Old West Iron Blog: Craftsmanship, Heritage & Hand-Forged Expertise

Installing a hinged pizza oven door is a small project with big returns. From enhanced heat retention to a safer, more convenient cooking experience, it’s an upgrade every pizza oven owner should consider. Plus, with the ability to do it yourself, you gain the satisfaction of knowing you’ve contributed to the ultimate backyard culinary setup.

Ready to create your outdoor pizza kitchen? Building a pizza oven, especially one featuring a distinctive Old West Iron door, is an exciting DIY project for any pizza lover or home improvement enthusiast. By focusing on key design elements like dome size, door dimensions, and proper ventilation, you'll create a stunning and functional oven that’s the envy of your friends and family.

Everyone loves the friend with a backyard pizza oven but your pizza should be top notch. Here's why you should install pizza oven doors.

What comes first, the oven or the door? If you are waiting to build your oven until after you have the door, you will have more design options for your door. You can decide the shape you want, from rectangle, arched, or full radius and you have much more leeway with dimensions. 

Frequently asked questions: Q: What size door should I order? A: This is a question we get frequently. It can be confusing trying to determine if you need a standard or custom size. The easy answer is – if your oven is already built, you will need a custom size, if it is not built yet, you will want a standard size. The custom size allows us to build the arch to fit the curvature of your oven opening. The standard size is built with our standard arch curve.   Q: Do I need an insulated door/why is my oven not hot enough? A: This is a really good question. Insulation can seem pricey but it is needed in some cases. If you have an indoor oven, cook in it frequently (as in every day or every other day) or if you oven does not retain heat well, you will want to add the insulation to your door.   Q: Why is smoke coming out the front of my oven? A: This can be the result of a few things. You may have used green wood, which gives off more smoke than dry wood due to the moisture content. Hardwoods, such as Oak, Maple, Ash and Birch are best for brick ovens. Another reason could be that the flue is clogged and needs to be cleaned out. This should be part of your regular maintenance. It is also possible that the oven was not built properly in regards to the dome shape. All of these can be fixed with the addition of a door. The door helps redirect the smoke up the chimney rather than coming out of the opening.   Q: Does my oven really need an door? A: It might not, but it probably does. Other than providing heat and smoke control, a door can help keep small critters from nesting in the oven. Doors also keep out debris and weather, such as leaves, dirt, rain and snow.   Q: Cracks have formed in my clay/ mortar, what do I do to prevent further damage? A: Cracks usually form from the oven walls being too thin or the material was not completely dry prior to first use. When heat builds up in the oven and there is moisture in the walls the moisture expands, turns to steam and needs to escape quickly. This causes cracks to form. You can repair them with clay or mortar and allow it to fully dry. However, without a door, it is possible for moisture to re-enter the oven and create subsequent cracking. In addition to the door, a cover may be necessary in extremely wet environments.   Q: What is the difference between an outside edge tab and an inside edge tab on the jamb option? A: This is probably our most common question. The tabs are where you fasten the door/jamb to the oven. The outside edge tab option allows the door to sit inside the oven opening. If you have decorative brick work around the opening that you don’t want to cover up, this is probably the option you want. Keep in mind that this option will slightly decrease the opening size. The inside edge tabs option allows the jamb to overlay the face of the oven. This gives you maximum opening dimensions. If you have a smaller opening, this is likely the option you want. The other option would be a freestanding door which is not mounted to the oven and is entirely removeable.   Q: Up to what temperature can the door withstand? A: The high heat paint we use can withstand up to 2,000 F°. It is very unlikely that your oven will ever reach a temperature that will damage the paint.   Q: How do the hinged doors stay closed? A: Our single doors have a ball catch which prevents the door from swinging open when closed all the way. The double doors can close with a ball catch or a latch on the face of the door.   Q: How should I install my hinged pizza oven door? What kind of fasteners will I need? A: This is a very commonly asked question, and for good reason! Not everyone has experience in building pizza ovens or mounting hardware on brick and stone. Pizza oven doors are surprisingly simple to install and don't require any tools that you can't buy at an ordinary hardware store. Holes will need to be pre-drilled into the brick or stone that makes up the opening of your oven. We recommend waiting until the door has been delivered so that you can be sure of the hole size and distance between tabs. Next, you can use masonry anchors and lag screws to fasten the flange to the oven. Again, be sure that you have the proper size screws for the holes in your door tabs. Now you've got a fully installed pizza oven door!