Can You Put a Pizza Oven on Decking or a Wooden Table?

No. Timber decking is a combustible structure, and the placement instructions are explicit. Gozney's manuals for both the Arc and the Dome state that under no circumstances is the oven to be placed under or on top of any combustible structure. Ooni's safety documentation works the same way, specifying minimum clearances from the unit to combustible construction rather than permitting contact with it.

That rules out standing the oven straight on the boards, and it equally rules out a deck with a pergola or canopy directly overhead. It does not rule out cooking on a deck. It means the oven needs something non-combustible between it and the timber, plus enough clear space around it.

Clearances are set per model, and they are nowhere near each other. These are read from the current manuals:

• Ooni Koda 16: minimum 610 mm (24 in) from the sides of the unit to combustible construction, and 915 mm (36 in) from the back, per Ooni's safety and legal manual.
• Gozney Arc and Arc XL: 30 cm at the back and sides, and 100 cm at the front, per the Arc and Arc XL manual.
• Gozney Dome and Dome XL: 30 cm (1 ft) at the back and sides, and 1 m (3 ft 4 in) at the front.
• Gozney Roccbox: the manual gives no placement clearance at all. Its general gas warning is never to operate the appliance within 1.5 m (5 ft) of any structure, combustible material or other gas cylinder, which is a good deal more conservative than the Arc figure.

Put side by side, the problem with any single published number becomes obvious. Ooni asks for roughly double Gozney's side clearance and three times its back clearance, while the Roccbox manual declines to give a placement figure and falls back on a blanket 1.5 m.

The distances follow the oven, not the category. Where the flue sits, how the burner is positioned, how much of the shell is insulated and which standard the model was certified to all move the number. A compact oven with a rear flue sheds heat backwards very differently from a domed oven with a chimney at the front.

The practical consequence is the useful part: a clearance figure you read about someone else's oven tells you nothing reliable about yours. Gozney publishes a per-model manual index, and Ooni ships its safety manual with the oven and links it from each product page, so the correct figure is always a short look-up away.

The setup that satisfies every manual quoted above has four parts.

• A non-combustible base. The manufacturer's own stand or table is the simplest route. Otherwise a paving slab, stone hearth or steel-topped surface between oven and timber does the same job.
• Level and stable. Decking flexes and is often laid with a slight fall for drainage, which matters for an oven carrying a hot stone and a gas cylinder.
• Clear air around the base. The Arc manual asks for 50 mm around the base of the dock purely for air intake, and blocking it affects how the oven runs.
• Nothing overhead. No pergola, canopy, parasol or overhanging branches, and never an enclosed space.

Working height is worth a thought as well. Gozney recommends the oven floor sits at roughly elbow height, around 120 cm from the ground, which is a more comfortable and more controlled place to launch a pizza from.

The same rule applies, because a wooden table is the same combustible structure as a deck board, usually with less mass and less stability. A garden table is also often lighter than the oven plus a full gas cylinder.

If a wooden table really is the only option, the oven still needs a non-combustible layer between it and the timber, and the manufacturer's clearances still apply to everything around it. A purpose-made stand remains the honest answer, and it settles the height and stability questions at the same time.