Author Topic: Oven is here - guess this means we're really doing this! (Read 15576 times)

Ev · « **Reply #40 on:** June 28, 2011, 06:33:04 AM »

Awesome, dudette!

RobynB · « **Reply #41 on:** July 07, 2011, 09:41:46 PM »

Last weekend we took all the forms off/out of the cured slab, and here are a couple pics of that. Tomorrow we remove the window and I pick up the new one which will need to be painted before installation. Dan's hoping to get the wall rough-framed tomorrow after the window is out. If all goes well with regards to wall prep, Sunday (hopefully) we will actually be assembling the oven on the insulation on the slab. I went to the woodstove place today to investigate chimney pipe and venting, and got the order sheet which Dan is figuring out, and hopefully we will get the chimney pipe, etc ordered in the next few days. Yes, Craig, we too are dealing with an off-standard size opening for which we will need to have an adapter custom made. So the venting won't be in place for at least a week or two. Still, with luck we'll have good progress to share by Monday...

widespreadpizza · « **Reply #42 on:** July 07, 2011, 10:43:25 PM »

Robyn, Looks good so far. Is there any rebar buried in your slab? -Marc

JConk007 · « **Reply #43 on:** July 07, 2011, 11:13:10 PM »

Marc,
Pg2 reply 30 Rebar central! this baby is built!
John

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #44 on:** July 08, 2011, 12:04:45 PM »

I'm impressed.

CL

RobynB · « **Reply #45 on:** July 08, 2011, 09:04:41 PM »

Today the window came out, and we assembled the insulation, insulated base, and floor pan of the oven in place and secured them. Dan used construction adhesive for the insulation to slab, and he drilled holes and used epoxy for the eye-bolts placed into the slab around the base, to which we will attach cables over the oven, to hold it in case of earthquake. We then laid out the firebrick in the pan, and discovered that it is uneven in height. The instructions that came with the oven are a very poor translation from the original French, and unfortunately we don't have the original French to get a better translation. Here is what it says "Place pre-cut bricks on the floor without to paste them. NO SEAM IS USED BETWEEN THE BRICKS. If necessary, it is possible to get a standard height of bricks if you place cement under some of them which are a bit lower than others. Around the floor, it is to use cement with sand to block bricks (1 proportion of cement for 3 of sand)." Part of our confusion is that "seam" appears to be a fine mortar, a bag of which came with the oven. But they also mention cement, and we're not sure if cement and the fine mortar are the same things or different, nor are we sure if what they call sand is the same as what we do. The seller is in France right now - I have an email out to him... Any suggestions? I'm really reluctant to use sand or cement under the firebrick, but I do want them level. What have you guys done for yours? Here's today's pics:

widespreadpizza · « **Reply #46 on:** July 08, 2011, 09:23:24 PM »

Robyn, a mixture of sand and fireclay are usually used to sort out problems like that, it is difficult, but the more time you spend on it, the happier you will be. Less pizza will be ripped over the years. It is best if the bricks are tapered on the edges and they are not sharp. Of you ever get the chance to see inside patsys oven under the bridge, you will see that thier oven floor is super rough, and looks like large 1' by 1' blocks. I had no idea how these guys were making pizza in it. If you reference the pompeii oven directions on forno barvos site, it will explain the floor leveling mixture. for you. -marc

JConk007 · « **Reply #47 on:** July 08, 2011, 10:24:40 PM »

Robyn,
I have mentioned this before somewhere but I still feel that this was by far the hardest part of my oven build that is to get the floor/hearth tiles perfect! I used a full 1" of "lean cement" under tiles I think it was like 3 parts sand and 1 part high temp mortar? I have other pics somewhere of dead on with the level on top of tiles because I was so picky with that part. you can see the layers in the oven pic.conc. hearth ,sand,tiles, below. It was was quite hard to get it right! It is not like setting a block wall with mortar where you simply tap it down to level. I used an 8" square flat trowel that helped a lot. It was add material, scrape down, check, tap listen ,fill, tap scrape abit .... One at a time! and checking with a 4ft level each one was spot on, and they all lined up. What I am trying to say is it was a pain in the !@#$ but worth the time you put in. The floor has not moved an inkling in 6 years. By the looks of the hearth hubby built, he should have no problem just getting a few tiles level. Looking good. Question I have is is the chimney 100% outside? or is the opening of the oven flush with the inside wall or is the plan to have it protrude a bit out from the inside wall ? Thanks looking really good!

RobynB · « **Reply #48 on:** July 08, 2011, 11:08:44 PM »

Thanks, John and Marc. So I guess it is okay to use something under the floor to level it, that was my main question. I think leveling the floor will be my job, so that should be fun $:-\$
John: the flue (the cast iron thingie pictured below) will be inside the wall with just the handle protruding out into the room so that we can adjust the flue, and the chimney will angle through the wall with a couple 30 degree elbows and then go straight up outside through the eaves.

Here's a couple more photos from end of today.

RobynB · « **Reply #49 on:** July 12, 2011, 12:25:33 AM »

Saturday, yesterday and today we have spent many hours cutting the floor tiles, puzzling them together as best we could to fill in many gaps around the sides, and then today we mixed up the sand/high-temp-mortar barely-wet mix, and set them. It's been a bit of a nightmare - the floor pan is not level, it has ripples and bumps all over it, plus the seam where the two halves join is not flat. The floor tiles themselves are imperfect with respect to shape and to level-ness, and they chip easily. All in all, we did the best we could do, and I'm not sure it's good enough. Those of you that have been following this thread know what perfectionists we are, and this floor is nowhere near perfect, and it's driving me crazy. The biggest issue is where the outside deck meets the floor tiles just inside the doorway; we have a rise of about 3/16". I've attached photos to show all of this. I'm frustrated because the other FGM ovens we've seen do not seem to have this issue. My fear is that sooner or later someone will be less than careful and will hit that with the peel and it will start chipping... It's way to the front of the cooking area so one shouldn't hit it with the peel, but I'm sure it will happen at some point. Once the dome is on this will be MUCH harder to fix, and we are supposed to get the dome up Thursday so we have a small time crunch.

Question: can we sand it to chamfer that rise? We would use a power sander, a belt sander to do the rough work and then a random orbital sander with fine paper to finish it. We tried sanding a leftover piece of firebrick and it seemed to work fine - is there any reason not to do so? It did remove the slightly darker factory patina but so did cutting them and that will get rubbed with time anyway, right? The main floor is pretty smooth, the only real issue is the entrance. Here's photos:

flyboy4ual · « **Reply #50 on:** July 12, 2011, 01:37:11 AM »

What about buying larger floor tiles? Maybe replacing those little guys with the ones that Earthstone sells. Those are supposed to be pretty good. Just an idea.

Scott D

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #51 on:** July 12, 2011, 08:13:01 AM »

Or even firebrick. You should be able to source firebrick locally pretty inexpensively. Firebrick tends to be very consistent in shape and size and would be easy to replace.

If not, I myself would pack the tiles as tight as possible and sand to smooth them out.

RobynB · « **Reply #52 on:** July 23, 2011, 10:18:43 PM »

We decided we (well, I) simply couldn't live with the oven floor as it was, so we contacted a mason that is a customer of Dan's and hired him to help us. The floor bricks that came with the oven were just unacceptable, so I bought nice even high-quality ones and we started over. Now we have a gorgeous flat level herringbone pattern custom-fitted floor! And so we finally got the dome up. I've included a photo of the mason getting started, and photos of the floor, the dome half up, and the interior now that the dome is up. Supervising was our dog, who spent the entire time under the stand, and finally fell asleep while 5 guys lifted and mortared the dome.

Final shot is the one chipped floor brick, at the mouth of the opening of course, discovered AFTER the floor was mortared and the dome was complete. Sigh.

I'm pretty thrilled with the result. The interior is beautiful, and I can't wait to be sitting at the dining table staring into it.

We have all the venting pipe, but still need the fabricator to finish the custom gasket for the connection from the flue to the pipe (the flue is 5 1/2" and the pipe is 6") so hopefully we'll get that going very soon. Once the flue is mortared on, we can insulate and start curing!!! And, of course, fix the drywall and put in the window, etc, but who cares, we'll be cooking then! Needless to say we've given up on the end of July deadline, but hoping for middle of August...?

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #53 on:** July 23, 2011, 10:23:24 PM »

Wow fantastic job! Good move on switching out the floor stones. The oven interior looks stunning.

Chau

flyboy4ual · « **Reply #54 on:** July 23, 2011, 11:03:32 PM »

Great job on the new floor! The oven looks perfect!

Scott D.

JConk007 · « **Reply #55 on:** July 23, 2011, 11:34:45 PM »

Perfect! and as you say stunning inside a pleasure for the eyes for sure! Where did youfind such tiles and would you mind sharting the cost of such. Just surious comared to the earthstone or fire brick.
Great job! I can see the light (or not) at the end of the oven

youll be baking soon!
John

RobynB · « **Reply #56 on:** July 24, 2011, 01:16:45 AM »

John - they are Whitaker Split fire brick (they also come in full thickness). The split that we used was perfect thickness for our job, they were about 1/4" thinner than the ones it came with which was exactly what we needed. And the color was what I wanted, it's hard to find fire brick in that red, so I'm very happy to have found them. They are $2.30 each, and our business has an account with the yard where we bought them so we get 10% off. We bought 35 and only used 31, and the mason gave us a deal since he is a longtime customer and only charged us $400 to do the floor, and then he and his employee stayed and helped Dan and his friends finish the dome. So it was a great deal!!

TXCraig1 · « **Reply #57 on:** July 24, 2011, 10:27:13 PM »

Beautiful Robyn. You'll be so happy you did that. When you buy quality, you only cry once. You'll love it every time you look at it.

Craig

ponzu · « **Reply #58 on:** July 25, 2011, 01:04:01 AM »

Robyn,

Way to bite the bullet. That oven interior looks absolutely beautiful. The oven rally looks artisanal and of superior quality, especially with the custom floor.

I am learning so much from your thread. Please continue to update us on your progress.

AZ

Jackitup · « **Reply #59 on:** July 25, 2011, 02:08:44 AM »

Freeee....eeeekin'....sweeeeet.....been tossing around getting one for sometime now!! Very, very nice!!! Know some guys that do alot of chicken thighs and quails and grouse and such in their WFO, that Persian fire roasted thing.

Jon