Pizza oven build

[towtruck]

I did decide to make another change. I see no reason to pour another slab for the roof. I am going to use brick and make the top look better than a flat slab. I still don't have a final design for the top but once I know how my stack needs to fit in I will design the lid around that. Having to form up a slab that high off the ground would be a lot of work....I would rather make the top one brick at a time.

[towtruck]

Slab is poured...I'll post up a picture later...after my nap.

[Big T]

Slab is poured...I'll post up a picture later...after my nap.

[dacolson]

Yes!! No turning back


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[towtruck]

Here are the slab pics.....it was a long nap. The foil is covering an oily spot on the form board. There are four columns of bricks and two wooden underpinnings to hold all that up until it dries. At todays lumber prices I used all my old scraps to get it formed.

[dacolson]

Looks like a great size.


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[towtruck]

Looks like a great size.


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Today I stripped the forms but left the under supports in place. Those will be staying in place a while until I am sure it's cured.

I was able to lay out the bricks and see just what size it will be and it is going to be just right. I have a plan on how the shelf is going to be topped. To get my insulation right on the oven base I will top the shelf with bricks on edge to get my 4.5" height. The oven floor has 2" of insulation and 2.5" of floor brick...that will make the oven floor even with the shelf surface. I want to be able to slide items in and out of the oven.

I was also able to lay out my oven opening and I will have to make a metal arch to span across the opening to not only support the fire brick but form the arch as the bricks don't line up right to make an arch easily.

I bought all the exterior bricks today and will start cutting them to fit next. I want to get them all cut before I start laying them. I still have to get a load of mortar sand, a brick cutting blade and more Perlite for the insulation. I'm going to lay the outer bricks two rows high before I start on the oven itself. Then I will build it all up as I go working on the oven and exterior walls to keep everything even as I go up.

I did have a work smarter not harder moment today. I went to Lowes for the Perlite and they had the bricks I needed. But, I would have had to load 225 of them on a cart, unload them into my pickup, and un load them at home....three moves. So I went to the masonry supply store and bought them. They put them on a pallet and set it in my truck. I only had to unload them once! Same price too.

[dacolson]

I had a similar situation w a pallet of bricks for our fire pit. Was loading them all individually when I looked up a saw a pallet with almost the right number already. Just added a few more to it and asked them to load it in my truck for me. Funny how something like that just makes your day.


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[Dirtytires]

Just for the record, Home Depot will load your truck as well. I needed some brick, 30 bags of cement and some misc items. They put it on a pallet, wrapped it and forked it on the truck. Rented one of their little cement mixers and they forked that on too.

Agree, you can't always find and an employee and some are more helpful than others......

[towtruck]

Just for the record, Home Depot will load your truck as well. I needed some brick, 30 bags of cement and some misc items. They put it on a pallet, wrapped it and forked it on the truck. Rented one of their little cement mixers and they forked that on too.

Agree, you can't always find and an employee and some are more helpful than others......

Me and Home Depot had a little falling out about 20 years ago over loading stuff. I needed fifty sheets of 4x8 sheet rock. I asked if they could set a stack of it behind my pickup so I could slide them in the bed. The guy said "yes, I'll be right there". I paid for the sheets and 15 minutes later no guy so I asked again about some help. That guy said "sure, we'll be right there". 20 minutes later nobody. I walked over to the second guy and asked a third time and he said "in a minute"......

Soooooooo, I got pissed. I grabbed a cart and started loading the sheets onto the cart. I was very loud about it and the guys just turned their back on me. I loaded all fifty sheets onto that one cart and headed out the door yelling what no good SOB's work here. I pulled my pickup up to the loading area and was screaming at the top of my lungs as I loaded each sheet into the pickup. A worker was outside taking a break and he was obviously sick as a dog, he asked if he could help and I told him no thanks as he was sick. I was on the last few sheets when the manager came out and asked that I not be so loud. I proceeded to yell at him and perfectly explain the whole debacle as I was loading sheets the whole time. The manager tried to help with the last two sheets and I told him if he laid one hand on that sheetrock I would clobber him.

I tried to go back into the store a couple days later to buy my cabinets and I was met at the door and asked to leave. I had to send the wife in to buy them as I had built the laundry room to fit their cabinets. I have since moved and don't go to that Home Depot anymore. The one by me is okay but none of them are any help when you need it...you're on your own.

[towtruck]

Here are the walls dry stacked to see how they will fit. Total height will be 5" taller then the stack with grout. I may go one more higher but won't know until I get there. There will be seven rows at the opening and three maybe four more over the top of the doorway to tie the two sides together.

Never mind the bricks in the doorway as I won't be placing them like that, those were there too simulate the top rows of block over the door.


I changed the layout of this front row and put all the cut pieces on the right edge...this was funky..

[towtruck]

I have the first two rows of exterior brick in place, I have the insulation layer of Perlite and cement in place, the base of the oven is in place, leveled and grouted to fill the small gaps. I am laying out the oven walls now and will be stacking them three high for now. Once those oven walls are three high (on edge) I will lay the exterior brick to match that height and backfill the gap between the walls with Perlite......I'm a very slow brick layer as it's been years since I did it last. I'll get some pics up soon as well. I kinda forgot to take pictures of each step so I'll get some where it's at now and hopefully keep up later.

[dacolson]

With all this completed, what’s the over /under you never cook inside again?


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[towtruck]

Here is the progress....




I'm going to leave the grey residue on the oven brick as it does not matter what color the oven walls are. I did screw up and I forgot to cut a few half bricks and stagger my joints in the oven walls. All the joints are off just a little anyway but it would have been nice to halve them....oh, well.

I haven't decided if I will form a curved wood dome form or make a couple end patterns and fill the thing full of sand. I think I will try and form my piece of veneer into the arch I need and see if that will be easier to do than filling it up with sand.

Next is to bring the exterior walls up to the level of the oven walls.

[towtruck]

More progress. I ended up making two forms for the ends and filling the entire oven up with sand to make my dome mold. There is refractory mortar, wire and more regular mortar on top of the wire to form a 2" cap on the dome brick giving me 6" of heat sink there. There is a channel started that will direct the smoke up over the dome. I'm still not sure if I will vent it out the top or out the back...I have choices and just need to see how the next few layers of exterior brick work out. Oops, I closed off the channel at the top.....I can still knock that out and make it go out the back....





And yes, the new red brick will be cleaned of all the grout residue once it's all done.

[towtruck]

Tomorrow I will pull the sand out of the oven and lay my two end forms on the oven floor. They will stay there until I burn them out as I did not cut them into pieces that would fit out the door. I did. not want to weaken the forms. I have to cut and weld my angle iron support for the span above the oven door to connect the left and right side bricks fully. I will build up the form to hold that iron in place and get the iron sitting where it needs to sit. I need to work on the oven doorway and cut that piece of metal to it's final shape and get it installed and mortared in place. A few filler pieces of brick around the door and I should be done with the oven part.

I have a bunch of yard work to get done so it's a good time to just let everything sit and cure. I will start again on Sunday or Monday laying more exterior bricks.

[Big T]

You're moving right along!

[towtruck]

It cooled off this evening so I pulled the sand back out of the oven and my dome looks good. I am going to fill the grout in on the two end walls and not touch the ceiling.....it looks pretty cool the way it is. I have some work to do yet over the door grouting in a few bricks and buttoning up the doorway.....that needs to happen after I work on the inside as I need to be able to get my shoulder inside to finish those ends. I am making a metal door covering that can be taken off if needed to access the chamber better. Might get to some of that tomorrow afternoon or I might put it off another day and do those other chores.

Oh, I was able to get my forms out...I forgot I cut the bottoms off and set them on 2x4's so I could pull them out. !!!

[RJB]

Interesting.

[towtruck]

This morning before I started yard work I was able to get the oven door support and doorway in place. I tied the header together inside and out to sandwich the brickwork in and give me something to mount my face plate to. I welded up the support angle iron for the upper right corner and will be forming that in so I can start setting the next layers of bricks......I am going to mix up a batch of fire mortar and finish up a little clean up work on the end walls and over the doorway that need more grout.

[towtruck]

Two more layers on and I have all the brick cut for the next three layers. My door face is in and the angle iron support is under those two top rows. I finished the grout work around the door and inside the oven. The next three layers of brick should go on without any fuss and get me to the right height.

[towtruck]

I'm working on the plan for the exhaust and the lid on this thing. I found some 24"x16" concrete patio pavers that just might work out for a cap on the top. The exterior brick work will go up to the fourth layer above the opening and I will make my channel for the smoke to exit out the back. Then one more layer of brick and I can insulate the last 2.5" before the cap stone goes on.

The oven bricks are sweating moisture like crazy on the inside.....as this all cures the water is settling in the floor brick. The plan is all coming together and I really needed to stop today and rethink what I was doing. I'll get two more rows of brick on and then start the bricks on the backside to close in the back and make the exhaust opening.

[dacolson]

Cruising!

[dacolson]

Just rereading this. Had to get my head around how you formed the domed interior roof. You made two domed end forms - like plywood squares with the top rounded like the dome? Then filled the entire oven interior with sand to make the rest of your form? Yikes!
Did you lay your interior roof bricks directly on the sand at that point and mortar them from behind with the refractory cement?
Lots of work. Impressive


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[towtruck]

Just rereading this. Had to get my head around how you formed the domed interior roof. You made two domed end forms - like plywood squares with the top rounded like the dome? Then filled the entire oven interior with sand to make the rest of your form? Yikes!
Did you lay your interior roof bricks directly on the sand at that point and mortar them from behind with the refractory cement?
Lots of work. Impressive


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Eggsactly as you described it.....8 wheel barrow loads of sand to fill it. I am twelve bricks high now and finished with the brick work just a bit ago. I have a layer of wire to put down inside the top and then the last 2.5" of concrete will get poured to brick level. I used a total of 6 cubic feet of Perlite and have a great layer of insulation all around the fire box.

I had laid out a great exhaust set up out the back and the wife squashed that idea....the only things she has said anything about and it was my exhaust. So, I switched gears and will be building a stack on the right side and midway deep over the oven. I have it all planned out and will be setting that chimney once the top cap is on. That is all I have left of the main structure....fill, top cap, and chimney. I need to see what materials I will have left so I can prepare for the ledge build up. I set it up to have bricks on edge that will be even with the oven floor.....I may run short on bricks and have to tile some if it too......I need to let things cure and get those supports out before I can lay out the shelf.

One thing for sure is this thing is going to take a month to dry out.....there is so much water in this whole thing it will be a while before a fire ever gets built in it.