Kate Humble's 90cm Pompeii....Monmouth

[cannyfradock]

I'll be tutoring Clay/Cob oven building workshops at Kate Humble's "Rural skills and smallholding school" in Monmouth from June/July. But first I must build a Pompeii oven which will be used as part of the oven management part of the the one day Clay oven workshops.

The Pompeii oven will be pre-fired and then after the group has built a Clay oven, the second part of the course will be making and baking pizzas along with general bread oven management tuition.

First off....I must build the Pompeii oven which Kate's team has also offered as a "hands on" course. This will take 2 days to construct on a pre-build base and I will be demonstrating the construction process of under hearth insulation, fire-brick hearth, arch building, dome building and over dome insulation layering processes. This course has attracted a fair bit of attention and is 3/4 booked. There are a few places available if any of the forum members are interested. More details can be found on the Humble by Nature website..

www.humblebynature.com/courses-humble-by-nature/rural-skills-courses/build-wood-fired-brick-pompeii-pizza-oven

The Clay/Cob oven courses will follow in June or early July. Dates are yet to be fixed but for more info please visit this page ...

... www.humblebynature.com/courses-humble-by-nature/rural-skills-courses/build-wood-fired-clay-oven

Onto the build....

I hope to detail every aspect of this Pompeii build on this thread. I have a rather beautiful blank canvas to start from...(see 1st attached photo)

I shall be looking to build something like this.



I intended to set back the two work surfaces (perhaps one will be a BBQ?) from the outer face of the front of the WFO....something like this... (see 2nd attached photo)



After viewing from the Humble by Nature team...the left cooking platform and the WFO should now be level (in line)...and the right hand side prep area will be set back and at a 45% angle to the rest. One regular thing with Wood-fired ovens is that they are all different. This is a plus for me as "bricks and mortar" can be arranged in whatever shape or fashion the client wants.

I'm building the supporting walls this week and shall show the stage pics.

(I'm using thermolite blocks for the supporting walls...central walls.....block on flat...end walls...normal blockwork.)

Terry

[cannyfradock]

Can't seem to get my image of what the finished oven should look like on my last post.

Try again. I'm looking to achieve something like this...



...or this...


Terry

n.b.....image uploading problems?

[tonyb]

Good luck with the build Terry.

[cannyfradock]

Thanks Tony. Hope I have more luck with my build....and the courses than I've having at the moment in uploading pics to the forum.

Terry

[docfester]

Sounds interesting Terry, looking forward to seeing the build. The true multi-tasker, building oven, teaching how to build an oven and also taking build photos of the process.

Re: your upload photos, I've never had much luck with imageshack and always use photobucket for uploading my pics.

Cheers

Pete

[Breadandwine]

Great to hear such fantastic news, mate!

Good luck with the project, will be watching with interest!

[cannyfradock]

Thanks for the comments guys.

I have now set out my base walls. Changed design a few times but have settled for oven in middle with prep area either side. Left hand side prep area to be level with oven and r/h side to be built on a squint. The prep area's will be approx 900mm high and the oven hearth about 105mm high (elbow height). I have corbelled the storage arch slightly proud of the walls. This will remain a rustic brick feature along with the entrance arch.....all the rest, including both storage arches to prep area's will have a render finish.

I laid a dpc below AND on top of the first course. This will stop any rising damp from touching the underside of the hearth.



Terry

[Bo]

Lovely neat blockwork... I really like the paving stones where are they from?

[cannyfradock]

Hi Bo

The pavers are from a quarry in Monmouth (can't remember the name but I'll mention it in a later post.)Blockwork doesn't look that pretty close up, but it's all being rendered.

NEXT STAGE...

I built up a single skin 6" wall on either side of the side 9" walls...and on top of the front arch. These have become my shuttering.I built a supporting central (ish) wall 2/3rds back from the face. This will support my dome slab and reduce the under hearth storage from 1m 50cm to about 1 meter deep.....plenty enough...



I then cut 2 shuttering boards to fit within each aperture, either side of the support wall. The shuttering boards were propped up/supported by dry laid thermolite blocks with pieces of timber on top of the blocks to bring the shutter boards level with the blockwork, so the concrete slab will be laid on top of a solid wall on all 4 sides......plus the middle. Re-bar was used with the lower bars spaced at 100mm and the top bars at 150mm centers. This picture of the re-bar is purely for the pic.....



The re-bar was then removed and concrete poured to 2" of the surface. Normally re-bar is tied together using nips and tying wire to hold it in position, but as I was using a bucket to fill the void, I simply placed the re-bar ...in place....and made sure the re-bar didn't move when spreading the concrete...



Didn't have a straight edge to finish off the slab so had to use my level....tut,tut!!



I also used a battery drill with a long thunderbolt jammed in the end to vibrate the concrete. The thunderbolt was slightly off center in the drill so wobbled slightly. When this touched the shuttering below it brought all the air to the surface and done a good job, hopefully, in the place of a vibrating poker.

Just a little more work on the side prep surfaces and we're ready to rock'n'roll on the Pompeii oven build....31st May.

Terry

[cannyfradock]

Trial post....using the "Add image to post".....much better.....can click to enlarge.

[docfester]

"Didn't have a straight edge to finish off the slab so had to use my level....tut,tut!!
"


Hmm, a pattern emerging there, seen the same levelling technique employed previously.....



Seriously Terry the build is coming along at great pace and quite a monster, what dimensions do you plan for the dome size?

Fantastic progress keep us updated.

Pete

[rokdok]

Ye Gods Terry, massive base !!!! You are clearly immune to cement burns !

[cannyfradock]

Rokdok

Quite right!!.....Cement...or Lime will give the skin nasty burns and gloves should always be worn.

Today I cast the left hand prep station ready for next weeks course. The right hand prep station will be left open for now for ease of building the dome..


  

Wifey gave me a hand with this one. OH dear....just noticed..no gloves. ...Another bollocking off Rokdok on the way.

Terry

[cannyfradock]

Day 1 of the Pompeii oven building course today (31st May).

Thermolite block under hearth insulation layer laid. 1st ring course laid and internal arch set out....



Setting out the herringbone hearth bricks....



Dome formers put in place after first dome ring and hearth is complete..



Managed to get 3 dome rings laid today (would've liked 5 as this would have incorperated the arch/dome transition.



I've quite a bit to fit in tomorrow, but all the calculations and setting out are behind me. The dome formers are back in place and the inner arch voussoirs (bricks over the arch) are pre-cut ready for a smooth dome/inner arch transition.....that's the plan anyway.

Hoping to finish the dome, build the entrance arch and set in a flue. Then cover the dome with thermal blanket and the dreaded devils porridge.....I'll post more pics at the end of play tomorrow (hopefully it will be near complete..

Terry

[rokdok]

Cracking pace Terry . I'm following this with interest. ! Remember the gloves !