Spinal's Londinium Build

[spinal]

Right, my third post here - thought I would post some pictures! (a word of warning though - that's not me in the pictures... it's my better half!

I had made an oven before (and failed miserably) as a 12 year old - but it ended up a (very large) cube of clay bricks and steel angle-irons with no airflow and wouldn't stay lit once the petrol burnt off...

So here's my first "educated" attempt...

Breaking ground & Digging the pit for the foundation


not sure if there's an embedded player supported here for youtube - so here's the link: youtu.be/0tLmI3L9hcM )

Laying the foundation breeze blocks and hardcore/rubble


The outer wall is now halfway up - and I'm starting to make the shapes for the arches out of foam board...


Arch then goes up (still needs grouting... didn't feel confident doing the mortaring and grouting in one step!)


Detail of the rebar inside the bricks - this specific one is the bricks that stick out of the wall to support the arch:


Other angle on the arch - not perfect, but it is my first arch ever after all!


Finally (for today); detail of the rebar on the inside (set in mortar to get the height right). These will form the core of 4 (maybe 6) pillars that will add strength to the structure. concrete will be poured in once the walls are at the right height, so the concrete bonds to the bricks on 2 sides and the floor/foundation/concrete slab on the bottom.



Note that as this is the inside surface of the "under-oven" area; it's not cleaned out and the mortar is just left as is in the joints. Does it add strength? No idea... but it certainly doesn't take any away - so it's there

Moulds for reinforcing pillars go up:

View of these from the top; where you can see some stainless rebar:


Meanwhile - I poured some concrete into the BBQ area nearby. Some issues around the manhole cover as the existing concrete was cracked... ended up removing most of it and pouring fresh one to make a single slab. This will probably be covered by slate at some point.


While waiting, I started playing with some faces for the front of the oven...



Poured concrete into the moulds: (note that there is some seepage on the sides, but I'm not too concerned about that as it'll all be hidden from view)




Floor gets poured once the wooden moulds are removed (yups, it's rough... but it'll be hidden from view, so I wasn't worried. Also, it may get covered subsequently if I end up doing my cart/drawer idea! - but you can see the various prints in it)


And finally, a celebratory hug!


Reinforcing wood now up; temporary ones removed after I put some concrete to get the corners in the right places:



Measuring the 15mm steel rebar reinforcing mesh.


Steel cut, and bound together with some wire (was going to weld it, then realised I was out of gas and couldn't be bothered to goto the store).


Concrete poured and smoothed to check if it's level (I then roughed it up a bit so that the vermicrete will bond to it)

It's not a perfect 10cm thick as originally planned, it's actually closer to 12-14 cm thick. Shouldn't be a problem, but I may need to raise the floor (where the pizza chef will stand) a bit as it may end up to high!

[turkey]

wow, you have been busy

that is an impressive sized oven you are planning there, the only thing on the build I would say is your rebar looks like it goes right to the edge of the hearth slab, usually you want it to stop a good inch or so from the end to make sure no penetrating water can attack it. If they are close to the end I would say make sure you paint or otherwise protect the edge of the slab for good measure.

cant wait to see more (and of the bbq)

[cannyfradock]

Spinal

Many thanks for sharing your pics with us, but they are too big and they are cutting off half the page from your thread.....and from the 20 recent threads option.

Could you please modify your post and reduce the pixels....or size of the pictures.

Many thanks..

Terry

[spinal]

That was an issue I was concerned with... but as it's now deep in concrete, it'll too late to change!

Plan is to cover the outside edge of the concrete with stones, so I'll put some mortar waterproofer when I attach the stone. Will also douse the outside of the entire house with "something" to waterproof it... no idea what yet...

As for the BBQ - it may be quite a wait! The plan is to get the pizza oven done this summer, hopefully in time for my September party... the BBQ area will be used with my barrel BBQ (in one of the pics) until I have time to figure out how to do the BBQ area...

I don't want to share the flue with the pizza oven, and kinda want to do an "oven" area in the flue to use the residual heat to bake potatoes.... so it may be another year or so before I do the BBQ

M.

EDIT: Re pictures... will try as soon as I figure out how!

[cannyfradock]

Spinal

Apologies, but the photo's were blocking all the currents threads from being seen. I have had to reduce your pictures to links until you can work out how to reduce them. Normally you can do this yourself, but if you are unable then hopefully Turkey can perhaps advise as I would like to see the pics back on your thread......and learn more about your build.

I may be able to do something my end in the Admin panel, but shall wait for advice from Turkey on this.

Apologies again.....and hope we can work this pixel thing out.

Terry

[spinal]

I think I've figured it out (based on a plugin in wordpress...) I'm guessing the pictures you turned to links are the offending ones, right?

If so - I've edited one of them (http://www.europoli.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/photo3-600x448.jpg) let me know if that works and I'll do the others.

M.

[turkey]

Hi Terry,

where is this 20 recent threads? if I use the recent posts then it just links posts so I have not seen any issue with the image size. as it does not show actual content just links to the areas where no content has been placed.

Bob and his 56k modem might have issues tho, they load nice and quick for me and my BT infinity lol.

Spinal, I think the offending ones where the ones over 1024 pixels wide, so the one you have resized would be fine from what I can see, however I am not sure where the 20 recent threads is from, which is quite shameful as an admin/mod here :/

ps is your dogs name a play on woof, or are you a trekkie?

[spinal]

Right - all the ones that were 1024 wide are now 600 wide I'll edit the post and put the img tags back in

As for Worf - I must confess it's a blend of the two. I am a trekkie (how the name's idea started) and it's a play on woof (how I convinced her that it would be a good name)

M.

[cannyfradock]

Spinal

Many thanks for sorting that one out yourself for us. I missed the last few posts trying to find out why we haven't got an auto blocker to stop larger photo's stretching the whole page.

Terry

nb...whoops....."20 most recent posts" at the foot of Forum stats on the bottom of home page.

[cannyfradock]

Spinal.....now then

Brilliant sturdy base.....and a nice fair size too.

The finished height of your hearth is generally elbow height of the person using the peel.

Research(or pinching other peoples idea's) is the key to a successful dome build. Apart from the FB forum...and this forum, our old forum has also a good Pompeii section woodovenukforum.forumup.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=49&mforum=woodovenukforum&sid=48c3b3ca7d3aa9005de614aa31da3041 (you need to register to see all links and pics....and view ad free)

All the best with your build

Terry

[turkey]

Aug 6, 2012 14:44:37 GMT spinal said:

My idea was to use the IT - and after each ring shorten it a little... center of the dome would be about 12-16 inches (42" wide ID).

So for a tool starting at 21" length, assuming 10 courses of bricks, each subsequent ring would need to be shortened by 1". (am I making any sense? )
M.

you need to think about the radius not the diameter (i had loads of issues here so double check anything I say, and check my build to see my mistakes lol)

but a 42" oven will be a 21" tool, if you have 10 runs and remove 1" per run you will end up with 11". I feel 16" is about as low as you want, so you only want to remove 0.5" per ring to get the desired final height.

When you make a low dome this is a naples style oven.

Have you read the FB plans? it details the differences and gives an example of a 42" naples oven, they go with 16" oven height for this also. They are free so get them from the shop, a valid email is required for the link to be emailed, or there is an unofficial hosted version here

www.maidmentproperties.co.uk/pompeii_oven_plans2.0.pdf

Remember the entereance to the oven is usually 63% of the dome height, so the lower your dome the smaller the entereance which could mean its harder to get other things in there such as roasting trays with joints of meat etc, if its just pizza then this makes no difference, but if its an all round oven it might affect it.

[spinal]

Thanks - those numbers I posted were radius

Re FB plans, yes... but not totally convinced about their neapolitan dome height. I was planning on a sailor course, followed by a near horizontal arched roof (copying my uncle's oven in Grosseto... )

M.

[turkey]

yes not sure where i got the idea you had the diameter, possibly had assumed 16" and so 1" each time took it to 11".... like I said double check anything I mention with regards to the numbers here

the lower you make it the more technical you will need to be as it will be less self supporting, but I am sure a near horizonal roof is possible, is a sailor course different to a soldier one? (built on the oven floor not the hearth say?). If you have a full brick here from the hearth that 9" so only another 3" to the 12" which is very horizontal.

If you want to go that low, will you be casting some cement round the soldier/sailor course and up a little to add some horzontal support to the dome, as I suspect most force from it will be pushing outwards.

We have not had a low dome here on this forum so very keen to see how it works.

found a similar build on FB

www.fornobravo.com/forum/f21/my-low-dome-pizza-oven-project-13371.html

The dome is 12.7" with the interior diameter being 43.5".

there are not to many pictures but show how he did the walls and angled supports prior the doing the roof dome, in fact its less dome and more castle keep by the looks of things, very cool it all stands up

Dont suppose you have a pic of said Grosseto's oven?

[spinal]

I wasn't planning on using a full 9" bricks tbh - was thinking of either using half a brick or 3/4 of a brick (need to cut them anyhow to make the bevel to support the roof...

Re soldier vs sailor (from Wiki)

Soldier - Used mainly for decorative purposes as its upright nature does not lend itself to the compressive strength of a masonry unit. The longest dimension is vertical, with the large face perpendicular to the wall.
Sailor (rare) - Decorative, with the longest dimension of the brick vertical and the widest dimension parallel to the face of the wall.


From left to right: Stretcher, Header, Rowlock, Soldier, Sailor, and Shiner

Basically makes the wall a little thinner, so should warm up faster. The radiated heat should come from roof and floor - don't care much about the sides... may be wrong here...

Pictures, probably in the background of some picture... but I go down every few months (just came back!) so will grab some proper ones asap. Will need to go down to buy some flour before the oven's done

Final point - didn't think about side force! May put some vermicrete around the sailor course to give it some strength... or raise the oven roof an inch or two.... hmmm... need to draw this up a bit and call home for ideas!

M.

[Fat Bob]

A picture opened after 5 minutes! Where did you get that great marmite from? The great pot on legs near your spare tyres.