Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

[alexi82]

Posted about my first oven a few years ago, and had heaps of help on this forum so thought i'd post progress of my new oven, built into an outdoor kitchen area!

I'll have a bbq built into the right hand side, and a sink on the left hand side.

Plan is to do polished concrete benchtops at the end...

All of the materials are secondhand or seconds. The dodgy colours of the besser blocks are gonna be rendered or tiled anyway...

So far have poured the pad, built the besser block wall using the mortar method and a few i have filled the cores with some steel just for extra strength. And of course the hearth base has been poured now as well.

I picked up a heap of bags of masonry cement (half lime, half cement) very very cheap so I actually used these for the pad. Spoke to the concretor who poured the base for my shed and he reckons so long as its 100mm thick, and has decent rebar in it then it will be fine. So far so good. Got to an end with a sledge hammer to see how it goes. strong as.

[alexi82]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

A few more pics

[oasiscdm]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

Looking good. What's with the multi colored bester blocks never seen those anywhere.

[alexi82]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

Haha yea they are pretty funky..i have no idea why you would want them that colour...

probably why they were seconds. $1 each from rockingham, wa.

The only other issue with the other seconds is some were slightly crooked etc which caused me some grief with levels and plumb but whatever, will be rendered, and the top is level so all good...

[cobblerdave]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

G'day
On to you second oven, I think most would secretly like the excuse to have a second crack. You first was an "Allen Scott" what changes are you planning for the secound
Regards dave

[alexi82]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

Yea, the first one was at a house we owned and then rented out. Was always going to be the trial i suppose.

The allen scott was awesome, but just too much mass to heat up just for pizzas. Loved it to bits, and was awesome for bread, but I never made enough bread to make use of it.

This time I am going the pompeii from the plans, and the biggest thing i'll focus on is the chimney and landing...was a bit average in my last...but you live and learn

[Gulf]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

............I picked up a heap of bags of masonry cement (half lime, half cement) very very cheap so I actually used these for the pad. Spoke to the concretor who poured the base for my shed and he reckons so long as its 100mm thick, and has decent rebar in it then it will be fine. So far so good. Got to an end with a sledge hammer to see how it goes. strong as.

I would have bought a few bags of portland to "sweeten up" each batch as I poured the pad. What was your ratio of "masonry cement"-sand-gravel?

I am assuming, that you poured "concrete" for your hearth slab.

EDIT: That is going to be a fine intertaiment area .

[alexi82]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

Was a 1:2:3 mix.....thought about that but as i said the bloke that poured concrete for a living reckons no worries for the application...i tend to agree.

yea used normal cement for the hearth.

[alexi82]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

Progress...

Used some garden edging to form up the v-crete insulation layer. Poured that this afternoon. Stupid shadows playing games with my photos so will get a better one later or tomorrow.

I don't remember it being this crumbly last time i did it but that was a few years ago now and beer has damaged some of those brain cells...

[wotavidone]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

Was a 1:2:3 mix.....thought about that but as i said the bloke that poured concrete for a living reckons no worries for the application...i tend to agree.

yea used normal cement for the hearth.

I once met a man in a pub who said much the same thing. Lime will set up eventually, and the slab will be strong enough for the application. When all is said and done, you still have 8% cement by volume. The rebar will take care of the tensile strength, and given we all seem happy to stick a ruddy great oven on top of vermicrete, your slab is surely adequate in terms of compressive strength.

I reckon it depends on the local situation.
We seem to be able to use a much less "engineered" slab than the cousins across the water use.
Here in OZ we don't have to worry too much about frost heave.
Poms worry about damp proofing, I often wonder what it's like to live somewhere wet enough to have to bother.
In other parts of the world reactive clay soils matter.
In Perth, you could probably just screed the sand flat and start laying blocks I reckon. It drains well, it compacts evenly, and it isn't going to expand and contract with the seasons like Adelaide soil does.
What the guy in the pub did mention though was to beware of suppliers of premix who supplement cement with flyash. Especially those who use type GB (already got flyash and blast furnace slag in it) and then think they substitute a bit more flyash to cut costs.
He spoke of entire house slabs that wouldn't go off at all.

[alexi82]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

Good thinking that... Very true.

Thinking about it, lime is just there to improve water retention and elasticity in mortar...so as you say, it will set eventually just take a bit longer...

and isnt there some sort of self healing/autogenous healing with lime mortar? i.e. not allowing rot in cracks?

[wotavidone]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

Good thinking that...
isnt there some sort of self healing/autogenous healing with lime mortar? i.e. not allowing rot in cracks?

They reckon it does. Can't see much evidence of it in my oven. In any case they are generally talking about micro cracking mortar, not healing cracks in concrete slabs. But it doesn't matter, you'll be fine.

I reckon a lot of things don't quite translate from brick walls in houses to domes.
The mortar in a brick wall really just holds the bricks apart at a set distance, allowing for minor discrepancies in brick size, etc, and if the mortar does crack a bit, it's OK if it takes years for lime crystals to grow across the crack and "heal" it.

In an oven, we are asking the mortar to do that, plus fill odd shaped gaps, and stick like baby s@#t to a blanket. All at 500 degrees C.

Whatever you do, do not overthink this.
Having already built one, you already know it just plain works and it's pretty difficult to screw it up.

Lay them bricks mate, and start cooking.

[alexi82]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

yea not overthinking just ensuring I improve on the last one. I used ciment fondue last time (refractory mortar) but cost a bomb.

plus i've read lots of negatives about the refractory mortar on here...

and if we have enough clay in our brickies sand in perth to be fine then can't see why it wouldnt work! and if it wont then i'll go buy ciment fondue again!

[wotavidone]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

yea not overthinking just ensuring I improve on the last one. I used ciment fondue last time (refractory mortar) but cost a bomb.

plus i've read lots of negatives about the refractory mortar on here...

and if we have enough clay in our brickies sand in perth to be fine then can't see why it wouldnt work! and if it wont then i'll go buy ciment fondue again!

What was your ciment fondue based mix last time, and what did you think of the mortar it produced?. Was it a nice hard mortar that resisted wear and tear from flying oven tools?

I'm planning to experiment with a homemade cast dome.

[alexi82]

Re: Finally Started - Outdoor Kitchen in Perth, WA

I used the manufacturers recommendations on the packet for the ciment fondue. It was pretty good, but found it hard to work with. Was very firm.

I never had any issues with it but it was in a barrel oven so i think less movement. Plus, i enclosed the whole thing so never saw how the mortar joints were after full firings...

cast dome be interesting....be expensive. its about 40 bucks a bag i think...