Building a 42 inch Low Dome Hybrid

[Jon in Albany]

I think I just posted into cyber space. I forgot to resize the pictures and my last post didn't show up. If this turns out to be a duplicate, my apologies.

There was a nice stretch or weather back in January and I couldn't wait any longer so I broke out the blanket insulation. The first layer had a little bit of a learning curve to it but the next two layers were much easier. With the insulation on, I cured a little more and now I have a working oven. Definitely still not finished, but working. If the weather looks good for a few days, I can fire it up, make pizza, cool it down and then get it all covered up before a rain or snow. Most of the time the oven is covered by two tarps and a pop up tent. The pop up tent was not made for this kind of abuse. For a combination of added weight and height, I use tapcon screws to attach the tent legs to concrete blocks. Two of the legs are no longer attached to the feet. To make sure the tent doesn't fly away I have a few tie down straps held down by extra block. so far (knock on wood) it has been holding. When it snowed, I just brushed it off with a push broom. Made it through a blizzard with 2 feet of snow last month.

I'd like to add wither one more box of blanket or loose perlite for some additional insulation up top before the oven is boxed up. Hopefully get started on the enclosure by the end of the month.

When there's a fire in that oven, I can't walk past it without smiling. Sometimes even laughing. It's so much fun.

[vtsteve]

With the insulation on, I cured a little more and now I have a working oven. Definitely still not finished, but working..
.
.
When there's a fire in that oven, I can't walk past it without smiling. Sometimes even laughing. It's so much fun.

It's looking great -- congratulations on first fire, and welcome to the danger zone!   

[Jon in Albany]

Thanks, Steve. There's so much I want to cook in it. The kids love the 20 second toasted marshmallows.

[TXCraig1]

The kids love the 20 second toasted marshmallows.

Wait until you fire up to NP temps, They will be done in 5 seconds.

[Jon in Albany]

Wait until you fire up to NP temps, They will be done in 5 seconds.

I look forward to it. I had to wear welding gloves to be able to keep my hand in the landing.

[TXCraig1]

The outer part of the marshmallow melts and caramelizes almost instantly, but the inside is still relatively firm. When you pull it out and let it cool a few seconds, the outside hardens and inside softens a bit and you have a warm, soft, candy shell marshmallow. 

[hodgey1]

Great looking pizzas and great looking oven. Congratulations!

[Jon in Albany]

Great looking pizzas and great looking oven. Congratulations!

Thanks, hodgey1. Your build is one of about half a dozen I am trying to merge into this oven.

[hodgey1]

Thanks, hodgey1. Your build is one of about half a dozen I am trying to merge into this oven.

Thanks Jon, that's a real compliment! 

[Jon in Albany]

Progress has been slow, but continues....

July wasn't too bad, but in June it seemed like it rained whenever I had time to get something done. On a rain-free weekend, I unwrapped most of the oven and got the track for the walls down using Tapcon screws. I wrapped everything up and then it rained again.

I wanted to start with the easiest wall which was the back.  Just a straight 30-inch high wall. I messed up the gauges of the steel studs. I bought tin snips that said they were good up to 20 gauge. I was using 18 gauge steel studs. Perfect, the snips age good to 20. Except I forgot that gauges go the other way and 18 gauge is thicker than 20 gauge. I gave it a shot. My tin snips were able to bend the 18 gauge steel but not cut it. I don’t have a chop saw so all the cuts were made with an angle grinder.

On to the sides. I decided on a 30 inch wall height in the rear and a 48 inch height in the front. The idea was to avoid being able to hit my head on a corner anywhere around the oven. It’s a little close in the back but the higher the back wall is, the higher the front wall gets for the pitch. I cut the wall closer to my house. Fit it together. It looked good so I took it apart and did my best to duplicate it for the other side. I fit them both back together to see if they were level-ish to each other. I was going to take them down so the current tarp/canopy covering system still worked, but they looked pretty good so I screwed them into place.

My friend Joe stopped by to lay out the wiring. There will be a few outlets in back, a few on the side and a switch for some overhead lights. He also helped me figure out how to frame the front. Brick size limited the depth of the landing so the chimney is in there pretty tight.  After getting the second round of steel studs, Joe came back to help again. He mounted and wired the electric boxes while I cut the pieces for the front. We got the chimney anchor plate installed and then framed up the front.  The anchorage was set up when I built the arches. One thing to note, the bolts, nuts and washers are all stainless steel. Nothing galvanized should see high temperatures.

Then with some help from my wife and oldest daughter we put together the framing for the roof. My wife had to leave but my daughter and I were able to get the roof from the driveway to the oven with a moving dolly.  During the process, we met our new neighbors. I must have looked like a complete, possibly scary, mess. Great first impression.

I put the strips I used to for the concrete ring around the oven. I picked up a few bags of perlite to dump over the oven as a little bit of extra insulation. The form was to keep the perlite from flowing into the corners. At this point, I wouldn't call it level, square or plumb...but I would call it framed.

[Jon in Albany]

Got the concrete board wall up and dumped a punch of perlite around the oven.  The problem with changing the plans multiple times is that it eventually messes stuff up. I had figured three 4’x8’ sheets of plywood for the roof (a 4 foot, a piece cut to 3 feet, and another cut to a little over 2 feet depending on the length of the front overhang which I couldn't decide on) and that adds up. What I messed up was having the roof framing line up at the right spot. Lots of measuring, a little bit of cursing and some work with a circular saw and each of the 3 sheets of ply wood were cut to something’ x 8’ so they hit the framing. There’s a reason everything is supposed to be 16 inches on center. Local framing contractors do not need to worry about me stealing their business.

Once two pieces of plywood were on, I quickly realized my plan for locating where to cut the hole for the chimney wasn’t going to work. I had thought I’d be on the one piece of plywood and reach under to locate “centerish” with some help from the bottom. However, instead of being on one piece of plywood, two pieces had to be put up to get past the chimney location. Not sure this makes any sense. I had planned to be working fairly close to the edge of a 4 foot piece of plywood. I could lay on top and reach under. But I needed 2 cut pieces of plywood (about 6 feet up there), so I couldn’t reach around the framing to touch the center of the chimney. Plan B was needed.

We best guessed near center and drilled a hole. As long as the holes were inside the circle that was getting cut out, it didn’t matter how many were drilled. I lowered a string with a screw tied to the end (homemade plumb bob). From that location, we re-estimated center-ish (a few inches towards the front and a just a little bit more to one side. Drilled another hole and tried again – pretty close. I drilled a screw in where I thought center was. Using a string and a Sharpie I marked out a 12 inch circle. Then starting from one of the holes, I cut out the circle with a jig saw. Up came the chimney pipe (a 5 foot length of 8 inch double walled Duravent – outside diameter is 10 inches). Holy $h!t, it fit.

then we got the rest of the plywood on the roof. Snow and ice barrier is usually over the last 3 or 6 feet of a roof line. Since the whole roof is 9’ by 8’ and the barrier is sold in 150 square foot package, we covered the whole thing. After that, I popped the chimney flashing and cap on to the pipe. Structurally, the oven is done. Topping party!

I don’t really know the ins and outs of small building construction. My goal, based solely on earlier indecision, was to leave a 1.5-inch overhang with the plywood around the entire frame. 20/20 hindsight being what it is, I should have shot for ¾ of an inch. To fill this gap I needed a 2xsomething piece of wood which are significantly heavier than 1xsomething. Doesn’t mater structurally, more for installation difficulty.

So I got a bunch of 2x8s (which are actually 1.5”x7.25”), ripped about half an inch off them (the metal roof framing is 6 inches deep and the extra ¾ inch if to make a line with soffit (bottom of the eave). Once they were ripped I used the router and ½ in round over bit to make the bottom edge pretty. Then came the installation. Each fascia board was clamped into position. Pilot holes were drilled and the widened a little for a counter sink. Each board was then attached with a bunch of screws. I’ll either plug the holes with a little piece of word or maybe a rounded button. I’ve got to decide which looks better.

It was now about 7:00 on Sunday.  I didn’t think putting up the drip edge was going to be a problem. But it was. And I messed it up. Expletives were muttered. OK, maybe louder than a mutter. I got the back piece on and called it day. After some more research and looking at our roof, it appears that no one does drip edge the way I was trying. And I think bending one piece around a corner was harder with the drip edge I was using. I got the kind that has a 6 in flap so I could get past the steel framing to nail it on. It might work better with the 2-inch kind that could have worked if I built the entire roof out of wood. Caulk will be my friend here.

Got the rest of the drip edge on and then set up to do the shingles. My wife was cutting them and I was crawling around the roof nailing them on. We were careful to avoid nails going into the steel framing. We got lucky, there was really only one row that was a little too close for comfort. Cut out around the chimney pipe, got the flashing down and then kept going towards the top. (Side note: you can’t get more of an open ventilated area than the top of a roof and I think I caught a buzz off of the caulk around the flashing.) We finished up around 7:30.

There are a few things I want to touch up on the roof but the roof is basically done. I also used a mesh tape and some thin set mortar over the concrete board joints (thanks for the tip Tom). Here's the view from an upstairs bedroom.

I've started getting some of the soffit stuff together. Hope to work on that in the near future.

[Jon in Albany]

Long overdue update...

Next up was the soffit. Used scrap pieces of 2x4s and 2x8s to have some wood framed into the metal. This was a huge pain in the ass and another reason portions of the framing would have been easier if I had used wood. Or maybe if I knew what I was doing I could have planned a little better. Had I known what I was doing, I could have raised everything roof-framing related up a little bit and then just attached wood to the base of the metal framing in large pieces that could have been easily installed. Instead, I had to cut pieces to length, use a router to cut a groove that the flange of the steel could fit into and screw in lots of pieces. It took a little while. Curse words were involved and I only recall one tantrum. (photo1 and 2)

Here's a closer view and I'll try to clarify what was done. The closer end of the wood has a routered line in it so sthat the flange of the closer steel stud can fit in and the 2x4 can be flush with the bottom. The far end of the 2x4 is cut to length so it is snug and screwed into the the back steel stud. I don't recommend this method of construction. (photo3)

I found some tongue and groove pine boards at a local lumber yard. I stained a bunch of the wood with a cedar outdoor stain that was light enough to show the grain. I put on two or three coats. With the steel frame, there was nothing to nail the first board so I countersunk a few self tapping screws to the front steel framing. I have little wood things I will eventually glue into the holes to cover the screws. I cut the next piece to length and made sure it fit. Then I laid out the centers for three holes for the lights. The holes were cut out with I bit I bought that fit the lights. That board went up and the lights were wired up.  (photo4)

Once the lights were in, the rest of the soffit went fairly quickly. Boards were cut length, tapped into the groove of the previous board and nailed into position – nails go through the tongue/groove connection and into the wood I framed into the steel roofing system (if that makes any sense). Ran into a little problem when I got to the front wall because nothing about this project is square, level or plumb, but hoped some trim work would take care of it later. The shorter fascia sides went up very quickly. That was just cut, tap, and nail. I managed to cut a decent transition to go from the short side pieces back to full sized pieces at the back wall. All that is left there is one last piece to cover up the last inch. Nothing other than laziness is why that isn’t done yet. If you aren’t me, you probably wouldn’t have noticed that piece is missing. (photo5)

I wanted to cover up the front before a bird thought that would be a good place to build a nest. The idea was to get a 2x6, use the router to hollow out where the steel framing would go and then put it up. It worked for the most part. To help hide the sins of the builder, I cheated a little. One end of the 2x6 is a little narrower than the other end. It kind of hides some of the not square, level or plumb. So that piece went on and I think it looks pretty good. (photo6 and 7)

[Jon in Albany]

Next up was raising the counter in front of the oven. The goal was to make a flat ledge the was 1.25 inches below the oven floor. I used scrap pieces of 2x8 on the sides and a piece of scrap roof plywood in front. To over-engineer it and make it absurdly stronger than it needed to be, I drilled concrete screws into the existing ledge and left the out about an inch to act as a shear stud and connect the two concrete pours. I also put in some leftover wire mesh that I had from making the concrete ring around the oven brick. This was the last concrete pour of the project and it went the best. (photos1-5)

The oven door is coming along. I made a template out of wood and a friend who is good with a torch is making the door out of steel in his free time. He's pretty busy and on the road a lot for work but the door is coming out great. I made to panels out of scrap luan board. The smaller one will fit into the oven archway. The larger one will rest flush against the outside of the arch. The two panels will be two inches and will be filled with two layers of the insulation board that is under the oven floor. (photos 6-8)

[Jon in Albany]

Here's what is made out of metal so far. All that is left is to make handles and weld those to the outer panel. Shouldn't be much longer.  I'm told when welding with the insulation already in place, it too over 45 minutes to cook down to where the door could be handled with gloves. Successful test of the insulation. (photo 1)

In the mean time, I have been stacking bricks as a door and messed around with a few residual heat dinners the next day. I have been dialing in making ribs, done a few loaves of leftover dough bread and this beast makes a mean baked potato. We've even baked off a tray of cookies in there.

Back in June, I contacted a counter place to come take a look and give me their thoughts on the best way to put in a small counter.  After the initial visit, I went to their warehouse/workshop to pick out a piece of scrap that I liked (it’s not a big counter). I looked through all these pieces thinking that I wanted something light because the counter in in direct sun. I had taken temperatures with a IR gun of the concrete that would support the granite and it was in the 120-150 degree range. Kind of like pavement in the sun. I picked a light piece and drove off. I got about 2 miles away before having buyer’s remorse. If I went too light, I thought it would get lost in whatever finish I chose to cover the walls. So I turned around and went back. A very nice lady talked me down. Looked at a picture of the oven on my phone and recommended another piece. I went with that.

Unfortunately, my folder got misplaced and lost in the shuffle. I called back after not hearing anything for a bit and made an appointment to take more detailed measurements. The person taking the measurements was the same woman that helped me pick a color. Having seen it firsthand, she thought it would still be good. A few days later the counter was installed. (Photos 3-5)

I’ve got to tell you, it is hard to take a day that could be spent messing around with different doughs and making pizza to finish the oven. I’m already talking myself into finishing just the top have of exterior work and taking on the base next year.

Here’s the to-do list:

    Finish that little piece of wood in the back.
    Build a decorative arch around the opening of the oven.
    Make an outer protective door with scrap from the soffit.
    Put either stucco or a stone veneer on the top half of the oven.
    Make the bottom half look nicer than concrete block.
    Make pizza as often as possible.

Current Oven (photo 4)

[halfprice]

Looking good Jon.  Im so jealous.
 Keep the pics coming.

Jerry

[Jon in Albany]

Looking good Jon.  Im so jealous.
 Keep the pics coming.

Jerry

Thanks, Jerry. It has been fun project.

[Jon in Albany]

Got the oven door on Friday. Still need to add some gasket but it fits nicely. There's 2 inches of insulation in the door. Looking forward to seeing how long the oven holds heat now.

Been pricing stone veneers. I think I might be starting to cheap out on the project. Some of that stuff is really expensive.

[Tscarborough]

Nice door.  Stucco looks good, is cheap and easy to do.

[Jon in Albany]

Nice door.  Stucco looks good, is cheap and easy to do.

Thanks. I think you're right. Stucco could be the way to go.

[TMB]

DANG, I hate to ask cost of labor much less materials

That is BEAUTIFUL!!!