Hello from sunny Weston Super Mare

[gream0604]

Hi All,

Have just started the process of building my first wood fired oven. I am going for a pompeii build, but am very limited on space.

Have been looking through lots of build threads already.

Has anyone got any good advice for somebody who doesn't have much space? My hearth is going to be approx 900m x 1200mm.

Thanks!

[cannyfradock]

Hello Gream....welcome to the forum.

A hearth size of 900 x 1200 seems a fair size for a domestic WFO. I presume this will be a barrel/vault oven?....if so dont forget to add the width of the bricks PLUS the insulation X 2 for the footprint of the base. If you haven't enough space for the footprint then you can always canter lever the walls with wider pre-cast re-enforced concrete lintels.

Terry

[gream0604]

Hi Terry.

I was hoping for a pompeii style, as Wanted to be able to roast meat, cook bread etc. Would I be able to do this in a barrel oven?

Matt

[spider44]

Hi Gream,

I just joined the forum too and from my reading a barrel type oven is ideal for bread making and roasts etc. The Pompeii oven is especially good for Pizza but can also do bread and roasts as well. I suspect Terry is right that with a confined space a barrel vault oven would make better use of the space you have available but I suspect you'll still be able to do great Pizza's as well. I'd check with someone with more practical experience but in theory at least I think you should explore the barrel vault idea.

[gream0604]

I've just been doing some more research about the barrel vault oven, and I think it will certainly fit in better than a Pompeii.

[gream0604]

Quick question about the hearth on my Oven. Due to space restrictions, I have built the base block work at 600mm x 900mm. I was then planning on using the British Standard Paving 50mm thickness. this will be in the form of 2 x 600x900 slabs. This will mean that the slab will overhang the supporting block work by around 150mm around all 4 sides. Will the slabs be strong enough for this?

[cannyfradock]

Gream

You can do exactly the same with a barrel/vault oven as you can with a round Pompeii oven. The barrel oven suits the baker more as the the floor is rectangular in shape, giving a little more space.

Many members have used concrete slabs directly on top of the walls but I wouldn't recommend it. I would lay concrete lintols first so each end and the middle of each slab is supported underneath...you should only need 5. I've used this method on some Clay/Cob builds but instead using concrete slabs I lay thermolite blocks directly on the lintels. This also gives a perfect insulation layer for the fire-brick hearth.

n.b....as I lay 6 blocks wide and 3 blocks deep I use 6 or 7 lintels in all....something like this...







Terry

[gream0604]

Hi Terry,

The problem I have is that in order to get the desired size right for the surface, I need to overhang by about 150mm on all 4 edges. Using your method would allow me to overhang on 2 edges, but not all 4?

[rivergirl]

Welcome and good luck with the build. I am just down the road from you and hoping to be doing another cobb.

[cannyfradock]

Mmmmm...quite true. There's ways round this.The first is not really for a D.I.Yer....it would involve casting a concrete slab over the base walls. You would have to put a timber shuttering inside of your walls (as most of us do) AND fix a timber shutter to the outside of your walls creating a 150mm canter lever overhang all around. You would also need re-bar extending to the outer edges to give the canter lever enough strength. For someone with carpentry skills this type of shuttering would be easy.

The other way to achieve this is to drill and fix....using decent rawl plugs and fixings some 4" x 2" or 6" x 2" timber (or whatever depth needed) to your walls. You can then add more 4" x 2" (or whatever size of timber needed) directly with wood screws to the piece of timber which is srewed and fixed to your support walls.....if that makes sense. There should be a thermal layer between this and the fire-brick hearth so you should have no problem with heat.

Hope that helps.....

Terry

[gream0604]

Okay,

so I think I might have come up with something that might work. My idea is to use 5 lintels running from front to back, at the front the lintels will overhang the supporting lintel by about 300mm. Will this be okay?

Then I will lay thermalite blocks, 2 wide and 5 deep, then the storage heater bricks on top.

How does that sound? Based on that, the hearth dimensions will be 900mmx1050mm, and my cooking area should be around 550mmx750mm??

Matt

[cannyfradock]

Matt

I sent a reply but it didn't work....I'll try again.

The 300mm overhang is a difficult one to answer. if the overhang is just to take your outer arch with a simple flue on top I would say yes. If you intend putting a lot of weight on the overhang...like a fancy double arch with a brick chimney then it's not advisable unless you use 6" x 4" lintels laid flat (as apposed to 4" x 3" lintels). As I've just mentioned on another post after 6 years on the forum I've never seen 2 builds exactly the same. Sometimes a compramise has to be made but every compramise still needs to be stable in it's function.

Terry

[gream0604]

I think I have decided to better be safe than sorry, and I am going to extent then base to reduce the amount of overhand from the concrete lintels. Its going to involve taking up some of the patio, and extending the foundation, but I would rather that, than it all collapse!