A Pizza Oven Kit Designed to Deliver a Better Outdoor Life

Could you and should you make springtime 2025 the one in which you build your own garden pizza oven?  This is the burning question for households bored with barbecues, seeking a new project, wanting to enhance their outdoor living space and looking for ways to bond the family.  Luckily, Orchard Ovens has all the answers to put them on the right path.

Orchard Ovens supplies Italy’s finest oven – a Valoriani – in kit form.  It’s available in different sizes but comprises a cooking floor and a cooking dome, all manufactured with the finest ‘cotto’ refractory clay, renowned for its heat retention and cooking capabilities.  It also comes with an arch and a manifold for the chimney.

Assembling the kit is relatively simple, particularly with two people involved handling the components.  From there, most  skilled DIY people would not have too much trouble putting the parts together but there are things to consider.

The first is a bit of groundwork.  Building a base for the oven will usually need some brickwork or block work skills.  A Valoriani kit oven is likely to last 7 years but often more like 20, so the base needs to be well constructed, so it too can stand the test of time.

The number one mistake made is that of not making the base big enough.  The key is to not focus on the size of the oven floor but to also factor in insulation, the cooking dome and other housing that extends that footprint. It’s soul-destroying to build a lovely base and then find it’s too small.

The most popular size purchased from Orchard Ovens is a one-metre oven kit.  To provide an example, that really needs a base sized 1.5m by 1.5m.

Another important consideration is where to situate the oven, as it is likely to be used far more than a family imagines, being capable of cooking virtually anything and not just pizza.  It needs to be close enough to the kitchen not to make the trip for plates, cutlery, food and other items annoying, each time it is fired up.

If the groundwork has been done properly, prior to the DIY oven kit’s arrival, then the homeowner should be able to tackle the project fairly easily.  Full instructions are provided and all purchasers of kits can benefit from Orchard Ovens’ advice.  It’s really just a question of slotting the pieces together and applying the mortar that will keep them there.

Homeowners can also rest assured that these wood fired oven kits create ovens that are DEFRA approved, as is the case with all Valoriani ovens, whether ready built or created as part of a bespoke garden build by Orchard Ovens.

They can also have their kit oven take on whatever aesthetic they fancy.  The mistake here is often to adopt the rendered dome look so popular overseas, forgetting that render is a sponge for moisture and the British climate does not suit a rendered dome.  We unfortunately do not have a Mediterranean climate that can dry out a rain-affected render quickly and retained moisture within the render can lead to render cracking, as the oven heats up and cools. Best advice is not to use a cement render, unless the oven will be built under some sort of cover. Whilst rain runs off vertical rendered walls, it soaks into structures where such run off is not possible.

Brick is a preferred option for a surround but Orchard Ovens has created other stunning options out of timber.  As long as the correct parameters are followed for heat protection, almost anything is possible as a decorative addition.  Again, advice is on offer from Orchard Ovens and using them as a sounding board, once you have paid a deposit and committed to a purchase, is a great way to gain confidence in your project.

Careful consideration needs to be paid to insulation, but the Orchard Ovens experts can help with this too.  Buyers need to beware, as all sorts of rogue products are on the market, some of which are cancerous.

If you do have a few DIY skills and draw on the advice available, you could have a real asset in your garden this summer.  Putting an oven together yourself will create enormous levels of satisfaction and all friends and family will want to make a beeline for your garden.  It’s also a great way to bring all generations of the family together, as everyone can get involved in the cooking process, whether that is adding wood to the oven, preparing dishes, adding toppings to pizzas or loading pizzas into the oven.  

With the opportunity to vastly increase your outdoor cooking repertoire, this is a dream 2025 project for anyone who likes a spot of DIY, relishes al fresco living and doesn’t mind a spot of cooking either.  Head to https://www.valorianiuk.com/pizza-oven-kits/  to find out more about the various kits available or call 07743 847647.

More about the ovens and kits can also be found in a podcast here - https://bit.ly/3WJqIB2

Notes to editors

Valoriani, top-of-the-range pizza oven kits start at a price of £1500 + VAT, with a six-month warranty.

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Editors notes

Orchard Ovens is the domestic and commercial pizza oven supplier in the UK of Valoriani, based in Reggello, Tuscany - the manufacturer of Italy's hugely respected Valoriani pizza ovens, known as the Maserati of pizza ovens and the kings of clay. These ovens are made from superb refractory clay - cotto clay - found in the family's quarry and unique, thanks to having just the right alumina. This allows Valoriani ovens to heat up quickly and retain heat superbly, bring huge advantages to homeowners, as well as restaurant owners, hotels, pubs, mobile caterers, pizzerias, takeaways and more.

Orchard Ovens supplies some of Britain's best-known restaurants and chefs, whilst it is also a specialist creator of outdoor kitchens and wood-fired oven builds for the rich and famous, as well as everyday homeowners wishing to add value to their home and enjoy an outdoor lifestyle to the full.