42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

[WJW]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

You WANT some gaps in the floor and between floor and wall. I laid mine too tight up against the back wall (I have a vault) and the second fire resulted in a crack right up the middle of the back wall.,,right through a couple of bricks. Not a big deal as far as structure, but it was avoidable had I left a little room. As mentioned above, the gaps between bricks fill with ash anyway.

I used muddox as well. The sides were curvey, but I found the thickness of the bricks to be very uniform. I used no sand/fireclay to level.

Here is the crack.

[V-wiz]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

Wow i hope i can avoid that thanks for the advice. I am aware about the gaps but didnt think the actual floor needs gaps. The bricks differ in all aspects. Sides front and faces. Im gonna have to use mortar to fix the imperfections.

[Laurentius]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

No mortar, imperfections adds charm. Just look in the mirror and see what I mean.

[Les]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

You WANT some gaps in the floor and between floor and wall. I laid mine too tight up against the back wall

That is a pretty wicked crack line - looks like a lightning strike. I'm not sure the floor brick had anything to do with that. Is it possible that the hearth was compromised?

[V-wiz]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

No mortar, imperfections adds charm. Just look in the mirror and see what I mean.

Lol very true, im only 26 so not to much of that now.
I can understand the imperfections but the dome rows should be similar and the floor surface should be flat, no worries its apart of building these amazing structures.

[stonecutter]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

That is a pretty wicked crack line - looks like a lightning strike. I'm not sure the floor brick had anything to do with that.

Agreed, that looks like a structural issue.

[WJW]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

I don't claim to be an expert...but if you look at the thread documenting my build I think that you'll agree it's probably not a structural issue.

The hearth slab is ridiculously overbuilt with hell of a lot of half inch, and three-eighths inch, rebar placed twelve inches on center, going in both directions. The entire oven is completely encased in block...and every void in the block is rebar reinforced and filled with concrete.

More to the point...at the exact spot where the crack is...when I was placing the floor, it was so tight that I had to use a rubber mallet to drive the last few floor bricks into place. I was patting myself on the back for my "precision" saw cuts, and completely forgot about the concept of expansion.

I'm pretty sure it is an expansion issue, but am certainly willing to listen to those who have actually done this stuff for a while. Either way, I've now had close to a hundred fires with no significant change since the second fire...so I'm pretty sure I'm o.k. structure wise.

Bill

[Les]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

That's interesting that all the "push" was exerted on the back of the oven, directly in the middle. And then one would think that the crack may go up a few courses then equalize. Do you see anything on either side?

[WJW]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

No cracks on either side. That's the only significant crack in the entire oven so far as I can tell. There are a couple of other hairline cracks...one at the right side of the outer arch....one at the base of the chimney. But they are both teeny and not remotely conected to the one in the pic.


The thing that makes me think it's an expansion issue is that I specifically remember using a mallet to pound hearth bricks in at the exact location of tha crack. I laugh about it now...but I was actually proud of myself for making such precise saw cuts. The fact that the crack appeared right there makes me think that things were just a bit too precise.

Edit: Here are some pics of stand construction











Bill

[stonecutter]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

Seems like a reasonable cause. Strange that the crack is isolated to the back wall, since it is not tied into the vault walls. I would think expansion of the floor would crack the two joints on either side of the back wall first.

[V-wiz]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

Here is my latest update from Sunday, we only had 2 hours worth of work. My pops and I were sitting outside and noticed our outdoor glass table, the light bulb turned on. We measured the top of the table and it was a nice 40", SWEET. We used the table to draw the circle, we then started from there.









We then built the door, then the form, we will add some more form half circles, but not cover it entirely. The dome will be 40" inside, 19" inside height, Door will be 19" 12.6". Front entry is approx 14"x 20"

[V-wiz]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

We then brought out our trusty tile saw, using an old tile blade we started to cut some bricks, the old blade cut like butter, that is for the first 40 bricks, after that the blade wore out, no worries i have 2 MK diamond blades ordered from Amazon.









If you guys have any suggestions for what ive done so far please don't hesitate to shout out. I would appreciate ANY help/info/criticism. Thanks

[dvm]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

Plan to place shims under your inner arch form (and account for the added height) to allow later removal.

[V-wiz]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

Plan to place shims under your inner arch form (and account for the added height) to allow later removal.

Thanks.. That may not be a bad idea, i am going to do this for the entry arch, but didn't do this for the inner arch. The inner form is particle board and pretty thin and brittle, if i end up not putting shims breaking them or even burning them wont be a hassle what so ever. I see what i can do. Thank you.

[V-wiz]

Re: 42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

Also, it is clear that the first coarse of the dome walls either get installed on the floor bricks or around them, either way they would sit on the floor insulation right? i was thinking would the structure/dome walls be alot stronger if the first chain of bricks would get install directly onto the concrete slab, rather than sit on the insulation which could settling after a few years? The only issue is that the first coarse of bricks would not sit directly on-top of the insulation. What do you guys think.