Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

[david s]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

pulled the forms 48 hrs later.....

4" of vermicrete is going to take some drying. if it were mine I'd let the sun and wind do some of it for me, but cover it if it looked like rain. Read my attachment to get an idea of how long it takes.

[sclancy]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

Actually almost 8". I wanted my hearth/floor higher and tons of vermiculite so why not more insulation under. I cover it from the rain and otherwise have been letting it dry...today I will assemble the oven pieces. I've got 3 or 4 people coming to assist so that the pieces can be held in place as it is assembled. Pics to come this evening....

[david s]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

OK, so that will be less than a week since you placed the vermicrete. Expect months before it is dried by fire.

[sclancy]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

David

I could not open your attachment...

Months?

I haven't seen anyone post that they had any extended dry times for 4" vermicrete under. The only issues seemed to be vermicrete igloos where the moisture is locked in by stucco.. Am I missing something here?

Thanks

[david s]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

4" of vermicrete is going to take some drying. if it were mine I'd let the sun and wind do some of it for me, but cover it if it looked like rain. Read my attachment to get an idea of how long it takes.

I've found it is harder to remove the moisture from under the floor than the dome. I just takes a long time. If you insist on building straight over it now, I suggest you at least leave the edges of the vermicrete slab exposed until you are sure it is perfectly dry. This is likely to take many firings. Of the total volume of your vermicrete slab approx. a third of it is water at present. Hydration will use up about 25% of this and the rest is excess.
Try this attach,

[sclancy]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

David,

thanks for reposting the attachment but it still doesnt seem to be a valid zip file according to my computer....oh well.

I will have the house built around my oven this week. I guess that I can delay closing it in and adding 1 layer of blanket followed by loose vermiculite so that I can burn a few fires in it to dry out the base. Otherwise the vermicrete will be sealed up in the house and any moisture is going to go straight up into my loose vermiculite and then out the ridge vent....probably not a good call....

The oven is assembled. All of the seams look good except for one has a gap with some light showing through. I plan to cover the seams with refractory cement even though Sunday says that it is not required.

[okn]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

I thought about getting one of those Sunday Volta ovens. I am very interested in the performance.

Here's David's document:

Vermicrete insulating slab

The purpose of this experiment was to calculate the water loss from a vermicrete insulating slab after casting and placement.

Materials Kg Vol (L)

Vermiculite 1.82 27.00

Cement 7.25 5.40

Water 8.10 8.10

Total 17.17 21.6

For the aggregate in this mixture a 50% vermiculite 50% perlite proportion was used.
The mix is generally considered a 5:1 vermicrete and comprised of vermiculite, perlite, Portland cement, water 2.5, 2.5, 1, 1.5 by volume.
The form was filled with dry aggregate to obtain required volume, but on mixing and placing in the form, has reduced approx. 20% as some of the grains break down from abrasion during mixing and compaction on placing also reduces volume. The resulting volume reduction is an estimate based on the finished slab thickness.
Mixing was done gently by hand in a barrow.
The compacted slab was covered for one week to allow good hydration.(no additional water was added)
The weather was fine, cloudless, low humidity and the temp in the range of 12- 24 C. The slab was exposed to approx 3 hrs sun/day top surface only.
Weighing of materials was done using digital scales, but weighing of finished slab was done using bathroom spring scales as the weight was beyond my digital scales capacity.

Although the top of the slab appeared quite dry the bottom was still wet so I lifted it up, stood it on edge to assist drying after Day14


Kg
Day 7 16.0 fine
8 15.0 fine
9 14.5 fine
10 14.0 fine
11 14.0 cloudy
12 13.5 cloudy
13 13.5 cloudy
14 13.5 cloudy
21 12.0 fine
28 11.0



Conclusion
Given the ideal drying conditions, relative thinness of the slab and that it was uncovered, the experiment still demonstrates the large quantity of water present and the slow rate of removal. For a thick covered slab expect the water reduction rate to be way lower. After 3 weeks of drying more than 50% of the water had been removed by the weather from the aprox. 2” thick slab. After 4 weeks approx. 75% of the water added had been removed.

In hindsight I probably should repeat the experiment and cover it with firebrick, then compare the results. Given that the water under the floor and the base of the dome is the last to be eliminated and the resulting problems and damage it can cause, the drying of a vermicrete slab before building over it is advisable.

[sclancy]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

Thanks for posting up the content of David's attachment! Interesting stuff.

I will definitely plan a few small fires this week before I close it in and see what happens. At 8" thick it is certainly holding some water....

More to come on the Sunday oven.....

[Jmar]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

How long did it take to put it together?

[sclancy]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

I played with the sand base and getting the floor tiles level. That took about an hour. 4 of us set the dome in about 30-45mins. that included taking it apart more than once trying different things to get the seams as tight as possible. ill take a few pics shortly of the seams and post them. Overall pretty good fit but not tight enough IMO to forgo refractory mortar over the seams....

[sclancy]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

A few pics.... The interlocking seams are actually about 1" or more so the gaps still leave overlapping material with full thickness of the interlocking pieces. The front pieces are not sitting plump and will need to be braced a bit before I mortar over the seam. I have a strap on these just in case the vent area decides to fall over....

[Jmar]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

Great pics

[sclancy]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

Seams all sealed up with Heatstop50, flue installed and ready for framing the house starting today. The hope is to get it framed in today but leave the roof off so I can cook it a at least few times with no insulation or roof trapping condensation and dry the vermicrete base

[sclancy]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

And so the enclosure is officially underway....I hope I dont regret using just 25ga studs and track....I built the bases of my kitchen with 16ga which might be a bit overkill....and of course I couldnt find 22 or 20ga easily enough.....just 25ga.....this stuff is like aluminum foil...Hopefully it all tightens up with studs 12" OC and cement backer board tying it all together....

[Jmar]

Re: Richmond new outdoor kitchen pizza oven build

I don't see any insulation on your oven. How wide did you make yoir stand? I'm getting concrete poured for mine hopefully by next week. And then we can get started on the stand.