Essex Seaside 2.01

[woolf26]

Thanks all - dome has been drying for a few days now, have taken the inside former out now and although a little messy, the top bricks are in an solid!

Still looking for a little advice please?

How did people hold the chicken wire in place once they'd wrapped it round?

I also have 2x bags of vermiculite which i plan on going over the top of the blanket with, what mixture of cement and water do people recommend going with for the insulation layer?

[woolf26]

Have done a fair bit on the oven in the past week, bank holiday in lockdown certainly helped move the process along.

Removed the support inside for the final brick courses, they're a little bit wonky but it all adds to the character. I pointed in any of the gaps and tided up the inside of the oven which is now done. This was a little tricky having to lie on my back with a torch. Image below is before i pointed the gaps




Then finished off the oven floor with the bricks in the opening. i cut some tiles in to get the bricks to the right height and add a bit of deisgn to the entrance too - very happy with how they look.



Then went on and put the blanket round wihch was 25mm thick - had enough to cover the oven twice so this should be a good level of insulation. i cut into the right shape and made tight joins by laying pieces over each-other and cutting with a Stanley knife. I then covered this is in chicken wire and held in place by putting some screws into the concrete slab and twisting the chicken wire around them.

















Then on to the final coat of insulation with the Vermiculite which i mixed with Cement and water. After trawling through lots of other posts i went with 10:1:3 ratio by volume of Vermiculite, Cement, Water. The mixture was very crumbly and struggled to stay up in some places. once you get onto the top curavture of the dome its a breeze, but building up the sides was tricky in some places. But the dome is now covered with 1.5-2 inches on top of the blanket. I'm going to go back over it with a bit of vermiculite i have left to fill in a few tricky spots once its cured, any time i tried adding any on it fell off and took more with it - hopefully it will be easier when what is on the dome has set.













Whilst im waiting for the vermicrete to dry i'll build the front arch and make some description of a chimney outlet to fix a flue to.

I'm pretty eager to light a fire, but i have read the vermicrete can take c.3 weeks to dry out! Do people have any experience in this? I was thinking of letting it dry for a week - its supposed to be warm, dry and windy - and then start lighting some small curing fires inside. perhaps a few tealight candles at first - anyone have any pointers?

[downunderdave]

Nice work. The 1:10 vermicrete mix has little strength but is firm enough to provide a decent substrate to render against. You can easily carve away where it’s too thick and apply more where it’s too thin. Adding a little more cement and some powdered clay will make it more workable but reduce insulating capacity. A 1:10 mix is about as lean as I can work, but even with those proportions you are adding more mass from the cement than from the vermiculite. The more cement you add the less it will insulate so it's best to keep it as lean as you can.
As it takes so much water (3 parts for every 10 of vermiculite), you can easily calculate how much water you’ve added to this layer. After about 2 days it should go white and look pretty dry, but it won’t be deeper in. Allowing sun and wind to dry it for a couple of weeks while you finish the entry is ideal. Just make sure to cover it if it looks like raining. Remember that one litre of water creates around 1500 litres of steam. Best to get rid of it before rendering over it. You can fire the oven and cook in it before doing the outer shell. Throwing a sheet of plastic over it to check for condensation on the underside will tell you of the presence of water in the vermicrete, also the outside may feel warm and clammy.

[doms1]

Apr 14, 2020 9:33:00 GMT woolf26 said:

Thanks for your advice thus far.

I've laid the oven hearth now and done the soldier course and first ring - the 'indispensable' tool makes it easier than i thought....famous last words as i start going up i imagine.

Quick question...again....should i point any small gaps on the inside of the oven walls between bricks?

This build looks great. I'm about to start on my build of something pretty similar. A couple of questions, if you wouldn't mind answering. Roughly how many fire bricks have you gone through on it? What diameter did you opt for in the end? And what was your 'indispensable' tool??

[woolf26]

Hi Doms,

I ordered 150 bricks for my oven and have about 20 left. I also made a fair few cuts incorrectly probably close to 20 - as everyone else mentions it will vary depending on size and how you build it. But that’s a good guide. One of the other members told me they got 180 for an oven that was 100cm with roughly the same remaining/error cuts so hopefully this helps.

My oven is 85cm in diameter (inside the dome / oven floor)

The indispensable tool is the piece of wood that pivots up in the middle of the oven. This shows the correct angle to lay each course of bricks as it goes to vertical on the last course. For mine I used a door hinge and a piece of wood with a 90 degree bracket on the end.

[woolf26]

Bank holiday weekend gave me some time to build the front arch / entrance to the pizza oven.

Took my time with it and added a few tiles in to add a bit of interest - very happy with how it looks, just waiting a couple more days before taking the former out and hopefully it stays where it should.

Once the former is out, i am going to start building up fires in the oven, starting small with a few tealights and building up over a week or so - exciting times.

Vermicrete is drying nicely with the hot windy weather we've been having, still quite crumbly but i guess it will stay that way. I plan on rendering over the top with 3:1 plastering sand and cement, leaving this to dry for another week or so and then going over with a waterproof render. I plan on leaving a gap in the render at the top of the dome using a tin (or something of similar size) to allow any water within to be able to escape which i'll cover with a tile or something waterproof when not in use. I'll also be rendering the base with the same method.

Then on to finishing the chimney...I'll be adding a few firebricks cut long ways to cover the gap in the entrance to dome, leaving an opening in the middle. i'll then put 1 or 2 courses of bricks built onto this and then add a flue - exciting times

[mikeb21]

Have to say thats looking amazing and good inspiration to get moving myself, was originally planning a design similar but can't justify spending that much on fire bricks so going with a vault design using heater bricks and other cheap materials. 

Interesting you used Calcium Silicate board as I may be able to get hold of some cheap!

Again this does look good!

[woolf26]

Have managed to be patient (and a bit lazy) with the oven, haven't done anything to her except start building up some curing fires inside.

Taking it quite slow, building up the size of the fires, so far i've done;

- 5 tealight candles, left until they burnt out
- 10 tealight candles, again until they burnt out
- newspaper fire only
- small fire burning for about 20 mins
- small fire burning for about 30 mins


and will continue to build this up. A few pictures attached, first proper fire in the oven is very satisfying - cant wait for pizza!

What with the very very warm weather and a good breeze here I imagine the vermicrete is very dry. I've also been covering with waterproof sheet when rain threatens.

So this weekend i plan to build up the a flat base to attach a flue to. Any advice to length and width? I was planning 15cm wide, 70cm high - mainly due to looks and the widest flue that will fit. Happy for any other advice?

I'll also render the dome this weekend with a scratch coat, 3:1:1 Plastering sand/cement/lime. Leaving a tin can size gap in the top for any moisture a gap to esacpe from once i put the next waterproof render layer on top.

[woolf26]

I finished up my last curing fire last night, i've enjoyed having an actual fire in the oven with a beer in the evenings - imagine what its going to be like with pizza!

My first batch of dough is in the fridge ready for tomorrow's first pizza. I've read a lot about flours and ingredients. For any first time pizza makers out there, i recommend 'The Pizza Bible' - it walks you through the dough process step by step including starters and yeast, what to buy, theory behind it all and a load of different pizzas!

i plan to order my flue and get that installed over the weekend. I'm then going to scratch coat my entire oven ready for the final render.

Will post pictures of the first pizza!

[woolf26]

Have had 3 cooks in the oven now and absolutely love it. I've learnt more and more each firing. First two i was FAR to eager to cook and didn't get let the oven get up to temp. Third one yesterday i let it heat for about 1.5 hrs at which point the bricks cleared of soot and i was getting 400 degrees on the floor and 450 on the walls. First two firings were really smokey, don't imagine the neighbors were happy. I did a bit of research on how to minimize smoke and this time was much much better - after the initially firing there was almost no smoke after 10 mins.
Tips for anyone with the same problem - Build your fire close to the opening to get good airflow, build the fire like a jenger tower with paper and cardboard in the middle (pic below), lean larger logs against the sides (not at the front, keep the airflow), once they'res a good amount of embers push back into the oven and add 2-3 logs every 10-15 mins (don't go too big until there is a really good base of embers), to get my oven up to temp took about 1.5 hours. Make sure you're using seasoned DRY logs - wet logs will smoke regardless.

Cooked 6 pizzas and a few small olive breads and some lamb chops, all turned out really well - pictures below.

Have rendered the base now, but still yet to K-rend the dome or add a flue to the entrace.

[oblertone]

A flue will definitely help re the smoke issues as it forces the oven to breathe properly and you get better combustion; but as you say, the key is DRY logs and not too many at a time.

[woolf26]

Have been mainly eating pizza's over the past few months, but have spent some time doing a few more bits to the oven.

Firstly I've covered the Vermicrete in a layer of sand and cement as a render so it stops bits falling off as i cover and un-cover it. I plan to K-Rend (or some other water resistant render) but its too damp and wont dry now, so will wait until summer next year and keep covered with a tarp. This is after reading lots and lots of advice of not letting water get trapped under the water resistant layer!

I also found that walking between the kitchen and the oven was a pain, and having to prep the pizzas inside - so i dug some small footings and laid 2x courses of bricks then got some old granite worktop from someones discarded kitchen and made a work table. The granite is great for making the pizzas as it keeps the dough cool.

I've also found time to make the many small cuts to the bricks and built a flue which my stainless steel chinmey pipe fits into - this allows me to take out and put in the longer chimney so its easier to cover with a tarp and doesnt concern me when its very windy out as i just remove it.

Next on the job list is to tile the slab around the oven and then waterproof the dome and paint when the weather improves next year....

Getting very close to calling the project complete.