Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

We finished our oven and we cannot foresee building another one. If anyone could use our IT tool, we will send it to you minus the threaded rod. It will be easier to ship with just the two end peices, you just supply to rod.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

9/15/13 ? We decided to separate our upper enclosure from the support stand with a concrete apron or curb. This is more or less just a cosmetic detail, although it does give us a little larger work space at the oven entry.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

9/20/13 ? Because our oven is on the patio just outside our dining room area, we decided to go with an enclosure and not just insulate and stucco the dome. In the first two pics below, we are playing with the brick layout and in the third we have started laying them.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

9/26/13 ? Progress on the enclosure continues upward with the first of two arches. During this process we are also insulating the oven dome with 8? of perlite/cement as we work our way up. When the walls reached finished height, we filled the rest of the void between the enclosure and the oven with ?? gravel to support the concrete roof to come. Perlite was just too expensive to use just as filler.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

10/10/13 ? Completed oven enclosure with concrete roof poured. Below the apron or curb, we plan to cover the concrete block with rock collected from our property. We are not sure how that will go, but heck, so far so good.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

11/1/13 ? Our competed oven. Just need to put a finish on the storage door. It has been tons of fun and hard work, but we are proud of our accomplishment. Now the good times begin.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

Stonecutter, Thanks you for your reply. Yes, we did do all the work including the brick and stone. When I say we, I mean my wife and I. She is not afraid of working hard and getting her hands dirty. We really enjoy working together on projects.

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

Stonecutter - From the quote you have at the bottom of all your post, I thought this might interest you. When we built our house, we had a local stone mason do our fireplace surround. He went to our local river bed and hand slit large granite boulders into 6" slabs, hauled them here and hand chiseled them to fit. We love the final product. Nearly all the grout joints are uniform in size and shape.

[stonecutter]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

Stonecutter, Thanks you for your reply. Yes, we did do all the work including the brick and stone. When I say we, I mean my wife and I. She is not afraid of working hard and getting her hands dirty. We really enjoy working together on projects.

Very nice, that Mason knows how to handle a chisel. I particularly like the flared corners. Only one thing jumps out at me...the stone above the key is directly above it.
Just an aesthetic opinion.

[hodgey1]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

Very nice job! I personally think the local stone addition is a awesome idea, I cant wait to see it come together. Have you cooked in her yet, if so how's that going?

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

Chris, Thank you for your comments about the local stone. We were very lucky that we found enough stone on our property, and that most were fairly flat on at least one side. The color also worked well with the brick we chose (Sometimes even a blind chicken gets a worm).

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

I put together a little slideshow of our oven build and uploaded it to YouTube. See following link.

Temecula Wood Fired Oven Build - YouTube

rbhumbert

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

rb,

I just found your thread and am enamored with your oven, especially the curved slate roof. Quite handsome indeed! You will no doubt enjoy countless meals produced from your oven, and maybe a few avocado-inspired creations.

If you don't mind me asking: where did you purchase the firebricks for your oven and what kind are they?

John

[Rbhumbert]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

John,

We live out in the Temecula Area and I was able to find a local masonry supplier that had a fairly decent price. Orange County Pavers, Riverside Pavers, Temecula Pavers, OC Pavers - Go Brandel. They also have a store in Pomona. I couldn't really tell you the brand, type or specs. of the firebricks, just a standard firebrick used mostly for fireplaces. I think they were around $1.75 ea. I attached a photo. Are you planning to build an oven? It appears you live somewhere near Disneyland. I spent part of my early years in Anaheim and graduated from Anaheim High in 1969.

Here is a link to a little slideshow I uploaded to Youtube. Nothing very special.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWHPC30w_JY.

If I can answer any questions, please feel free to ask.
Rich

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Avocado Country 42" Pompeii

Thanks for the reply and pic, Rich. I'm still working on my oven, a three year project. Luckily, I only have a little cladding work to do and I'm done. I've run close to a 100 pizzas through it so far.

I am interested in using up some of my firebrick seconds to build a smoker, though. I was just curious where your firebricks came from.