Pizza Oven Bricklayer Gold Coast, Tweed, Northern Rivers & Byron Bay
"Built right, a pizza oven holds heat for days."
Tony Steenson
WHAT IS A BRICK PIZZA OVEN?
Because the company is as delicious as the pizza.
The imprint of a brick pizza oven stays long after the project is complete, and Steenson Brick and Blocklaying build pizza ovens across the Gold Coast, Tweed and Byron Bay.
A pizza oven isn’t just an outdoor cooking feature. It’s a place for conversation and connection. It’s the warmth of the fire and the warmth of great company that inspires Tony Steenson, master bricklayer, for these specialist masonry projects.
Tony is a bricklayer with a family heritage in pizza oven builds. He works with homeowners and builders on full custom outdoor kitchen builds, pre-cut kit assemblies, and full-brick outdoor pizza oven projects.
OUR APPROACH
Building brick pizza ovens runs in the family.
Tony Steenson works with builders and direct clients to help them plan and construct the pizza oven they actually want. Popular across Byron Bay, the Gold Coast and Tweed, pizza ovens are really big at the moment, but can be complex projects to get correct.
Tony learnt a lot about fireplaces and ovens from his dad, who still gets called in to consult on the odd job. The art of managing airflow, smoke exhaust and heat retention has been passed down from a time when full brick ovens were the norm.
THE CRAFT (OUR PHILOSOPHY)
"It’s got to be built right, or it won’t actually work properly."
Most bricklayers won’t take on a pizza oven. They’re a specialist project, and a brick pizza oven has to be built a specific way or it won’t fire properly. The dome is the part that does the work — there is nowhere for the heat to get trapped, so it rolls and bounces back down. The same principle the refractory bricklayers use when they build the kilns that cook the bricks themselves.
It’s not work you slap up in a day. The whole structure goes in over several stages — fire bricks rated to 1,350° C, refractory mortar, individually cut arch bricks. Once it’s fired, the heat sits in the brickwork for two or three days – so the oven can cook a pizza one day and a roast the next.
CONSIDERATIONS
Brick pizza oven kits vs full custom
There are pre-cut brick kits that simplify the dome arches. The alternative is cutting every arch brick by hand. Both approaches work; the choice usually comes down to budget and how custom the finish needs to be.
Outdoor pizza oven planning
Building a pizza oven into a new outdoor kitchen is a different job to retrofitting one onto a finished patio. Drainage, gas lines and any water supply for an integrated outdoor pizza oven need to be sorted before the slab goes down.
Budget for what’s underground
The oven sits on top of a concrete footing, and the footing needs to be factored into the build price. Hint: Often the biggest line on the invoice isn’t even visible at the end of the project.
A pizza oven is a gathering point
A pizza oven is often the warm centre of an entertaining space, so it’s worth thinking about seating, lighting and the surrounds alongside the oven itself.
Brick pizza oven kits vs full custom
There are pre-cut brick kits that simplify the dome arches. The alternative is cutting every arch brick by hand. Both approaches work; the choice usually comes down to budget and how custom the finish needs to be.
Outdoor pizza oven planning
Building a pizza oven into a new outdoor kitchen is a different job to retrofitting one onto a finished patio. Drainage, gas lines and any water supply for an integrated outdoor pizza oven need to be sorted before the slab goes down.
Budget for what’s underground
The oven sits on top of a concrete footing, and the footing needs to be factored into the build price. Hint: Often the biggest line on the invoice isn’t even visible at the end of the project.
A pizza oven is a gathering point
A pizza oven is often the warm centre of an entertaining space, so it’s worth thinking about seating, lighting and the surrounds alongside the oven itself.
WHY STEENSON BRICK & BLOCK?
He's been getting people together around fires for a long time.
Tony’s drawn to the gathering. As a teenager out near Jiggi, he’d help put a pig on the spit on the last Sunday of every month to feed many of the local community.
A pizza oven brings Tony’s favourite things into one – connection with people and warm bricks that deliver delicious tasting, nurturing food.
If you’re building something that brings people together, get in touch.