How to Build an Outside Stucco Baking Oven
You can make an outside baking oven with brick, rocks or even mud, like adobe. Protect your oven regardless of what it's made of by adding a layer of stucco, topped off with a layer of paint, to protect it from the elements. Build your outdoor oven at ground level or raise it off the ground with a base of several courses of bricks. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Garden spade
- Rough gravel
- Tamping tool
- Fine sand
- Bricks
- Rubber mallet
- Fine builder's sand
- Piece of drawing chalk
- Clay subsoil
- Newspapers
- Flat board
- Tape measure
- Hand saw
- Garden trowel
- Stucco mix
- Stucco trowel
- Exterior-grade paint
- Paintbrush
- Handsaw
- Sandpaper
- Piece of scrap plywood
Instructions
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1
Create a base on which the oven floor can rest. Excavate the area to a depth of at least 6 inches and put 2 inches of rough gravel into it. Tamp down the gravel with a tamping tool.
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2
Add fine sand to the gravel bed so the sand fills in between the pieces of gravel, plus 4 inches above the top of the gravel. Level the sand with a tamping tool.
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3
Make the floor of the oven by laying a course of bricks on top of the bed of sand. Remove sand in high spots and add sand to low spots, to keep the bricks level. Tap the bricks gently with a rubber mallet to push them down into the bed of sand so they create a level surface. Fill in around and between the first course of bricks with fine builder's sand.
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4
Lay a second and third course of bricks, orienting them perpendicular to the bricks in the course beneath each course. Fill in around and between each course with fine sand.
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5
Draw the shape of the oven on the bricks, using a piece of chalk. Determine its size by your personal preference and what you plan to bake in the oven.
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6
Moisten a wheelbarrow full of coarse builder's sand. It should be moist enough to stick together when you squeeze a handful in you hand, but not swimming in water.
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7
Create a mound of moistened sand on the brick floor of the oven. The mound of sand will be the mold for the inside of the oven and will be removed. As a general guide, make the mound of sand 2 or 3 inches higher than half the width of the oven's floor, as measured inside of the chalk line you drew previously.
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8
Hold a level on top of the mound when it's the size you want. Measure the distance from the top of the mound of sand to the floor of the oven. The size of your oven door should be 63 per cent of this measurement. Multiply the height of the oven by .63 to arrive at the correct figure.
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9
Obtain a supply of subsoil, the light- or tan-colored soil found beneath the fertile topsoil, as it often contains significant amounts of clay. It should feel both slippery and sticky, even a little greasy. Mix one part of this subsoil with one to three parts of builder's sand. Add water a little at a time until the mixture holds together. Test the mixture with a few test “bricks or balls.” While still wet, it should hold together if dropped from chest height. When they dry, they should feel hard, heavy for their size and show few, if any, cracks.
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10
Lay sheets of wet newspaper over the mound of sand that is the mold for the oven's interior, to keep the clay from sticking to the sand.
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11
Cover the newspaper with a layer of mud approximately 3 to 4 inches thick. Angle the top of the mud inwards, striving for a dome shape. Squeeze the mud against more mud, not against the sand form.
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12
Use a flat board to pack the mud against the sand, creating a mud layer that is more dense. If the mud sticks to the board, let it dry a while before trying again.
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13
Mark a doorway in the mud that is the same height you arrived at in Step 8. Cut out a small hole using a hand saw. Allow the mud to dry for a few days or weeks until it feels like leather and almost as hard as a rock. Cut the door out completely after the mud is totally hard.
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14
Remove the sand from the interior, using your hands or a hand garden trowel.
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15
Mix regular stucco following the manufacturer's label directions. Apply a layer of stucco to the outside of the completely dried mud oven form. Scoop up a blob of stucco and wipe it across the surface of the outside of the oven with a trowel. Put on a layer about 1/2 to 1 inch thick. Allow the stucco to dry completely, then paint it with heat-resistant paint, to protect the oven's surface.
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16
Measure the height and width of the door opening after applying the stucco finish. Cut a door from a scrap of plywood, using these dimensions. Sand or scrape the edges of the door until it fits snugly into the opening. Attach a handle to remove the door, such as an extra doorknob or a small piece of scrap wood.
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Tips & Warnings
If you don't have anywhere on your property to dig in search of clay subsoil, look at construction sites or the sides of cliffs, where it may already be exposed. Be sure to obtain permission from the property owners before digging or excavating any soil.
References
Resources
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