Hello everyone .. and 1st questions ..

[lollabrigida]

Very happy that there are so many enthusiasts willing to help us nervous beginners, thank you.

Finally got planning permission from the missus' to build a pizza oven in the 'flower garden'. After reading the forum & viewing several pictorials of builds I intend to build the Pompeii dome style, approx. 1m x 1.2m
The 1st question is can i build it directly on top of patio paving stones - 23 x 17in - that have been there for 20+ years, or should i remove them and pour a concrete base? The 2nd question is, will a single brick (reclaimed London yellow stock - part of the planning permission) base be strong enough to hold the poured concrete slab to sit the oven on?

I hope this is clear & understandable.
Thanks
Ben

[leetheldc]

Hi there Ben I can defiantly help you here I'm a groundworker for a living and you defiantly need a re enforced slab to take the weight your pavers might have been there for 20 years but they have only had foot traffic get yourself some steel mesh or re bar and tie wire and get digging! Depending on ground conditions hardcore and depth of the slab are a factor and I would use 2 brick wide use any cheap brick even 9 inch conc blocks for the inside skin that you don't see

[lollabrigida]

Thanks leetheldc, i will make a base then.
Just working out what materials i need to buy for the 1 x 1.2m base and the mortar for the brickwork & the 1 x 1.2m slab. will run around and see if i can find some old wood for the boxing from a local skip or 2.

[lollabrigida]

Hi, After endless hours of reading the forum, watching videos, finding out the ratios for concrete & mortar I got started and poured the slab using a heavy gauge garden chicken wire rather than rebar as that was what I had. I am going to list everything as it happened a bit like a recipe so that all this information is in one place as I found it difficult to find all the information I needed without cherry picking it from dozens of posts.

Concrete foundation slab 1m x 1.2m x 10cm
using a mix of 6:1 I used 7.5 x 25kg bags of B&Q ballast (premixed aggregate & sand) 1.25 x 25kg bags of cement (also bought from B&Q)
Heavy gauge garden chicken wire rather than rebar as that is what i had lying around. The boxing came out of a skip.

This is the result & the boxing came out quite easily with a hammer & crowbar. In one of the concrete pouring videos I watched, a tip was to not hammer the nails for the boxing all the way in so you can easily remove them - it worked!



I have used London stock bricks, +/- 260 bought on eBay, for the base designed with a couple of pillars which i am crossing my fingers will be strong & stable enough to hold the oven slab. I have used a mortar mix of 4:1.



I am off to Screwfix now to pick up a cheap 9" angle grinder & diamond blade to use on the arch of the base, tomorrows job.

I found 2 sheets of ply in a skip recently that i will use to pour the slab, but not quite sure how this actually works. I will post the question in my next post.