Hi from Wirral

[charley]

Hi all

First, thanks to the members and staff who've created such an amazing forum - we've spent lots of time reading it as guests whilst we were deciding what route too take (that great 'do we or don't we?' debate followed by 'do we build our own?' debate)! 

We finally decided that yes, we would have a pizza oven.... But no, we wouldn't build it ourselves... Maybe the 'wuss approach', but neither of us have time or any amount of expertise in pizza ovens. We have a good understanding from this and other resources online though. But, we quickly realised that we could spend as much as a pre-built one costs in making mistakes. 

I'm sure that the time will come when we decide we finally know enough about what we are doing to tackle making one...

.... But right now we dont even have the one we bought on the base we built!

We've bought a pre-made one from Portugal, its a 100cm dia brick oven. We have been told it weighs 750kg.

So, any ideas how we get this beast moved please?! I can see the attraction in building the oven in-situ now! There's not an awful lot of info online to help here...

Edit: apologies for these images being sideways, I'm on a kindle and it would take a lot of messing to rectify this

[sparkles]

At 750kg it's a big lump to move. Even if you have a lot of big mates I doubt you would be able to physically lift it. It needs a crane but I would guess using this is further complicated by the structure over the top. The other alternative is to set up some sort of pulley system using a Tirfor and the framework you've built over the top. Is the wooden structure strong enough is the next question.

[charley]

Hi, thanks for the reply

Well, we thought 750kg was on the steep side considering comparable ones were 450 -500kg. But when we had it delivered, that's what the delivery guy had written down, so we assumed this as fact.

But I've just found out its 475kg. Much relief! 

I hope four or five strong fellas can get this into position. Just still not sure how yet!

We've built a very thick concrete base and as you can see if you crane your neck sideways, the base is double brick wall. Wooden structure to protect/all year use, to that we will add sides around the oven. Its currently just felted roof.

[neilos83]

A small jack will lift over a ton. If you have plenty of packing like blocks and some good timber, you should be able to lift it a few inches at a time, corner to corner. Do this next to your base. Then slide it over into position. If you can lift it by man power, even better.

[sparkles]

You have a number of problems to get over. You need to move it near to its final position. Then lift it up to the level of your base and slide it across onto the base. Moving it to a point near the final position is perhaps the easiest as you could use some rollers like they supposedly used for moving the Stonehenge stones. You could lift it using some jacks placed at the corners as neilos83 says and as long as you pack as you jack it will be safe but time consuming. Lifting it using manpower may be possible but it's not just picking the thing up. I count thirteen courses of bricks which means whoever would have to raise it some height above just a straight lift which is no easy task.

I don't know what the access is like to the back of your house but presumably it was wide enough to get the oven down there without using a crane over the top of the house. What about hiring a forklift. www.ellesmereportforklifts.co.uk/merseyside/forklift-truck-hire/Wirral-CH61/ I'm there are small forklifts available

[richied]

...or just hire an engine hoist. They should manage the weight you have to move, and are portable too. 

[charley]

Just a quick update.

So, we used an engine hoist first of all. No problerm getting it up in the air but it was three inches shy of the 1 metre lift required. We considered knocking the base down a  layer but really, we didn't want it any lower.
There were four strapping fellas on the lift and they couldn't tilt it up, and then they couldn't move the hoist. We ended up with a pizza oven precariously balanced on the horizontal legs of the hoist, and the hoist was leaning slightly on the grass. Its been hot and the ground is baked so we didn't get any sinking whilst the oven was left in this position, probably not a bad thing. By this point all the levering had chipped little  lumps off the bottom edgewas the base, so at some point it will need to be aesthetically touched up I guess.
Next we sweet talked a local firm with a grabber lorry to drive up to our fence.... But the grabber just wouldn't reach. Short by about two feet.
Desperation finality led me to look up forklift / crane hire. Rang up a local family firm yesterday lunchtime  and by five pm we had a forklift in our back garden.

He made it look SO EASY!!!! 

The cost wasnt too bad (actually pretty reasonable, I dont think I'd have gotten a much c cheaper quote) and to be honest we'd have saved ourselves an awful lot of blood, sweat , tears and worry if we'd taken this route in the first place. I'd definately recommend this route over all others. Alright, its an added cost but these companies are insured, and have it done in minutes. Not always an option if your garden access isn't good I realise, but probably the best option if you buy a ready assembled oven.



A crane would have cost at least double. Very grateful for good access to our garden!