I must be getting old

[sparkles]

I remember registering for forums and when I got to the bit asking for my birth year I didn't have to scroll down (well not far). I'm wearing out the mouse wheel nowadays.

I haven't built my oven yet but it should begin next week. I'm not building it in the UK but in South West France because where I live (West Yorkshire) the number of days we spend eating outside are a little limited compared with the Languedoc. I have bought some bricks (one of the few things that appears to be cheap in France) went to Montpellier and put 160 of them in the back of my Roomster. The concrete plinth is already done for me. The house was formerly owned by a farrier and I'm told there was a steam hammer sighted in the back garden which is probably why I have a 3m x 2m x 150mm lump of concrete.

We'll see what progress I can make next week.

[kstronach]

Welcome to the forum, sounds like another Yorkshire man on board! Don't forget all the progress picture's when you get cracking

Keith

[5leafclover]

Welcome. What a result with the pre-made plinth! Looking forward to seeing your oven progress.

[sparkles]

Oct 14, 2015 14:19:43 GMT kstronach said:

Welcome to the forum, sounds like another Yorkshire man on board! Don't forget all the progress picture's when you get cracking

Keith

I am indeed a Yorkshire Man living in the rhubarb triangle. Best not talk about the ancestors from the 'other side' though.

Not sure if it's clear from this photo but behind the shuttering is what we call a block and beam floor. In France it's made up of poutrelles and hourdis. Fairly cheap to construct and very strong but oh so quick to do. The hourdis (blocks) are hollow and will add to the thermal insulation I guess. It took me a morning to do the block and beam floor and fill the space above with vermiculite/perlite. No mixing concrete which was a great bonus for me. I did have a mixer I could have borrowed but no means to transport the large amount of materials to do a concrete base of this size. The base is a bit bigger than I require but it will give me lots of room around the oven for tools etc.




This shows the base with the vermiculite/perlite/cement mix. I'll be back in France 1st December to construct the actual oven weather permitting.

I don't think the fig tree in the background is going to be a fan of the oven but as it came free via the wind I'm not too fussed

[sparkles]

Just the base to render now

[sparkles]

This one is the right way round. The wood underneath won't be used for a year. It's old vines that have been left in the fields but it's free!

[davenott]

Looking really good, and I love the detail in the mosaic finish. Can't beat your backdrop either!
Enjoy using your oven.
Dave.

[albacore]

+1! How long did those mosaic tiles take to lay?

[sparkles]

The tiles took one day to lay them and the following day I grouted them up. The tiles are 20 x 20 x 3mm glass tiles. They're £2.04 per sheet (225 tiles) from mosaictrader.co.uk. I ordered 35 sheets of the grey white ones and 5 sheets of blue and white. The shape of the dome does complicate things. You can put full sheets on but we found that half sheets worked better. You still need to cut some tiles and a wheeled cutter is best for this. The Greek keys pattern is easy to do once you get the hang of it. I have done some mosaics using a twin strand guilloche pattern which would work on this but I'm limited by time when I'm in France. This is the sign for my house that I made using the twin strand pattern.



All you need to do is draw some circles and join them up with straight lines. Easy enough but time consuming but if you can go round 90 degree bends with it a straight line (circumference) would be no problem.