How far should a pizza oven be from the house?

Most portable pizza ovens should sit 3 ft (91 cm) from anything that can burn. That is the figure in the XO gas oven's manual, the Ninja Woodfire's and the Solo Stove Pi's gas burner. It is also the Ooni Koda's back clearance. But the range is wide. A Cozze electric oven asks 60 cm (2 ft). A Solo Stove Pi burning wood asks 10 ft (3 m). And some manuals print a second, wider gap from "any structure", which a house is. At a detached house the fire code sets no distance, so the manual is the rule. Ten ovens are compared below, with the rest of the garden in outdoor room dimensions.

What a pizza oven is, and what "clearance to combustibles" means#

A pizza oven here is an outdoor oven with a closed chamber and a stone or brick floor, built to bake a pizza in a few minutes. It runs far hotter than a kitchen oven. Solo Stove gives the inside of the Pi as 250 to 500 C (480 to 930 F). There are two kinds, and they follow different rules.

• A portable oven sits on a table or stand and can be moved. It burns gas, wood, wood pellets or charcoal, or runs on electricity. Ooni, Gozney, Solo Stove, XO, Ninja and Cozze make this kind.
• A built-in oven is a dome of refractory blocks, set on a base and closed in with masonry or a stud frame. Refractory means made to take fire heat without cracking. Belforno sells this kind as a modular kit.

Clearance to combustibles is the gap a manual sets between the oven and anything that can burn. It is measured from the outside of the oven, not from the fire. Ooni's wording shows the faces: from the "sides of unit" and the "back of unit" to combustible construction.

Combustible means able to burn. Around a house that is timber framing, wood or vinyl siding, window frames, the eave and the soffit under it, a fence, a wood deck, cushions and plants. Combustible construction is the building parts that can burn. A brick wall is not combustible. The timber eave above it usually is, and that is why the roof edge often decides where the oven goes.

Ten ovens: from 1 in to 10 ft#

At a house, the figure that binds is the one in the manual. These are the figures as printed, each measured from the oven to combustible material unless the note says otherwise.

Three patterns stand out.

Three feet is the common figure. The XO says "Do not use oven within three feet of any combustible material." Ninja says "a minimum distance of 3 feet from rear, sides, and top". Solo Stove's gas burner asks 36 in from the sides and back "to wall". Ooni's three gas manuals all print 36 in at the back.

The fuel moves the number. The same Solo Stove Pi asks 36 in on gas and 10 ft on wood. Its wood guide says "Do NOT use this appliance within 10 feet of combustible materials." A wood fire throws sparks, and the XO manual warns that "Sparks may be ejected from the oven during operation."

Electric is not zero. The Cozze electric oven asks 60 cm at the back and sides and 1.2 m above. Its manual says "Do not use the pizza oven within 60 cm of combustible materials." The Ninja, which heats with electricity and burns pellets only for smoke, asks 3 ft all round.

Two numbers in one manual: the close gap and the "any structure" gap#

This is where the two answers that circulate come from. Several manuals set a close gap to combustible construction, then a wider one elsewhere on the page. Readers find the first and stop.

• Gozney Dome. One page says to keep "30cm/1ft clearance (back and sides) and 1m/3ft 4" clearance (front) from any combustible construction". The safety page says "Never operate this appliance within 1.5m/5ft of any structure, combustible material or other gas cylinder."
• Ooni Koda. The manual gives 24 in at the sides and 36 in at the back to combustible construction. Then it says "For an oven, the minimum clearance shall be at least 3m from any structure or combustible material."
• Ooni Koda 16 and Karu 16. They print the same 24 and 36 in. The wider sentence is worded for "a grill, fryer or broiler", at 10 ft (3 m). It does not name an oven.
• XO. It asks 3 ft from combustible material, and 10 in from walls that cannot burn. A brick wall still gets 10 in.

The two numbers answer different questions. The close one is about heat reaching a wall. The wide one is about the building as a whole, and a house is a structure. Where both could apply at your house wall, plan to the larger. That is our rule, not the makers'. It is the same rule we apply to grills with two figures, in how far a grill should be from the house.

The Ooni Koda's own gas label adds a third reading. It says 36 in "from the sides and 36 inches from the front", which differs from the 24 in sides in the manual. Where the label and the manual differ, use the larger figure.

The fire code: houses are exempt, apartments get 10 ft#

Many pages say a pizza oven must be 10 ft from the house. That number comes from section 308.1.4 of the International Fire Code (IFC). The IFC is a model code: states and cities adopt it, often with changes. The 2021 text, as Colorado adopted it, reads:

"Charcoal burners and other open-flame cooking devices shall not be operated on combustible balconies or within 10 feet (3048 mm) of combustible construction."

Three exceptions follow:

1. "One- and two-family dwellings."
2. "Where buildings, balconies and decks are protected by an automatic sprinkler system."
3. "LP-gas cooking devices having LP-gas container with a water capacity not greater than 2 1/2 pounds [nominal 1 pound (0.454 kg) LP-gas capacity]."

A one- and two-family dwelling is a detached house or a duplex. So at a house, the code sets no distance and the manual governs. In an apartment or condo building, a gas or wood oven is an open-flame cooking device. It may not be used on a timber balcony, or within 10 ft of combustible construction, unless the building is sprinklered or the oven runs on a small 1 lb camping bottle. A full-size propane tank does not qualify. Balcony sizes and loads are in balcony dimensions and furniture.

The code does not define an open-flame cooking device. An electric oven such as the Cozze has no flame. The Ninja is electric but burns pellets for smoke. At an apartment, ask the fire marshal about either before you buy.

Never under the eaves: the overhead rule moves the oven#

The side figure is the one people look up. The overhead rule is the one that moves the oven. Every manual here that speaks to it forbids a combustible roof over the oven.

• Ooni (Koda, Koda 16, Karu 16): "should not be located or used under overhead unprotected combustible construction materials or surfaces."
• Gozney: "Under no circumstances is the oven to be placed under or on top of any combustible structure."
• Cozze: not "beneath overhead combustible construction", and 1.2 m clear above.
• Ninja: 3 ft from the "top" to combustible construction.
• Solo Stove: the gas burner says "Do not use under overhead construction", of any material. The wood guide rules out "covered patios, awnings", because carbon monoxide can build up under them.

So a metal patio roof does not pass every manual. Solo Stove rules out any overhead construction. A timber pergola is overhead combustible construction, and so is a fabric awning or a parasol.

Gozney also asks for 14 in (350 mm) clear above the oven, in its wood-fuel manual's placement section, next to 2 in (50 mm) round the base "for air intake". It is not in the combustibles warning, so do not read it as permission to go under a roof.

Worked through: one patio, four ovens, 4 to 12 ft from the wall#

Take a concrete patio behind a detached house. The wall is vinyl siding. The eave sticks out 24 in (61 cm) past it, with a timber soffit. The oven stands on a steel table with its back to the house. The fire code sets nothing, because it is a one-family dwelling, so the manual decides.

A Cozze electric oven. It must not sit beneath the eave, and it needs 60 cm at the back. The eave edge is the nearest combustible part. Our reading is that the back of the oven sits 24 in beyond the eave edge. That is 24 in of eave plus 24 in of clearance: 48 in (1.22 m) from the wall.

An XO gas oven. It needs 3 ft from combustible material. Add the 24 in of eave and the back of the oven sits 5 ft (1.52 m) from the wall.

A Gozney Dome. Its close figure is 1 ft at the back. Its wide figure is 5 ft from any structure. Plan to the larger: 24 in plus 60 in puts it 7 ft (2.13 m) from the wall. The mouth faces the garden, so its 3 ft 4 in front gap is free.

A Solo Stove Pi burning wood. It needs 10 ft from combustible materials. That is 24 in plus 120 in: 12 ft (3.66 m) from the wall.

An Ooni Koda read to its 3 m line lands close to the Pi: 24 in plus 118 in is 11 ft 10 in (3.61 m). Read to its 36 in back figure alone, it would sit with the XO at 5 ft. That gap of nearly 7 ft is the whole cost of stopping at the first number.

On a patio 12 ft (3.66 m) deep, the wood-fired Pi cannot sit on the paving at all under its manual. The electric oven sits 4 ft out and leaves the rest free for a dining table. So choose the oven before you pour the patio, as the plans in patio sizes and layouts assume.

The table under the oven is part of the clearance#

Several manuals measure down as well as across, and the surface rules are stricter than people expect.

• XO says combustible materials "include, but are not limited to, wood or treated wood decks, patios and porches", all inside its 3 ft. It wants "a flat, level, fireproof surface".
• Ooni Fyra: a "sturdy, level, stable and non-flammable surface".
• Gozney: never "on top of any combustible structure".
• Cozze: not on surfaces or near walls "unless they are made of non-combustible material or clad with noncombustible heat-insulating material".
• Solo Stove: "Use ONLY on a level, stable, heat-resistant surface."

So a stone-topped table on a timber deck still puts deck boards inside the XO's 3 ft, read literally. None of the manuals read here says which mat or pad would fix that. Ask the maker in writing before setting an oven on a deck, and check the deck itself against deck sizes and railing heights.

Built-in ovens: 1 in at the back, because the enclosure is part of the design#

A built-in refractory oven is listed for close clearances, because it is designed to be closed in. Belforno's modular ovens are "Listed UL2162 and UL737". Its installation manual sets these minimums:

• 1 in (25 mm) from combustible material at the back and side walls.
• 14 in (36 cm) above the oven.
• 30 in (76 cm) from combustible material beside the oven opening. If the gap is less, "a wall shield must be mounted on the wall."
• 36 in (91 cm) from the front of the door opening to any combustible floor in front of it.

Two warnings come with them. "Do not place any type of insulation in the required clearance spaces surrounding the oven." And for health department work, the 1 in air gap beside a combustible wall must be sealed with a non-combustible strip such as aluminium or stainless steel.

A built-in oven still has a chimney, and the chimney follows its own maker's clearances. Belforno vents indoor home ovens through a UL 103 double-wall stainless steel chimney. The counter and island around a built-in oven are sized in outdoor kitchen dimensions.

Which figure applies: house, apartment or built in#

This table restates the rulings above. Each row points to the source behind it.

Where these figures stop applying#

The figures here are for the models named, from the manuals linked. Another model, or another year of the same one, may print a different figure, as the three Ooni gas manuals show. Your oven's own manual and label decide. Where a figure here differs from yours, follow your manual. The IFC is adopted locally and can be amended. Your city's fire code, a homeowners' association, a lease or a condo's rules can all be stricter. Ooni's Fyra manual says to check local laws "that may specify a required distance". None of those local rules is quoted here.

This page does not cover a pizza oven indoors, in a garage, in a tent or under a closed roof. The Ooni, XO, Cozze, Ninja and Solo Stove manuals all forbid that. A built-in oven indoors is a chimney installation, outside this page. It does not cover fuel storage: Solo Stove keeps spare gas tanks and flammable liquids 25 ft (7.6 m) away, and Gozney says 7.5 m (24 ft) from any flammable liquid. Hot ash is its own hazard. Solo Stove says not to dump ashes within 25 ft of combustible materials. Fire pits have their own code distances in fire pit clearances, and patio heaters are set out in patio heater clearance.

Metric figures are the manuals' own where they print them, and conversions otherwise, as imperial and metric dimension systems explains. Check your own with the unit converter. Terms such as combustible follow the code's usage, set out in the glossary, and the codes this site draws on are indexed under standards and codes.