DIY Backyard Pizza Oven

Summer is here, which means that outdoor cooking season is in full swing. The light evenings, warm weather, and blue skies make these months the perfect time to entertain friends and family by throwing al fresco dinner parties, potlucks, and cookouts. When you're bored of your grill, and are looking for a new summer cooking project, this homemade wood-fired pizza oven is your new best friend.

No complicated materials are needed for making your own pizza oven; you can keep it really simple.

Make sure that you've selected a suitably safe and sensible location before you start building the oven.

The size of the base of your oven is entirely up to you: Just make sure the base sits level on the ground.

A sturdy base is key, so make sure you measure carefully and accurately to get this step right.

Map out the shape of your oven by creating an arched opening leading to a half-domed oven.

When you're building the all-important arch, make sure you make it bigger rather than smaller, so that you can easily handle the fire, which will be inside it.

Make sure you allow the cement to dry properly at every stage, and use extra sand to help the oven hold its shape.

Keep adding sand and layers of brick until you've created a dome that sits higher than the arch you already made.

The concrete outer layer isn't just to make the oven look neater: This exterior adds insulation to the oven so that it can reach the highest possible temperatures.

Let the concrete dry, remove the supports, and create your first pizza-oven fire to check that your oven is well-built and ready to use!