the low hearth temp. Here’s a couple things to try:
- Keep a couple of burning logs along the sides while you build the roaring 800° fire in the rear. The idea is to make sure you’re getting radiant heat on the hearth during your entire warmup time. Don’t push those logs back until you’re ready to bake.
- Bring some hot coals forward into the baking area between pies. Push them back after a couple minutes when you’re ready to put new pies in the oven.
- Keep the pies closer to you than the flame. A pizza top will start burning within 2 minutes at those temps, as I’m sure you know! Give the bottoms a chance to cook and the pie a chance to rise before you finish off the top closer to the flames.
None of this may make the entire difference until we resolve the low hearth temperature issue, but it should help a bit. Once that’s done, we can talk about transitioning from the grocery store dough to pizza dough you make yourself—and it will blow your mind when you learn how easy it is. 
Good luck with these steps. We’re here for you and want you to succeed!
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Thanks so much for the response. We live in North Florida on Amelia Island. The weather usually stays fairly humid. I am going to purchase a cap for the chimney asap. I will also build a couple of fires to dry out the hearth. Hopefully I can keep it dry going forward. Also, to answer another response, I have an infrared laser thermometer to measure the heat of the hearth and interior while cooking. I will keep you updated.
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