42" Brick Oven & Grill in Los Angeles.

[V-wiz]

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

Might be random, but has anyone attempted to dry the oven using a dehumidifier? The company i work for has about a hundred large dehumidifiers. When needed to dry and isolate a certain area they bag, cover and mask the specific area to isolate the drying area. So why not cover the area of the oven and enclose a dehumidifier and have the machine just suck out all the moisture? Even if you cant get your hands on a large Dehumidifier you can use one of these Eva-Dry 1 Pint Mini Dehumidifier-EDV-1100 at The Home Depot.

What do you guys think.

[V-wiz]

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

My Landrover once got really wet inside so I put our 3 litre dehumidifier in the back and closed the doors worked a treat.
We use our unit in the bedrooms during the rainy season to stop the mold, we live in the sub tropics and it rains a lot so it does get a workout.
Sounds like a good idea I think it will work pretty well, if you could sit it in the entrance or just outside the entrance and cover the whole thing in plastic and run it overnight to see what happens.
If it works you could keep running it each night until no water shows in the tank

Good to hear. Ya these stuff do work, i think i may do this when the time comes. It will be very consistent, no highs and lows like fire or heat can be. And naturally the air gets warm with the machine is running.

[ATK406]

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

Great idea. So simple I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it before. Even if it only gets out 90% of the moisture, it's still a real good start. I'd still take it easy with the initial fires (just to be safe), but you might not have to go quite so slow.

Regards,
AT

[UtahBeehiver]

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

Interesting idea, thinking outside the box. Worth a go if you have access to the equipment.

[V-wiz]

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

Ya im around these machines all day and i know they work. The only thing is when left in homes/rooms for too long will cause things to crack, as i sucks out all the moisture. Usually when left in a room (smaller rooms more so) the baseboard/trim caulking will shrink and crack, its not a big deal but it is capable of doing so. I don't think it will be an issue with mortar, certainly wont do anything to the bricks. I think this is a great idea and people should start using this, like i mentioned the Dehumidifiers at HD are cheap if you don't already have one or don't have access to one.

EDIT: i also have a pro-grade moisture meter, i can read the moisture off most building materials. When the time comes i will log the moisture levels and post it up. On a daily basis.

We also have a infrared moisture meter. I may be able to use that, no guarantee, that thing costs well over 9k.

[deejayoh]

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

As long as you seal the oven up, a dehumidifier seems like it should work. if you have free airflow into the oven, you're just making water out of the air - which is not a great use of power.

I wonder though, if you will dry out much beyond the surface brick. Heat saturates the dome, driving water to the surface. You won't get that with a dehumidifier that is essentially an air conditioner.

[V-wiz]

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

As long as you seal the oven up, a dehumidifier seems like it should work. if you have free airflow into the oven, you're just making water out of the air - which is not a great use of power.

I wonder though, if you will dry out much beyond the surface brick. Heat saturates the dome, driving water to the surface. You won't get that with a dehumidifier that is essentially an air conditioner.

Yes the surrounding area should be closed off completely and taped off with duct tape.

The dehumidifier, atleast the ones we (my employers) have should dry out and suck out whatever moisture there is. there wont be heat like your imagining, maybe in a small area like that you can expect about 85F, weather conditions will determine that also. The dehu does not blow air, it only sucks moisture and shoots it out of a hose or stores it in a tank.

[V-wiz]

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

I FINALLY started on the dome today. We got a good amount of work done for 5 1/2 hours.

Here were laying 4" of Calcium Silicate insulation board.



Here is floor laid out, no fireclay/sand needed, except in some low areas.



Then we started to move along. The form isn't really being used except to just have a general idea of how the dome circulates, it will become more useful at the top.

[V-wiz]

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





The gaps are not that large, its just the mortar



We then realized the arch was not done right, so we re did it.

[V-wiz]

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

Here is where we finished off, on the 4th coarse.

[Xene]

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

Oh now the fun begins! I'm enjoying watching your progress and envious of your weather that allows you to be out there - my oven is currently under 8 inches of snow!

[V-wiz]

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

Oh now the fun begins! I'm enjoying watching your progress and envious of your weather that allows you to be out there - my oven is currently under 8 inches of snow!

, i was itching to start. The weather was definitely good, its was about 67 F. The rest of the week should be from 75 and up.

[ATK406]

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

I see you're going with the "hang the dome on the arch design" vs the "tapered inner arch". That's the way I did it (somewhat unwittingly). If I ever build another oven, I will taper the arch.

My only words of advice....don't run your dome courses up to your arch, potentially leaving a small gap to fill with a slice of brick or mortar. Instead cut the first brick of each course to nest into the arch. The integrity of your dome as it intersects the arch will be better with larger bricks vs smaller peices "shoe horned" to fit due to the placement of the rest of the course.

[V-wiz]

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

I see you're going with the "hang the dome on the arch design" vs the "tapered inner arch". That's the way I did it (somewhat unwittingly). If I ever build another oven, I will taper the arch.

My only words of advice....don't run your dome courses up to your arch, potentially leaving a small gap to fill with a slice of brick or mortar. Instead cut the first brick of each course to nest into the arch. The integrity of your dome as it intersects the arch will be better with larger bricks vs smaller peices "shoe horned" to fit due to the placement of the rest of the course.

Do you mean start each course from the corner/by the arch? If so we did do this however the 3rd and 4th course we started in the middle to throw off the cuts on the bricks.

[ATK406]

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

Yes. You still need to stagger your bond of course (pardon the pun). By starting in the corner by the arch you can customize your cuts as needed to provide a clean intersection with the arch without having to worry too much about the rest of the course (since it has not been layed yet). This just gives you a little more brick to work with and increases your margin of error (i.e. if your brick needs a little grinding to tuck into the arch a little better, you don't have to worry about increasing the gap to the next brick on that course-because it hasn't been layed yet).