jwyno
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Post by jwyno on May 14, 2012 17:28:06 GMT
Hi All I bought my oven from Kiln Linings back in December and have been waiting since for the weather to turn nice to start. ...And finally i am under way. The attached is basically my Google Sketchup of what approximately I want to end up with but I still need to make some decisions as to whether I will render the retaining walls in a coloured render, or use some form of brickwork. The first part of the build is a patio area as the garden slopes away to the back fence, but once this is dugout then the retaining walls will go down with the WFO coming off of this. The patio will be a rustic slate, and then i want to use blue/black slate on top of the wall to the right of the WFO as a work and preparation area. I am getting help with the patio due to the sheer amount of work digging out and the fact i am desperate to start cooking sooner rather than later. I will post pictures as i go along. James Attachments:
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jwyno
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Post by jwyno on May 14, 2012 17:34:52 GMT
Day one: One micro digger driven through the garage and one friend to start digging and i am underway Attachments:
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jwyno
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Post by jwyno on May 14, 2012 17:38:34 GMT
and the top down view to give an idea of the size of the area. Tomorrow hopefully will complete digging out the footings for the retaining wall and the extra depth for where the oven will go. The poorly drawn red lines are where the walls will be and the WFO will pretty much end up where the body of thee digger is. Attachments:
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Post by turkey on May 14, 2012 17:53:04 GMT
those diggers look like a whole load of fun :-) not sure I would want to have to remove loads and loads of soil, but if I did I think I could enjoy a day of digging. Much better than hours in end with just a spade.
looks like a lovely setup you have got planned, can't wait to see it progress.
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jwyno
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Post by jwyno on May 15, 2012 10:03:38 GMT
The diggers are great. We chose this micro digger as the tracks underneath them can be pulled in, so basically you can get the width to about 700mm which is wide enough to drive through a standard doorframe. So we drove through the back door of the garage, moved the tracks back out and away you go.
I decided on the digger as we reckon there will be maybe upwards of 18 tonnes of waste once the footings etc have been laid for the retaining walls plus the extra depth for hte hardcore etc for the patio, and even once we have the soil in wheelbarrows, we then need to move it round the garden and back through the garage so still plenty of manual labour.
With the digger we possibly wasted an hour trying to work out how to move it in any form of effective manner but once you get to grips with things you can move quick quickly.
We are quite rural so there were several places you could hire these but prices ranged between £40 and £65 a day depending on how long you hire it for.
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Post by cannyfradock on May 15, 2012 17:40:15 GMT
jwyno
Those mini excavators may sound expensive, but can save you a fortune if you have a load of spoil to dig and remove/move.
Your sketch up plan looks quite elaborate......I love "quite elaborate"
Looking forward to you sharing your build with us.
Terry
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jwyno
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Post by jwyno on May 15, 2012 22:36:27 GMT
Hi Terry I actually think the min diggers are superb value and have proven there own weight in gold over the last 2 days digging. Even the pro's had a hard time today with the digger sliding in the wet mud but even then they still made it all look so simple. The true value of the pro's came when we came across a boulder the size of a small car as the picture below shows. This is actually only half the boulder as it split, but then they took maybe 30 minutes to maneuver it out of the hole. This would simply have been impossible without the digger, as even a jackhammer was struggling to dent it. As you can see from the picture, the size of half the boulder is not far off the size of the base of the digger. Attachments:
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jwyno
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Post by jwyno on May 15, 2012 22:40:57 GMT
So the end of day 2. The boulder from the previous post is now going to become a feature of one of the retaining walls bottom right, and the other half of the boulder got broken up and will be buried under some of the footings. End of day 2 has resulted in 2 full skips and an estimated 20+ tonnes of waste. Attachments:
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Post by jwyno on May 17, 2012 9:08:46 GMT
So Day 4 and the footings are down after an early start...due to the logistics of having no outside tap and the distance from the drive, through the garage to the build area, we decided on an RC35 concrete readymix and then just barrowing it through. Today was a bit sad as I dont think i have mentioned it to date but we have some nesting Robins with 6 chicks right on the slabs at ground level in the bottom right of the attached photo next to the upright rock. They have been having a great time grabbing food and worms from all the upturned soil and waste and even the digger and the jackhammer didnt seem to phase them. The slabs they are on have remained untouched for now and we placed a couple of planters around the nest to protect them and offer some level of shelter. Everyone has loved seeing the parents flying around, sat on the digger and feeding but last night, 2 chicks somehow came out the nest and were dead this morning. It sounds like the chicks leave the nest after about 14 days so we hope they will have left before we need to consider the patio otherwise we will have to place things on hold until they are safe. Attachments:
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Post by jwyno on May 24, 2012 18:26:17 GMT
We had a couple of days break to see how the Robins would get on but sadly they have all gone and we dont believe they flew the nest... So the retaining walls have continued and we have made great work in the sunny weather and got the approximate shape for the oven ready as well. We have left one block short of the rest of the retaining wall to then build a 160mm reinfirced concrete plinth which when we add the calcium silicate board follwoed by the firebricks we hope will come back up to the height of the wall. Attachments:
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Post by jwyno on May 26, 2012 9:16:40 GMT
A craacking couple of days weather wise has meant we have the plinth in place and it appears to have been drying really well so hopefully by the end of today we hope to have the modular dome in place and the fireclay done. Not sure how the heat will affect the fireclay as it would appear this is subject to cracking at the best of times but maybe keeping it damp by sponging on extra water whilst it remains hot will help. Anyone else have any issues with this approach ?? Attachments:
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Post by jwyno on May 27, 2012 8:56:27 GMT
All credit to Jonjo today who was the only one of the four of us with enough stomach clearance to get through the opening and do the interior fireclay on the seals and around the base of the WFO. Attachments:
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jwyno
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Post by jwyno on May 27, 2012 8:58:55 GMT
End of the day and the oven is up and ready for its first layer of fireclay around the outside which will start tomorrow. Due to the heat i am using our washing line and placing a large bedsheet over the top to act as a shade over the oven to try and keep the clay out of the direct sun and will try and keep back some fireclay to smooth over hte cracks as they appear Attachments:
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Post by turkey on May 27, 2012 16:19:15 GMT
Wowzers that's some pace you are going at, do you have an old material sack or sacrificial cloth(s)? You could wet that and lay it over the dome so there is a moisture source to help retard the drying process to keep the cracks at a minimum. The are rarely structural and as you have a pre cast oven even less likely to be so.
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jwyno
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Post by jwyno on May 28, 2012 7:49:15 GMT
Thanks Turkey that sounds like a really good idea. At the start with the digger, after an experimental dig, we did get in someone who knew what they were doing, so all the groundwork and footings was complete within days thanks to their help. Since then I have actually had a group of 4 people coming and going so whilst I have been home throughout, others have kindly helped when they can. However i am back at work now so it may slow down I will repay them all with an offering of food and beer once I am finally up and running !!! As to the oven and the fireclay, in the heat of the day, even with bedsheets and breezeblocks suspending several boards, the clay has been drying at a rapid pace in the shade. I did keep a bucket of fireclay aside to push into the cracks as they appeared which did limit the cracking, but that quickly ran out and so I did sponge on water every thirty minutes after that. I will try your approach of a material sack though from now on to see if that may reduce further cracking. Thanks again
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