Episode 2047
Burning Love: Mastering Your Wood-Fired Oven with Ben Guilford
Building your own wood-fired pizza oven? Yeah, that’s the dream, and in this episode, Eric G chats with Ben Guilford from the Fire Brick Company to spill the beans on just how easy-peasy it can actually be. We dive deep into the nitty-gritty of constructing your very own oven and trust me, it's not just for pizza—think roasting, baking, and a whole lot of deliciousness. Ben's got tips for mastering the art of wood-fired cooking, and we tackle the hilarious reality of your first pizza cookout—spoiler alert: it might just be a burnt offering. So grab a slice (or a whole pie) and tune in as we serve up all the juicy details on pizza perfection and oven building shenanigans!
If you’re looking to transform your backyard into a gourmet pizza haven, then this chat with Ben Guilford from the Fire Brick Company is just the ticket! Ever wondered how to build your own wood-fired pizza oven? Eric G dives deep into the nitty-gritty with Ben, who shares the ins and outs of constructing these beauties. We’re talking about the joys and challenges of building something that not only cooks pizza but also turns your outdoor space into a social hub. And let's be honest, nothing says ‘I’ve got my life together’ like a wood-fired oven in your backyard. Ben explains how the process isn’t just about slapping some bricks together. Oh no, there’s a method to the madness! From the right materials to the all-important curing process, they cover it all with a sprinkle of humor and a dash of sarcasm. Plus, Eric shares his personal experience of building his oven and the learning curves that come with it. Spoiler alert: there’s pizza involved, and it’s delicious.
The conversation takes a turn as they discuss the various types of ovens available and who should really be investing in one. Is it for the casual home cook, or are you planning to host a pizza party that rivals a small wedding? Eric and Ben break down the options, so you know exactly what you’re getting into. And let’s face it, this is not just a pizza oven; it’s a lifestyle choice. They also touch on the versatility of these ovens—think roasting meats and baking artisan bread, not just your classic Margherita. So for anyone who’s ever thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to cook like a pro at home?” this episode is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration.
And if you’re worried about building it yourself, fret not! Ben assures us that his kits are user-friendly and designed for the DIY-er in all of us. We’re talking about a build process that’s more like following a recipe than constructing a rocket ship. They even tackle the common fear of messing up the brick-laying process because let’s be real, who hasn’t made a mistake on a DIY project? So whether you're a seasoned builder or someone who thinks ‘DIY’ stands for ‘Don’t Involve Yourself’, this episode is packed with laughs, tips, and maybe even a few cravings for pizza. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and start your wood-fired adventure!
Takeaways:
- Building your own wood-fired pizza oven is easier than it sounds, just grab some patience and a sense of adventure!
- The Fire Brick Company offers tons of resources, including free video guides, to help you nail that pizza oven build.
- Cooking with a wood-fired oven isn't just about pizza—think roasted veggies, lamb, and even baking bread!
- Don't rush your oven build; it's a labor of love that requires time and care to get it just right.
- Hosting a pizza party? Make your guests do the work! Cooking together is way more fun than being a one-person show.
- If you think you can't build a pizza oven, just remember: if you can handle Lego, you can handle this!
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Monument Grills
- Firebrick Company
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome to around the House with Eric G. Your trusted source for all things home improvement.
Speaker B:Whether you're tackling a DIY project, hiring it out, or just trying to keep your home running smoothly, you're in the right place.
Speaker B:With over 30 years of remodeling experience, certified kitchen designer Eric G. Takes you behind the scenes with expert advice, industry trends, and the latest innovations for your home.
Speaker A:Home.
Speaker B:It's everything you need to know without the fluff.
Speaker B:This hour is brought to you by Monument Grills.
Speaker B:Do you need that new barbecue for Labor Day?
Speaker B:Now is the time to check out your new grill@monumentgrills.com now here's your host, Eric G. Welcome to the round the.
Speaker C:House show, the next generation of home improvement.
Speaker C:Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker C:I'm Eric G. And if there's an episode that we do this year that's gonna make you hungry, I can just about guarantee this is going to be it.
Speaker C:We've got Ben Guilford, director of the Firebrick company.
Speaker C:Welcome to around the House, my friend.
Speaker A:Thank you, Eric.
Speaker A:Very lovely to be here.
Speaker C:Thanks for having me, man.
Speaker C:Thanks for coming on.
Speaker C:And you know, it's late afternoon here, it's early in the morning there.
Speaker C:That's the nice thing about you being down under.
Speaker C:It's all different times.
Speaker A:It works really well actually, the time difference.
Speaker A:When we started selling the ovens in America, I thought, oh, is the time difference going to work?
Speaker A:You know, it's.
Speaker A:But it does, you know, late afternoon for you, early morning for me.
Speaker A:It's great.
Speaker C:It's great.
Speaker C:It's great.
Speaker C:Well, I gotta say, first off, I am so impressed with what you have created because, dang, man, that is a killer pizza oven.
Speaker C:That is wood fired.
Speaker C:I love it.
Speaker C:We cook on it weekly and there's a learning curve like any art, but wow, that thing is stunning and it was pretty easy to build.
Speaker A:Thanks, man.
Speaker A:That's, that's lovely of you to say.
Speaker A:I really appreciate that and I'm glad to hear you're, you're getting some, you know, some use out of it and, and some, some joy out of it, which is always, I guess, is the idea is what we want.
Speaker A:Because when you build yours, it was, it was a few months ago now.
Speaker C:Yeah, it was kind of over the winter time here, so it was, you know, six months or so ago and, you know, just started going after it.
Speaker C:And it's really hard to film for television only because all the content that I ran camera on because it isn't like it's an a hard build but it's just time consuming with the things that you have to do to do it right.
Speaker A:Oh, I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker A:And that's.
Speaker A:We've, you know, you know, we've got the video series of.
Speaker A:To follow along with how to build it and what.
Speaker A:How long is it?
Speaker A:Three and a half hours.
Speaker A:And I remember filming them just thinking it was the second time that we'd filmed the video series.
Speaker A:And I remember Joel the videographer saying, he's my best friend.
Speaker A:He was my best man at my wedding.
Speaker A:And he said to me, now, Ben, should we try to make them shorter this time?
Speaker A:Should we try and cut down the length of the videos a bit?
Speaker A:And I said, joel, I don't think we can, man.
Speaker A:It's a long process and I want to show all the detail because it makes a difference.
Speaker C:It makes a difference.
Speaker C:Those videos helped me a lot because you can print out the most great directions, which you've got, you've got on the website if you want to see them and look them on online.
Speaker C:But really seeing somebody do it on a video is so helpful.
Speaker C:And it was to me as well.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:I think actually that's why we've been able to sell as many of the ovens as we have is the videos and the detail that we go into, because.
Speaker A:And they're freely available.
Speaker A:Like, we.
Speaker A:You don't have to pay to get them or anything.
Speaker A:And so I find most of our customers actually tend to watch those videos before they buy.
Speaker A:They watch the whole series and then they go, I can actually do this.
Speaker A:And they go from this attitude of how on earth did they build that?
Speaker A:To, oh, actually, no, I can see how I could do that because it's all broken down into little steps and you just tackle each step and get it done.
Speaker C:Yeah, it was so funny.
Speaker C:And you have to have patience on this because it's time consuming.
Speaker C:It's beautiful.
Speaker C:But when you get it all, when you all get it done, and it's like, all right, I'm 90% here now.
Speaker C:You have to season it correctly.
Speaker C:You gotta not ruin your work.
Speaker C:So it's like anything you've gotta.
Speaker C:It takes some patience.
Speaker C:Which is like the hardest part, because you're like, this is amazing.
Speaker C:I want, oh, okay, I got a few weeks of getting this thing ready.
Speaker A:Now I get calls all the time from people who are.
Speaker A:That they'll say, oh, how long does it take to build?
Speaker A:And I'll say, oh, you know, it depends on the oven.
Speaker A:It might be the P85 is about 20 hours of work.
Speaker A:And they're like, oh, I've got this, I've got this event coming up in like three weeks time or a month's time and you know, it's a 21st birthday or something.
Speaker A:And I just tell them, don't do it, don't do it.
Speaker A:Like, I'm not saying don't build the oven, but if you try to build it to a timeline, firstly it takes all the fun out of it because now you have to hustle.
Speaker A:You don't get to just enjoy the process but, but then yet you have this stress of I've got to get it done by then and, but really you've got to finish it at least two weeks before the due date because of the curing times and those, all those heat up fires.
Speaker A:You got to do those slow drying process.
Speaker A:It's a whole thing.
Speaker C:And you don't want your first pizza cook to be in front of all these people.
Speaker C:There are steps to learning the art of this.
Speaker A:People do that though, and they put themselves through that.
Speaker A:And I say, what are you doing?
Speaker A:You know, you've just built this oven and you've got like 20 of your best friends over and all your family and this is your first time doing.
Speaker C:You're gonna burn it.
Speaker C:I promise you you're gonna burn it.
Speaker A:It's gonna be a burnt offering.
Speaker A:100% it is.
Speaker C:And that's okay.
Speaker C:But you know, once you get it down and you realize that, okay, controlling your heat is like anything cooking is making understanding where that sweet spot is for your style of pizza you like to cook.
Speaker C:It's pretty easy at that point.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:And it's, and it's a lot of fun.
Speaker A:We did a video recently called how to Enjoy a Pizza Party and it wasn't like it was.
Speaker A:So it wasn't.
Speaker A:I said at the start of the video, I said this is not a video to teach you like the most amazing dough or like, you know, there's heaps of videos on various doughs, et cetera, online.
Speaker A:But I wanted to try and make the pizza cooking process less catering like, like, because it can feel like a catering experience where you don't even get to talk to your friends.
Speaker A:And so I just set out a few tips to try and make it, to make it easier to, and just, and just to get people started in the process.
Speaker A:So not to try and teach them how to make the best pizza right off the bat.
Speaker A:You can work up to that.
Speaker A:People spend like their, you know, whole careers as pizza professionals try to nail it.
Speaker A:But we just want to get them started so then they can build on that and just enjoy it.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:I got some tricks and tips we'll do at the end of the show, but I want to talk about your ovens here and where people start out with, because there's people out there that'll go, hey, I just want this little propane thing to throw on the countertop and awesome, that's your jam.
Speaker C:But if you really want a pizza oven, this is kind of what I say about people that have, like, the.
Speaker C:The small $300 propane barbecues.
Speaker C:You know, it's like, hey, that is great for somebody, right?
Speaker C:That is perfect.
Speaker C:But then the people that really want to cook, there's nothing better than wood fire.
Speaker C:So this, to me, I think is the one, the most cost effective way to do it, to build something professional.
Speaker C:And that is going to be a statement piece for your outdoor kitchen.
Speaker A:You mentioned, like, this, the smaller, like, benchtop ovens, and I actually have no problem with those.
Speaker A:I think they're really cool idea.
Speaker A:If all you want to do is just cook maybe half a dozen pizzas, that's it, then maybe that would actually be the best oven for you.
Speaker A:I would actually say if you.
Speaker A:If you rang us up and said, hey, Ben, like, it's just me and my wife and we don't really entertain much and we just want to cook, like, maybe three or four pizzas on a weekend, which oven would you recommend for us?
Speaker A:I'd say probably don't get one of ours because it would be wasteful.
Speaker A:You know, it takes a fair bit of fuel to heat our ovens up, and you really want to get value out of that.
Speaker A:No, I don't think those bench top ovens are bad.
Speaker A:In fact, we get a lot of people calling us saying, I've had one of those benchtop ovens.
Speaker A:I love it, and I love making pizza, but I've hit the limit of it.
Speaker A:I want to do more, and I want to do more than just pizza.
Speaker A:I want to do roasting and baking and slow cooking and all of that other stuff.
Speaker A:And I'm just.
Speaker A:I just can't do it.
Speaker A:It's just.
Speaker A:Just for doing a few pizzas and that's.
Speaker A:And it does that really well.
Speaker C:And there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker C:But what you guys have is it's cool that you have something that is small enough for a family to use and to have a good pizza party.
Speaker C:And you could have 20 people over and still with your smallest oven, really enjoy a Pizza party with that.
Speaker C:And then you've got, hey, I want to have my own commercial unit and I want to have a thousand people over.
Speaker C:You've got that as well.
Speaker A:We've got, we've got a range and so you've got the smallest oven, you've got our P85 and it's not small.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker A:A lot of people, they look at our range of ovens and they, and they see, oh, we've got the smallest to the largest and they figure, well, the small one must be kind of small.
Speaker A:And it's not.
Speaker B:To find out more information, head to aroundthehouseonline.com don't change that dial around the house.
Speaker B:We'll be right back after these important messages.
Speaker B:Welcome back to the around the House show.
Speaker B:This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.
Speaker B:If you are needing a new grill, check them out@monumentgrills.com don't forget to check out our website and YouTube channel.
Speaker B:That's aroundthehouse online.com where the projects are big, the tools are shiny and the host has just enough hair gel to qualify as a professional.
Speaker B:We have been talking with Ben and the firebrick company.
Speaker B:Let's talk building that outdoor pizza oven.
Speaker B:I sure picked the wrong day to not bring my lunch.
Speaker A:We've got, we've got a range and so you've got the smallest oven, you've got our P85 and it's not small.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker A:A lot of people, they look at our range of ovens and they, and they see, oh, we've got the smallest to the largest and they figure, well, the small one must be kind of small.
Speaker A:And it's not.
Speaker A:It's what, it's 33 and a half inches internal diameter which is pretty big.
Speaker A:We had my brother in law's 50th birthday party recently.
Speaker A:Rob and I had, didn't have a gift for Rob.
Speaker A:You know, I was trying to think what can I get him?
Speaker A:And in the end I said, you know, Rob, I'll cater for you.
Speaker A:And he or he has the same oven you have.
Speaker A:He has a P85.
Speaker A:He had 40 people over.
Speaker A:And I cooked pizza for everybody out of that oven and I was cooking one or two at a time and I had a team of four people rolling out bases and topping them for me.
Speaker A:And they couldn't keep up because the pizzas will be cooked in between 90 seconds and two minutes if you put, you know, the right amount of toppings on.
Speaker A:So even this, even our smallest oven caters for big Groups.
Speaker A:Actually a lovely story.
Speaker A:Customer in Australia during our lockdowns here.
Speaker A:Oh, don't even get me started on lockdowns.
Speaker C:Yeah, don't get me started as well.
Speaker A:Anyway, we, we had a customer who, their daughter was getting married and the wedding reception, the venue got shut down at short notice.
Speaker A:Don't know exactly what happened, but basically the wedding reception was like going to be canceled and they moved it to their house and they fed 60 people pizza out of their P85.
Speaker A:And I was like, that's such a cool story.
Speaker A:Like, you know, because people call us all the time, they want to buy the biggest one.
Speaker C:Well, I think I was one of those people.
Speaker C:I think I was like, all right, I'm looking at the D105.
Speaker C:Or I was looking at the 130 and you're like, slow down cowboy.
Speaker C:Slow down cowboy.
Speaker A:That might not be what you need now.
Speaker A:So for everyone listening, I didn't say slow down cowboy, but I do, I do ask everyone, I say, you know, everyone who reaches out and they ask particularly for the biggest oven, first question I ask them is, is it for a restaurant?
Speaker A:And if it is, if they're building a restaurant, which, which happens quite often, we say, awesome, it's perfect oven for you.
Speaker A:But if you're not, if you're, if it's for home, then we actually really encourage people to think a little smaller.
Speaker A:The D105 is, is the model down.
Speaker A:We sell heaps of those because the heat up time really affects like your enjoyment of the oven.
Speaker A:And the example I give is, let's say with the D130, it's got a four and a half hour heat up time, which is pretty phenomenal.
Speaker A:Like that's, that's a long time.
Speaker A:And the thing is, it's, it's a lot of oven to heat.
Speaker A:You're bringing up all this thermal mass from stone cold all the way up to 700 Fahrenheit, 750, as hot as you want, but that you bring up a lot of material up to this temperature.
Speaker A:And so that takes some time.
Speaker A:And I say to people like, you know, look, if you're having 50 people over, then it wouldn't even phase you.
Speaker A:You'd get up in the morning and fire the oven so that it's ready for the evening.
Speaker A:Like it wouldn't bother you because it's this big event that you're having.
Speaker A:But if you're having three friends over, can you be bothered spending four and a half hours firing up just, and you know, you're only Going to cook a handful of pizzas let's say, or maybe a roast.
Speaker A:Can you be bothered?
Speaker A:Can you justify the time and the firewood to do it?
Speaker A:And whereas if you have a smaller oven, well that justification is so much easier because the time is like halved.
Speaker A:And actually that's why we sell.
Speaker A:So the P85, the oven you have is our biggest seller because it has a really rapid heat up times like an hour and 15 minutes.
Speaker A:And whereas like the D105 which is the next biggest seller, that's the two and a half hour heat up time.
Speaker A:So now that comes with a trade off where the, the cool down time is the trade off.
Speaker A:So if you, you can cook as the oven's cooling.
Speaker A:Have you done much of that?
Speaker C:Yeah, I have.
Speaker C:I've, I've had people over here where we've had a, like an all day party and I'm throwing pizzas in and, and you know, I start cooking it maybe one or two o' clock in the afternoon and I'm still throwing some dinner in as it's cooking, it still works.
Speaker A:Oh absolutely.
Speaker A:So your oven should take, if it's dropping from 750 down to 150.
Speaker A:So if you put the door in the oven and that seals the chamber off so that you don't have air going in and out, cooling it down, it should take around 36 hours to drop from 750 to 150.
Speaker A:Which means you've got all this cooking you can do as it cools down, you can cook.
Speaker C:I've overheated the pizza the next morning for breakfast.
Speaker C:Yeah, that I didn't before on it.
Speaker C:So I've done that.
Speaker A:That's actually something that you could really, you could really look at doing is when you're making up your pizza dough for the pizzas the night before, make up some bread dough.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But with a small amount of yeast so it raises, it rises really slowly and let it rise overnight in the fridge or something and then bake it the following morning using the residual heat.
Speaker A:It's awesome.
Speaker C:Yeah, because it's, it's 350 or whatever.
Speaker C:It's like the perfect bread baking temperature is perfect bread.
Speaker A:The P85 should be almost perfect bread temperature 12 hours after it's fine firing.
Speaker A:Now the D105 takes twice as long to heat up but it takes 72 hours to cool down.
Speaker A:And so that's why we people who are buying those ovens are often thinking they're like, right, I'm going to fire it on Friday we'll do pizzas.
Speaker A:Then Saturday I'm going to do like roasting in the morning and then, you know, like, I'm going to do some baking in the afternoon.
Speaker A:And then Sunday I'm going to do like biscuits and cakes.
Speaker A:And then on Monday I'm going to dehydrate fruit and vegetables and, and other things.
Speaker A:All from the one firing, which I really encourage because it's really good use of all of that heat.
Speaker A:You're not wasting the energy that's got been put into the oven from all that.
Speaker A:That lovely.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:The other thing I've done too is if I had any wet firewood or stuff that might have gotten damp, that is close enough was I'll, I'll reset the oven, you know, the next morning and it's still warm enough in there that I can do that.
Speaker C:And I'm like, I'm just going to kiln drain my wood for the next time.
Speaker A:Yes, exactly.
Speaker A:That's that.
Speaker A:I only figured that out.
Speaker A:It took me years to realize.
Speaker A:I think it was a customer suggested it to me.
Speaker A:They said, yeah, well, if the oven cools down enough, and it does need to cool down enough, otherwise you've got.
Speaker C:Another day of pizza cooking.
Speaker A:We had.
Speaker A:So we have a Facebook community group for the business and people are free to join it.
Speaker A:Anyone's free to join and have a chat about our ovens.
Speaker A:And a chat posted the other day, he said I was kiln drying a bunch of wood, but I put it in at like 500 Fahrenheit.
Speaker A:And he said, he said he, he filled.
Speaker A:He put all this firewood into his oven, all this damp wood.
Speaker A:He closed the door, went to bed, and then he came out the next morning and his oven was sitting at 900 Fahrenheit.
Speaker A:And he said it had all become charcoal.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:So, yeah, you got, you got to give it a little patience there.
Speaker C:You got to let that thing cool down a little bit.
Speaker C:So you don't do exactly that.
Speaker A:But that's funny.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:You know something?
Speaker C:I think it's what, what I like about your kits is especially, you know, when you're talking starting out and, you know, not a lot of people out there are masons or anything else.
Speaker C:But like the P85, you have made it so easy to take it step by step.
Speaker C:And the right pieces are pre cut.
Speaker C:You cut the pieces that don't require special tools.
Speaker C:You've made it about as DIY friendly as it could ever be.
Speaker A:That's been my goal since I started the business was to try to make these kits as easy as possible to build because then obviously that appeals to the broadest range of people.
Speaker A:It opens it up and it's actually something that gives me a lot of joy, is reading our Google reviews.
Speaker A:If I'm ever feeling a bit sick, sad, I just jump on out, read our Google reviews.
Speaker A:Well, because one of my favorite comments that I get is I had no experience with masonry.
Speaker A:I've never laid a brick in my life.
Speaker A:And I bought this kit and look what I built.
Speaker A:And they're so proud of it.
Speaker B:Stick around.
Speaker B:We'll be right back.
Speaker B:Around the house will return after these messages.
Speaker B:No tools required.
Speaker B:Batteries not included.
Speaker B:Welcome back to the around the house show.
Speaker B:This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.
Speaker B:If you are needing a new grill, check them out@monumentgrills.com make sure to check out our website and YouTube channel aroundthehouse online.com it's like a hardware store for your brain.
Speaker B:Open 24 hours a day.
Speaker B:No coupon required.
Speaker B:We have been talking with Ben and the firebrick company.
Speaker B:Let's talk building that outdoor pizza oven.
Speaker B:Now back to the show.
Speaker A:I bought this kit and look what I've built.
Speaker A:And they're so proud of it, you know, of what they've been able to do.
Speaker A:And a big part of that is, well, we've tried.
Speaker A:I've built I don't know how many of these things, like so many of them.
Speaker A:And every time I build one again, I think, oh, I could change this little thing.
Speaker A:I've just noticed this little thing that no one's mentioned.
Speaker A:And if I just change that, that would make this just half a percent easier to build.
Speaker A:And that's.
Speaker A: It's been what we started in: Speaker A:So it's like 13 years of just constant refining.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker C:And you know, it goes together quick.
Speaker C:I mean, I, it was funny.
Speaker C:I had about.
Speaker C:Because we had two cameras running at some point.
Speaker C:We had about 17 hours of content, you know, for the whole process that we had filmed.
Speaker C:Of course, for my show, we had to make it into a 10 minute piece, which was nearly impossible, but we did.
Speaker C:But, you know, we only used a little bit of it.
Speaker C:But it was so fun to do that.
Speaker C:And I think the cool part is that you have cast, you know, like that whole upper chimney piece and stuff.
Speaker C:You've made the hard pieces already for us in that cat.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:So really the hardest part, which isn't that hard is, is setting up the brick on the front and the rest of it is just patience.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's exactly right.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:We've looked at every element of the build and gone, well, what's.
Speaker A:Is that achievable by someone who's handy?
Speaker A:And this is the test I have, actually.
Speaker A:People, some people reach out and they say, do you think I can build it?
Speaker A:I don't know them personally.
Speaker A:And so I need to make a sort of a judgment call on it.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:But I just say, well, look, if you can build the stand for the oven to go on, I guarantee you can easily build the oven because the stand is, is much more challenging than the oven itself.
Speaker A:You know, depending on how you tackle the stand, that can be much more difficult.
Speaker A:And so if you can build a stand mate, you can build the oven very easily.
Speaker C:So let me tell you about how I built my stand, because I did something completely different.
Speaker A:Tell me more about it.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was very cool.
Speaker C:So what I did is I poured a concrete footing that was about, well, 8 inches thick.
Speaker C:That was an H. So I went kind of an H and then a box around it this way.
Speaker C:And so what I did is I poured that as one piece, put rebar down in it because I wanted it to be really sturdy and not move around at all.
Speaker C:And then I put bolts in it so I could bolt it down like you would a house, for instance.
Speaker C:And then I got the heavy duty steel studs to build a steel framed box basically underneath that.
Speaker C:And so what was cool was, is I had the outside of the box, but that middle wall that went in the middle of that H set right under the oven as well.
Speaker C:So that added some rigidity in that.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:I saw it and I was very impressed because.
Speaker A:Where did you.
Speaker A:Is that readily available like that heavy duty steel stud?
Speaker A:Can you just.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's, that's at my Lowe's store down the street.
Speaker C:It's on the shelf.
Speaker A:Man, in Australia, we can't get that.
Speaker A:We can get this chintzy thin, flimsy, like internal walling type stuff, but not the heavy duty actual.
Speaker C:This is the heavier stuff Lowe's carries at Home Depot has the thinner stuff.
Speaker C:But then what I did is I, I wrapped that around with, you know, half inch OSB that's waterproof.
Speaker C:The.
Speaker C:The chipboard on the outside that had the waterproof barrier on it.
Speaker C:And on the top I put in inch and an eighth subfloor material.
Speaker C:So it's like this across the whole thing?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker C:So I had that all tied together.
Speaker C:It was all screwed in this way.
Speaker C:And then I put another inch of concrete board, the tile backer board, but I did a mud layer in between and screwed those down on top.
Speaker C:And so I had something that was going to be very heat proof so I didn't have to worry about that.
Speaker A:And look, you know, for the floor, people reach out to us and ask us, you know, what do I need to use for my bench top?
Speaker A:You know, and, and one rule we have is non combustible.
Speaker A:So don't go using timber under your, your floor.
Speaker A:The insulation is really, really good.
Speaker A:You're, you're not going to set it on fire, but it's still something we can't recommend.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But you know, you got that like the hardy backer tile, two, two layers.
Speaker C:Of that with thin set concrete in between them that you put tile down with.
Speaker C:And it's not going anywhere.
Speaker A:Exactly right.
Speaker A:And so as long as you have enough structural support under that, which you did with all of that steel framing that you had, then that's all you need.
Speaker A:But one of the things, like if anyone's listening to this thing, oh man, like I'd love to build an oven and maybe it's not even one of ours, but you're wanting to build an oven and you're wanting suggestions on your stand, just reach out to us because we, we're more than happy to provide advice around what will work and what won't.
Speaker A:Because the last thing we want to see is you build something that collapses.
Speaker A:We've never had a customer have an issue structurally with something they've built.
Speaker A:I think part of that is we'll, we're very open with help and advice.
Speaker A:So yeah, if anyone's listening and wanting, wanting some advice, just reach out, like, we'll be super happy to help.
Speaker C:I should have put a door on the inside of that for a bomb shelter because I think it probably would have worked out well.
Speaker A:Well, even you should see the ones that like people build for their brick ovens.
Speaker A:They build them with like cinder blocks.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So you know, do a concrete foundation and then like an 8 inch thick cinder block wall and we get them to fill all of the cores in the cinder blocks with Rio and concrete and then pour a 5 inch slab on top of that and it's legitimately a bomb shelter.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:You could park a truck on top.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's like a two person bomb shelter if you're willing to like crouch.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Be good enough if you're claustrophobic, maybe not the place to go hang out.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:But yeah, it's, it was really easy and it was stuff that I just basically built right off the lumberyard, my lumberyard shelf, which was awesome.
Speaker C:So that was super easy to do.
Speaker A:Yeah, love it.
Speaker C:So I love that.
Speaker C:So, yeah, there's, there's so many different ways to do that and then, you know, going through.
Speaker C:And I love how you guys have, you know, the base pieces for that are, are planned out.
Speaker C:You've got all the materials and you basically just need a couple bags of material to, to mix up your concrete with that.
Speaker A:You just need to go some, some washed sand, some hydrated lime and Portland cement, which pretty basic building materials.
Speaker A:And, and then the only reason we don't put those in the kit actually is they're so cheap and they're pretty readily available.
Speaker A:Why would you have sand shipped from Australia?
Speaker A:Smart point.
Speaker A:Sustainability was probably not brilliant.
Speaker A:So no, we just get you guys to buy that locally, but then everything else is there and it's basically like a great big Lego set to put together.
Speaker A:Someone actually said, it's been said a few times, like, oh, it's a big jigsaw puzzle.
Speaker A:I said, well, jigsaw implies difficulty and you have to sort of figure out where all the pieces go.
Speaker A:This is not that.
Speaker A:This is like a. I don't know if I'm allowed to say Lego, but I'm gonna say it.
Speaker A:But like it's, it's a LEGO set with very detailed instructions to follow.
Speaker A:And if you make a quick little.
Speaker C:Mistake, you can fix it because you go, oh, oops, that's.
Speaker C:Remember, I made a mistake on mine and I fixed it real quick.
Speaker C:I was working on it.
Speaker C:I went, oh, wait a minute.
Speaker C:Oops.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, I saw that and, and it, I saw that in the video.
Speaker A:I was like, what, what's he done?
Speaker A:But the beautiful thing is there's so much, what would you call it?
Speaker A:Not tolerance.
Speaker A:Although there's lots of tolerance in the build in terms of things don't have to be.
Speaker C:There's some forgiveness to this.
Speaker A:Forgiveness.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:Like if you make a mistake, if you lay some bricks wrong, no big deal, you take them off.
Speaker A:Because the mortar takes hours to set.
Speaker A:You take them off, you scrape the mortar off, clean them up, give it a little wash and do it again.
Speaker A:And that's a very, it's a lovely part of that process.
Speaker A:Because if it didn't have that, if it was one of those processes where you lay it and that's it, you're done, that would be quite nerve wracking, I think.
Speaker A:For people.
Speaker C:And yeah, you can literally get those steps done, go back and review things and go, yeah, that looks good.
Speaker C:Oh, let me fix that little thing here real quick.
Speaker C:And you've got the ability to do that.
Speaker C:It's not one of those things that it's not like an epoxy or something that's setting up and you've got five minutes and you have one chance.
Speaker A:And I've done those projects and they're lots of fun, but they are like, you're like, all right, I've got to get this right.
Speaker A:I have to, when I lay this, this glue is going to set and this is permanent.
Speaker A:And yeah.
Speaker A:So no, it's, it's very forgiving.
Speaker A:And we've built, so I'm an engineer and I've built a lot of tolerance into all of the components.
Speaker A:So for example, the flu gallery, which is this beautiful precast section that sits over the vent arch, the brickwork at the front, I didn't try to make that with a really tight gap.
Speaker B:Stick around.
Speaker B:We'll be right back and we will wrap up our conversation.
Speaker B:Talking brick pizza and wood fired ovens around the House will return after these messages.
Speaker B:Welcome back to the around the House show.
Speaker B:This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monument Grills.
Speaker B:If you are needing a new grill, check them out@monumentgrills.com we have been talking with Ben and the Firebrick Company and how to build your own wood fire fired oven.
Speaker B:Make sure and check out our website and YouTube channel because unlike your last DIY project, this one won't fall apart.
Speaker B:Head to aroundthe house online.com for all that info.
Speaker B:Now before we get back to Ben, let's hit our around the House Nuggets segment.
Speaker C:Time for an around the house nugget brought to you by Aerobroom.
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Speaker B:To aerobroom.com let's get back to the show.
Speaker A:Because what that does, Eric, is right now, the way you're doing it is you are the caterer and you're doing all the work and something that you can do with it.
Speaker A:This is my favorite thing to do with the ovens is no, you make everybody else do the work right.
Speaker A:All your friends and family come over, you give them some basic training in what to do.
Speaker A:Now, of course, this requires you to know what you're doing.
Speaker A:So you go through the process for maybe the first six months or something.
Speaker A:You figure it all out and then when you have friends over, you say, hey, grab one of those wooden boards.
Speaker A:I've rolled out a base for you.
Speaker A:Top that up.
Speaker A:You top it, you cook it right.
Speaker A:And you should.
Speaker A:And it's just endlessly entertaining, watching your friends cooking their pizza.
Speaker A:If they burn it, they still enjoy it.
Speaker A:Like, but that's one of those.
Speaker A:It's just a little thing.
Speaker A:But if you're trying to use the pizza peel to make every pizza on you become a slave.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:You're the chef now in the kitchen.
Speaker A:So that's a better word than slave.
Speaker A:Much better.
Speaker A:Like, everyone else can get involved and they can all help out.
Speaker C:So yeah, that's, that's smart.
Speaker C:So I want to talk roasting and baking in here because it's one of those things.
Speaker C:Before we run out of time, I want to make sure we cover really well because this isn't just a pizza oven.
Speaker A:I try so hard not to call it a pizza oven, but everybody calls it a pizza.
Speaker A:Like, it's just the normal word for it.
Speaker A:But it's a wood fired oven.
Speaker A:You can do so much more than pizza.
Speaker C:What is your favorite thing to roast in there?
Speaker A:Lamb.
Speaker A:Hands down.
Speaker A:It's easy.
Speaker A:You just get a nice big leg of lamb, stab a bunch of holes in it, put.
Speaker A:I put garlic cloves into the, into the holes.
Speaker A:Then oil, salt, rosemary, and bang it in a tray, stick it in the oven, and you can prep that in like 15 minutes.
Speaker A:And I love so meat wise, lamb is my favorite.
Speaker A:But the Other thing I love is just the roast veggies.
Speaker A:So potato, bit of butternut, pumpkin, some onions, and getting that in the oven, they absorb that smoky flavor really well.
Speaker A:Like, really, really well.
Speaker A:And so I almost like roast vegetables in the oven more than the meat.
Speaker A:I love, don't get me wrong, love the meat, but I just love it.
Speaker A:Like the flavor that you get in the roast veggies is phenomenal.
Speaker C:And then in the, in the Facebook group, I've seen so many people doing breads and things like that in there as well.
Speaker C:It just makes me hungry when I go on there.
Speaker C:It's amazing watching what people are making.
Speaker A:They're doing bread, they're doing like, I encourage people, like post up anything they're cooking.
Speaker A:Like, you know, there's been some people in Florida who've been making all these clam based things that I've never even seen before.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And they look delicious.
Speaker A:I want to eat them so bad.
Speaker A:But I think for anyone listening who's thinking about wood fired cooking, pizza is like where you start and it's awesome.
Speaker A:But I find most of our customers end up doing more roasting and baking than they do pizza after a while because they realize actually this is easier than pizza because pizza requires a lot of prep.
Speaker A:Now again, you can buy the dough and then that shaves the prep down significantly.
Speaker A:But roasting and baking, like a roast chicken, big leg of lamb, I've been doing.
Speaker A:Did you see the video we did on how to use the oven as a smoker?
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:I thought that was cool.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, like it's.
Speaker A:You can certainly do pizza, but you've got all of these other things that you can do in it.
Speaker A:Actually, something else I do is grilling.
Speaker A:So, you know, we've got like a, we call it a Tuscan grill, which is a sort of a raised bar grill that you can put in the oven over the coals so it sits like three inches high.
Speaker A:And so you can, you can get a bit of coals and throw the grill on top and then you put steak and whatever on top of that grill.
Speaker A:You can make that yourself, though.
Speaker A:You could just go to your 300 barbecue and grab the cast iron grills off that and perch them on a couple of bricks inside, inside the oven.
Speaker A:Rake those coals forward and it'll be.
Speaker A:Some of the best steaks you ever eat is cooked over wood coals in your own oven.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, yeah, there's so much that you can do more than pizza.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, and if you.
Speaker A:A good example of that so there's a chap on Instagram called.
Speaker A:His name's Chris Vozo.
Speaker A:He's one of my favorite, favorite customers.
Speaker A:He's up in Brisbane and he is cooking something in his oven nearly every day.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:And it's very.
Speaker A:It's pizza from time to time, but it's so many other things.
Speaker A:So if you look up Il Forno Rosso.
Speaker A:So Il forno.
Speaker A:And then Rollso is prolific.
Speaker A:It's ridiculous.
Speaker A:All the things that that man cooks.
Speaker C:Nice.
Speaker C:That is awesome.
Speaker C:I'll have to check that out.
Speaker C:So, Ben, we are running out of time, but I want to make sure that we talk about how people find you and all the different ovens and stuff and what you guys are doing over there.
Speaker C:Because I tell you what, this is, I think the perfect DIY project for people this summer, this fall, and even during the wintertime, if it's not frozen outside, there's a great time you can be doing outside with this.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:So we've got our website, www.thefirebrickco.com.
Speaker A:jump on there.
Speaker A:You can.
Speaker A:All our contact details are there.
Speaker A:You can call us.
Speaker A:We've got lots and lots of videos and lots of resources that you can check out.
Speaker A:Importantly, I think for Americans to know, because I've got, obviously I'm Australian, as you can tell by my glorious accent.
Speaker A:And so important to know that we have an American company.
Speaker A:We have stock in four warehouses.
Speaker A:We have stock in California, Texas, Florida and New Jersey.
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:It's around the country, it's ready to go.
Speaker A:Our pricing is all online, and it's all inclusive of freight.
Speaker A:So it's free delivery across the entire United States, including Hawaii.
Speaker A:We charge a little bit more for Alaska.
Speaker A:Other than that, that's the price.
Speaker A:So you can, you can jump on, you can order online, but if you want to talk to somebody, call us.
Speaker A:Because we like, we actually really appreciate talking to our customers before they buy to make sure we've answered any questions and make sure they understand everything.
Speaker A:Our customer support is a huge part of our business.
Speaker A:And for such a.
Speaker A:You mentioned, you know, it's pretty easy to put together, but it's involved.
Speaker A:Took you like 17 hours.
Speaker A:Our customers have to know that we're here to help and that the customer support is there.
Speaker A:So that's what I would say.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I'll say that you and I talking and walking through the process.
Speaker C:And, you know, for me, I want to make sure that I'm doing it correctly for tv, so I don't want to be Experimenting so much on television when I'm doing something and making sure that we're doing it right.
Speaker C:And yeah, your guys customer service is top notch.
Speaker C:And literally it was days later from when you said, all right, chipping out.
Speaker C:It was on my front doorstep.
Speaker C:I was like, wow, that was quick.
Speaker C:It's really quick.
Speaker C:It's not one of those things where you're waiting for it to show up.
Speaker C:It comes up pretty quickly.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:We've worked really hard on providing a really good customer experience.
Speaker A:And we don't always get it right.
Speaker A:Things go wrong.
Speaker A:But we work so hard to try to make it a great experience for everybody.
Speaker A:And so you can jump on our Google reviews and just read what people have to say about us.
Speaker A:And we can't influence those people.
Speaker A:Just write what they want.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And it's overwhelmingly positive.
Speaker A:And a thing that they say all the time is they were so helpful.
Speaker A:And that's what we want people to know is not like you buy a product and we never want to hear from you again.
Speaker A:It's the opposite.
Speaker A:We beg them.
Speaker A:We're like, please, if you have questions, call us.
Speaker A:We're here to help.
Speaker A:And actually, the customer support is we have Braden in West Virginia working for us, and he does a few hours a day for us out of West Virginia, but then the calls divert to us in Australia.
Speaker A:And so you can call all night, like late afternoon into like midnight.
Speaker A:And we're here to help.
Speaker A:All for a local call.
Speaker C:Ben, thanks for coming on today, man.
Speaker C:I really like the time that we spent today.
Speaker C:And you guys have got this dialed in so perfectly.
Speaker C:To me, it is the best pizza oven to have in your backyard.
Speaker C:And you're not paying me to say that.
Speaker C:I'm just a believer what you're doing.
Speaker C:So I appreciate you, brother.
Speaker A:Oh, thanks, man.
Speaker A:Thank you, Eric.
Speaker A:Thanks for having me on.
Speaker A:It's been lovely, lovely talking to you.
Speaker C:This has been a lot of fun.
Speaker C:All right, guys, I'm Eric G. And you've been listening to around the House.
Speaker B:To find out more about us, head to aroundthehouse online.com.
Speaker B:make sure to subscribe to our social media channels.
Speaker B:Keep your tools sharp and your excuses sharper.
Speaker B:I am producer Jim, and for Eric G. Thanks for listening to around the House.
Speaker A:I know I.
