Bellingham Bread Oven

[james]

Poured concrete counters

We have poured concrete counters done by a Pro (Bohemian Stoneworks) at the Forno Bravo demo kitchen. They are great. The company does fabulous work.

If you can pay someone to do it, you have a huge amount of control over how they look, color, aggregate, size, shape, etc. It ends up costing about the same as a custom granite job. The measure and make them off-site, then bring the pieces in, just lilke a custom granite job.

I've never done it myself, but I know there are books on doing your own custom concrete counters.

One good thing about pre-made slab granite (bulnose and all) is that you can do it yourself -- if you want to work really hard and save some money.

I don't think I would use marble or travertine. They are soft and porous, and I would worry about staining.

[maver]

Dome progress

Janprimus, I have been admiring your oven and the masonry (especially the masonry) and was wondering if you have made any further progress towards covering the dome. Did I understand correctly that you are planning a copper cover? Any pictures?

[janprimus]

arches counters & copper

Janprimus, I have been admiring your oven and the masonry (especially the masonry) and was wondering if you have made any further progress towards covering the dome. Did I understand correctly that you are planning a copper cover? Any pictures?

Well here is the wall so far. This was this morning.
http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/F...pped%20out.jpg I was rather tickled, I built my door arch this last weekend on my birthday. It came out perfectly as far as I am concerned. I like the dimensions, and the overall feel of it. It looks quite old already.
http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/Door%20Arch.jpg In my local free ad paper, I had another cool set of bricks come in the form of these neat arched firebricks. They were 7.5 inches across at the narrow part of the arch. They are 4 inches thick, and they worked wonderfully. I was doing the arch and Mary Ann suggested a stone for the keystone. I figured there wouldnt be a rock within 25 miles of here that would work. She walked over to the rock pile and this is the second one she picked up. It fit so perfectly, I couldnt believe it. I put it in place and pulled out the support after only a half an hour. It didnt budge. :-) I am totally happy about this arch. What do you all think?
Now I am off on countertops. I was looking at granite, but it was going to cost close to 2000 bucks to do it and that was a pretty simple job. I have decided to go with stained concrete. I can pour it and stain it myself. I know there are pros out there that do it and it might be a better job, but I am confident I can do a nice job of it as well. I am still planning on doing the copper roof topper, we will see how it comes along. Now, rather than the dome idea, a friend offered making overlapping leaves like flower petals that would embrace the top of the oven in a nice way. Visually, it works for me.

[maver]

Wow

OK, I'm done staring. That keystone is perfect and the old firebrick is beautiful. Copper on the dome is a great idea but it is an expensive material. Do you have any 'free ads' for this? I imagine covering a dome will be substantially cheaper (less material) than covering a "house" style enclosure. Does your oven plan include a chimney (I can't tell if there is a vent area behind the arch, but it looks like it)? Your work is inspiring, thanks for posting the pics.

[redbricknick]

Your bricks rock.

Have you thought about poured terazzo style countertops? I've seen cheap examples which look awesome. Great job on the masonry. I've taken a vow of pizzabstinence until ours is done.

[janprimus]

copper

OK, I'm done staring. That keystone is perfect and the old firebrick is beautiful. Copper on the dome is a great idea but it is an expensive material. Do you have any 'free ads' for this? I imagine covering a dome will be substantially cheaper (less material) than covering a "house" style enclosure. Does your oven plan include a chimney (I can't tell if there is a vent area behind the arch, but it looks like it)? Your work is inspiring, thanks for posting the pics.

Copper is an expensive material I agree, but it never wears out and it jsut gets better looking with age. I can get a good quality sheet copper from alaska brass and copper down in Seattle. http://www.alaskancopper.com/cu/pdf/roofing_sheet.pdf it is around 6 or 7 bucks a pound so a 3X9 sheet of .027 copper is around 180- 200 dollars. They run trucks up here to Bellingham once a week so that makes it pretty easy. I am thrifty wherever I can be, but when it comes down to a pizza something I really want, I will lay out the dough. ;-) bad pun intended. I am still working on the chimney, I dont know if it will work or not, but I will do my best with what I have. I have about a 3 inch space between the head of the door and the back of the firebricks. I dont know if that is going to give me enough flow or not, but all I can do is try...
And now that you mention it, I will put in an ad for copper sheeting, you never know what some folks have laying around their houses and or shops.

Nick, is it the pebble'y look that makes the difference between regular poured concrete and terrazzo? It looks very cool. I was plannng on doing an acid stained concrete tops. I will be working on the forms today. Wish me luck.
Peace
Chad

[dmun]

terazzo

Terazzo is concrete with colored, usually marble, aggregate in the top layer, which is ground and polished after it sets. It was a popular flooring material in the early 20th century, and had a revival in the fiftys and sixtys as flooring in public buildings. It's economical, as you can bust up scrap marble, set it in colored cement, and grind smooth, the disadvantage is that the grinders and polishers are pretty much a specialty item. A countertop has the advantage that you don't have to worry about the corners, like you do on a floor.

[janprimus]

terrazzo vs acid stained concrete

You know, I think the terrazzo is beautiful but I think I will opt for the simplicity and common good looks of stained concrete. The whole grinder thing adds a layer of complexity that I dont think I want to deal with.
Chad
PS Thanks for your compliments and suggestions, keep them coming.

[janprimus]

Countertops anyone?

Well in my inexorable march toward ovenhood, I poured my countertops Saturday. I did some research on the web and found a few good resources. I poured them and finally finished working them around midnight. I started pouring late, around 6:00 PM. I have a sturdy welded table that I set up and leveled in my driveway. IT was not quite big enough to give complete support so I framed up 4 2x4s on edge to support the 3/4 in melamine. I then drew out things just how I wanted them to be and framed in the sides with prefinished MDF I ripped down to 2 inches wide. I predrilled all the holes and used 2-1/2" screws. I tapered the ends so they are 20 inches at each end and 24 inches wide at the center. I poured an extra rich blend of mud. Actually, I poured it in two stages. For each counter, I poured one 80lb sack of fiberglass reinforced mud an inch thick to within an inch of the sides, then laid in the reinforcing steel and then topped it off with the regular rich blend of concrete mix. The rich blend was 1 sack of concrete mix with an added 2 quarts of cement mixed in. The problem with a rich blend is that it is more prone to crack so I am retarding the curing process by keeping it moist under wet cardboard and a big sheet of plastic. It is looking real good so far. I will pull the sides off this afternoon and start working the edges and top to get them smoother. I will install them in a couple more days. I am going to use an acid stain on them, but that requires the concrete to cure for at least 45 days. http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/countertop_a.jpg here is one of the tops as of this AM. I also mixed up some mud yesterday and filled the tops of the cells on the wall in preparation for placing the countertops. http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/prepared%20top.jpg I figure with 3 or 4 of us we can get them into place without too much stress on anyone or the top... Wish me luck!

[janprimus]

Mud Art!

I have a rather creative friend who lives over on Orcas Island. He is a landscaper and stone mason type, but he also has a penchant for making concrete gargoyles and such and he has spread around his rather sizable garden. I just love them. He makes them out of regular bagged concrete and I think them wonderful. In that light, I had some extra mud left from both the counters and the topping the wall off this last weekend. Here is face 1: http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/face_1.jpg and here is face 2: http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/face_2.jpg . Face one was made by Mary Ann and face two was my first attempt. They are both wrapped in wet concrete bags to facilitate slow curing and hopefully no cracking. I will build them right into the wall! This is such a fun project.
Peace
Chad

[maver]

Great work on the poured countertop - look forward to acid stained pictures. I also have plans for a poured countertop, I think with pigment in the top layer of concrete and perhaps broken glass as a terazzo admixture - I'm going to have a try at a small piece with my grinder and a cheap masonry grinding wheel to see if this is feasible. Do you have a plan for sealing the countertop? I've found some sealers online but nothing in any local stores that seems suitable for a food prep area.

[janprimus]

Countertops anyone?

Thanks Maver. I am having fun with them thats for sure. I am looking forward to the acid stain myself! Thils last weekend, I went to a stone person that works with big stone. He has a mill. He cuts slabs of Olivine, jade, granite, you name it. He is also cheaper than much of the granite work being done around here. That being said, it is still around 60 bucks a square foot. I got the tour of his shops and he has some amazing equipment. His polishing table os very cool, I always imagined a big milling machine sort of contraption, but it is just a big table with a floating arm that the worker can move all over the stone to bringit to a nice polish, I would imagine he could do something like that with your terrazzo like counters as well. Lordy, there were some cool stones there. I think one of my favorites was the fossilized clamshells. Next time I go out there, I will get a picture of it for you. It is wild looking stuff.
I do want to seal it, but I am not sure what to use yet. I heard epoxy doesnt do well with hot pans on it, so...
Chad

[janprimus]

more art

This is Soul Man. I made him yesterday out of a half bucket of mud my friend brought over for me yesterday.
http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/Soul%20Man.jpg
Try it, it is really enjoyable.

Chad

[janprimus]

Counters in place

OK, I have the counters in place now and have them polished up to a 120 grit. They are pretty darn smooth. I think I am going to go up to a 200 grit and call it good.

http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/c...in%20place.jpg
http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/left%20front.jpg
http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/chad/right%20front.jpg

I got an email from someone who could not view the pics at a reasonable size. Are any of the rest of you having that experience? My computer automatically resizes everything to fit the window unless I click on the enlarge feature.
Chad

[DrakeRemoray]

Those look great. I am going to consider this when I do some countertops in phase II.

Internet explorer will usually resize images for you, but it can be turned on/off
from Tools> Internet Options >Advanced tab> Multimedia > Enable Automatic Image Resizing

Drake