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Well, I?ve been lurking in the Forums for a long time and I?m now at the point where I can start to detail my build! We have a very small backyard and so I was limited in regards to the size of oven I could build. There are only three of us (me, my wife and our 12 year old daughter) so I figured a 36 inch was going to be more than enough for us. The first step was to build my stand. I had a pile of unused house bricks courtesy of my wife?s uncle and so I used them to create a stand with 2 areas for wood storage, under the front of the stand and at the back. I build this shape to try and maximise the storage area I would have. I decided I would use Hebel floor panels for my ?slab? after speaking with a friend who used them for his oven. The panels need to be supported at 600mm intervals hence the curtain wall you can see in the photo. The Hebel was incredibly easy to cut and put in place. My brickwork is very ?rustic?. Others may have other words to describe it
Eventually I will render the stand to cover up the sloppy brickwork.
Once I had bought all my ingredients, I laid out my floor and hired a brick saw to make the majority of my cuts. I?ve never used a brick saw before and was surprised at how easy it was, although as you can see from the photo?s some of the cuts did end up a bit off! I was rushing a bit because I had hired the saw and didn?t want to have to take out a second day unnecessarily. My friend who I mentioned before indicated that I shouldn?t worry too much about some small (and not so small!) gaps as they will fill us with ash after a couple of uses and hold everything very steady. I also bought a cheap diamond blade for my circular saw to use for any extra cuts that I need to make once the rental saw went back. This came in handy for cutting some of the wedges and pieces that went into some of the larger gaps higher up on the dome. I did break the cardinal rule and have a couple of small wedges at the front of the oven but I?m not too worried about them as they should be held in place once the entrance is completed. I?ll be using an off-cut of granite that you will see more of later.
Once I had my stand finished, including the Hebel in place, I centred my insulation boards. I decided to use 2 layers of 20mm insulating boards instead of pouring a slab of vermiculite. The 2 layers were simply for more insulation. The Hebel also has some good insulating characteristics. It was really easy to cut, although was a bit crumbly and caused an issue later on. More on that later.
Next I laid my floor and the soldier course. I saw a few people using half bricks for their soldier course and decided to go that route. No real reason, I just thought it looked good! Floor brick number 14 (2.00 am in the photo) caused some headaches for me. It was about 2mm higher that the surrounding bricks so I decided to rip the floor out and start again. Big mistake! I had used the dry dust left over from the cutting because the insulating board sucked all the moisture out of the wet mix as detailed in the plans. Anyway, long story short, I had to redo the floor a couple of times (plus lots of swearing ? sorry neighbours) to get it right. There are still a few ups and downs but I?ll be able to grind them out later on. I?ve slid my peel across the floor and I think it will be OK once I?ve had a go at it with the grinder. A few gaps between bricks (1-2mm) due to the nature of the bricks, but they are pretty snug and don?t move and as mentioned above, ash will soon help to tuck them together tightly.
Eventually I will render the stand to cover up the sloppy brickwork.Once I had bought all my ingredients, I laid out my floor and hired a brick saw to make the majority of my cuts. I?ve never used a brick saw before and was surprised at how easy it was, although as you can see from the photo?s some of the cuts did end up a bit off! I was rushing a bit because I had hired the saw and didn?t want to have to take out a second day unnecessarily. My friend who I mentioned before indicated that I shouldn?t worry too much about some small (and not so small!) gaps as they will fill us with ash after a couple of uses and hold everything very steady. I also bought a cheap diamond blade for my circular saw to use for any extra cuts that I need to make once the rental saw went back. This came in handy for cutting some of the wedges and pieces that went into some of the larger gaps higher up on the dome. I did break the cardinal rule and have a couple of small wedges at the front of the oven but I?m not too worried about them as they should be held in place once the entrance is completed. I?ll be using an off-cut of granite that you will see more of later.
Once I had my stand finished, including the Hebel in place, I centred my insulation boards. I decided to use 2 layers of 20mm insulating boards instead of pouring a slab of vermiculite. The 2 layers were simply for more insulation. The Hebel also has some good insulating characteristics. It was really easy to cut, although was a bit crumbly and caused an issue later on. More on that later.
Next I laid my floor and the soldier course. I saw a few people using half bricks for their soldier course and decided to go that route. No real reason, I just thought it looked good! Floor brick number 14 (2.00 am in the photo) caused some headaches for me. It was about 2mm higher that the surrounding bricks so I decided to rip the floor out and start again. Big mistake! I had used the dry dust left over from the cutting because the insulating board sucked all the moisture out of the wet mix as detailed in the plans. Anyway, long story short, I had to redo the floor a couple of times (plus lots of swearing ? sorry neighbours) to get it right. There are still a few ups and downs but I?ll be able to grind them out later on. I?ve slid my peel across the floor and I think it will be OK once I?ve had a go at it with the grinder. A few gaps between bricks (1-2mm) due to the nature of the bricks, but they are pretty snug and don?t move and as mentioned above, ash will soon help to tuck them together tightly.
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