Post by winburner on May 20, 2014 13:27:37 GMT
We're coming up to the first anniversary of starting our Pompeii oven - and we're very nearly there! We've followed the building guidelines and every time we had a query all we had to do was check with the forum and others have had the same situations. What a source of knowledge!
We put the vermicrete on (the oven seems incredibly big now, as with the blanket etc it has grown by about 5 inches all round). We've left it for 2-3 weeks and did our curing fires, and had our first big fire last night, burnt off a lot of the soot and cooked some tasty fish with herbs and lemon, freshly-picked asparagus and new potatoes, and even warmed the plates in front of the fire. This afternoon it is still very warm, even with no door yet.
My question is: what proportions of mix should we use for the final render (i.e. sharp sand, cement, lime etc)? and is it a good idea to use a waterproof additive (like the Toolstation Integral Waterproofer)? We're going for a concrete render, rather than K-rend, and hopefully will paint it with Sandtex. Is it a two-stage process - scratch coat then a final coat? If so, what mix of ingredients do we use for each coat?
One of my team has suggested we should wet the vermicrete before applying the render - he thought that the vermicrete might suck the moisture out of the render - but we've spent all this time getting the moisture out of the whole structure, so it seems counter-productive to me. Would it be an idea to paint it with PVA before rendering - bit like sizing a wall before wallpapering?
Any hints, tips, etc will be very welcome
We put the vermicrete on (the oven seems incredibly big now, as with the blanket etc it has grown by about 5 inches all round). We've left it for 2-3 weeks and did our curing fires, and had our first big fire last night, burnt off a lot of the soot and cooked some tasty fish with herbs and lemon, freshly-picked asparagus and new potatoes, and even warmed the plates in front of the fire. This afternoon it is still very warm, even with no door yet.
My question is: what proportions of mix should we use for the final render (i.e. sharp sand, cement, lime etc)? and is it a good idea to use a waterproof additive (like the Toolstation Integral Waterproofer)? We're going for a concrete render, rather than K-rend, and hopefully will paint it with Sandtex. Is it a two-stage process - scratch coat then a final coat? If so, what mix of ingredients do we use for each coat?
One of my team has suggested we should wet the vermicrete before applying the render - he thought that the vermicrete might suck the moisture out of the render - but we've spent all this time getting the moisture out of the whole structure, so it seems counter-productive to me. Would it be an idea to paint it with PVA before rendering - bit like sizing a wall before wallpapering?
Any hints, tips, etc will be very welcome
