42" Pompeii in Kentucky

[ckdickerson]

Thought I would start a thread showing progress on my oven. I have been waiting forever it seems for nice weather to start my build. Today I got tired of waiting, I covered the area with a tarp and layed the blocks for the stand today even though it rained 2 inches.

[DaveW]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

Looks great! You made quick work of those blocks.
Dave

[Tscarborough]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

Very nice, you are on to the fun part now.

[ckdickerson]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

Thanks for the comments. I would like to pour the slab next but after thinking about it a bit I think it will be much easier to lay the brick veneer on the front of the hearth stand before the concrete is poured. There will be a concrete ledge all the way across the front on which the pool coping will bond that will create the landing and I think it would be much more difficult to lay the brick after its in place. I knew this project would be labor intensive but this is going to be more work than I anticipated. By the way, I don't know if you can tell from the pics but the section of the hearth stand to the left will support a grill that will be recessed into the wall.

[ckdickerson]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

I started laying the brick this week. I worked on it a few hours after work each day this week. Mix one batch of mortar, lay four runs of brick, clean up the tools, strike the joints, and then repeat process the next day. It took three days to get this far but at least I'm almost finished with the brick for now. I should finish the brick tomorrow and then I'll start building the forms for the slab. It's hard to believe this all started from a simple question like.....Honey, what are we going to do with the left over brick from the house? I know........

[ckdickerson]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

I was going to pour the hearth ledge and allow it to overhang the brick by about 6" and then lay the 12" pool coping which would overhang the ledge another 6"for a total of 12" on the hearth. In order for the brick to work out right the ledge would be 3" thick. I don't know much about concrete. Should the 3" thickness on the ledge be sufficient and would the 6" of bond area be enough to bond the pool coping without any problem?

[Tscarborough]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

3" is fine on the concrete thickness, but if I am reading your post correctly, you plan on cantilevering a 12" piece of pool coping 6" from the face of the brick? That does not sound like a good plan. Can you push it in and get 8" on the hearth?

[ckdickerson]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

Thanks for the reply TScarborough, I can't push the coping in 2" but I suppose I could let the slab stick out 8" instead of 6" which would put 8" of the coping on the concrete and 4" hanging over. Do you think this will work? I'm open to suggestions.

[Tscarborough]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

It should work, 6" overhang MAY work, but that is a high abuse area.

[ckdickerson]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

Thanks for the help. Who knows, when I start building forms I may decide to extend the slab further. I just thought it would look better to not have the concrete slab all the way out to the edge of the coping.

[ckdickerson]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

I just finished laying the brick. As I was finishing it started raining and splashed some mortar on the brick on the left side. I hope a pressure washer will take it off after it dries. Tomorrow I will start building forms. Can someone tell me if the perlite concrete will support the weight of the oven? I have cut my oven floor bricks to fit inside the dome walls and the dome will be built directly on the slab. I was just wandering if I should stop the perlite at the edge of the floor and build the dome on structural concrete or if it's ok to build the dome on the insulating concrete.

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

I was just wandering if I should stop the perlite at the edge of the floor and build the dome on structural concrete or if it's ok to build the dome on the insulating concrete.

You should build the whole oven, dome and floor, on top of the perlcrete. It has good compressive strength. Did you download the free plans from the forno bravo store? Insulation under the dome may be the most important step...Of course all of the perlcrete must sit on top of the structural slab.

Great looking work so far!

Drake

[ckdickerson]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

Thanks for the reply Drake. Yes I did download the plans. I was just a little concerned about the compresive strength of the perlite concrete. After the last post I did a little research and if I understand it correctly a 5:1 mix of perlite and portland is in the neighborhood of 300psi. I'm sure thats sufficient but somehow it just doesn't seem right. But then again I have never used this stuff. I need to just trust the plans and all of those of you that have been through this.

[ckdickerson]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

Poured some concrete today. Hard work. Thought I would post some pics.

[DaveW]

Re: 42" Pompeii in Kentucky

After the last post I did a little research and if I understand it correctly a 5:1 mix of perlite and portland is in the neighborhood of 300psi. I'm sure thats sufficient but somehow it just doesn't seem right. But then again I have never used this stuff. I need to just trust the plans and all of those of you that have been through this.

If the perlite can hold 300 psi, then considering an 8 sq inch footprint of a soldier, you are talking a compression capability of 2400lbs per brick. With maybe 40 soldiers, the perlite would support a 100,000 pound oven (In theory). I was worried about the perlite mix also, especially because it stays spongy for about a week, but it works great.


Dave