Casa 90 corner build (and outdoor kitchen) begins....

[RandyJ]

I do not know what visqueen is but I would assume it is some kind of plastic sheet. If so it should be just fine. Also I would put the vapor barrier on top of the paver stones. Otherwise you might get holes in it. Other than that you should be just fine. Good luck. I can't wait to see your progress.

Randy

[david s]

Sounds like you are golden then. I invited my neighbors each side of me over for the maiden voyage of the oven to thank them for putting up with all the noise and mess I made during my build, Word spread and now I have the whole block of neighbors who want to be my friend when I fire up the oven...........Something like "the little red hen" nursery story.

A great insurance inviting the neighbours in, but it is better not to do it on the maiden voyage. You wouldn't want a Titanic situation. Most new oven owners have difficulty the first time, sliding pizzas off the wooden peel into the oven. Better to perfect this first with family (where mistakes are excused but not forgotten ) before inviting guests over to witness your culinary skills. You'd probably prefer to be known as the neighbourhood legend than neighbourhood laughing stock.

[terdferguson]

So tomorrow I'll start putting things down on my slab. As recommended by Randy this will be my order.....vapor barrier, pavers, FB board, sand, oven floor. Am I supposed to get any particular type of sand? Visqueen for the vapor barrier?

[terdferguson]

No I haven't placed anything yet. Utah, I think the idea was to put the vermiculite/cement mixture directly on the oven (before the insulation). That was if the mortar of the joints cracked you still have that covering it. But I guess it really shouldn't matter much if the mortar cracks. I am putting tons of insulation on top of this thing. I think I'll skip that part.

[RandyJ]

I agree with utah. That is what I did. I think that will serve you better in the long run. Did you put 4 " of ceramic board insulation under the oven?

Randy

[UtahBeehiver]

Aren't you enclosing your oven? After your blanket, you could just dry pour the perlite or vemiculite material over the oven.

[terdferguson]

I'm interested in retaining heat for multiday cooking. The guy at forno bravo told me over the phone that for me it would be a good idea to put a layer of vermiculite and cement over the joints in my dome (after mortaring them). He said the mortar may crack over time with expansion/contraction and this layer will help with that. Any thoughts on this? I would mix vermiculite and cement at 10/1 and then add 3 parts water right?

[terdferguson]

Impressive stuff. I still have to pour my slabs for my counters. I'm going to home depot to rent a cement mixer for that.

[RandyJ]

Yeah I had like 78 in my foundation slab around 20 in core filling 38 in my support slab and 6 in the lip out the front. Oh and 5 in the counter tops. I mixed the 78 in a mixer with a friend in 2 hrs the rest were done by hand in a wheel barrow with a hoe. It took about 2 hrs to do 38 for the support slab. I went a little thicker to gain a little more height. I think it is 6" thick. I know it won't go anywhere that is for sure.

Randy

[terdferguson]

142. What?

[RandyJ]

Looks like you are making good progress. I hear you on the cement. I think I went through 142 60# bags. So I was pretty tired by the time I got it all done. I can't wait to see how things progress. Keep up the good work

[terdferguson]

Should be fixed.

[JRPizza]

I can't see your pictures in the last two posts. Are you clicking on the camera button in the upper left or using the attachment button on the right side?

[terdferguson]

And here it is with the rebar:



I bought a metal pipe from home depot that I used to bend the rebar. It's funny, I see these pictures of the rebar laid out in a grid and it looks so easy. Nope. Took me quite a while to get all the pieces so none were too high or low. I used little pieces of bricks and chunks of mortar to support the grid in a couple spots. I rubbed all the boards with canola oil and filled some larger gaps with mortar (not sure if this was ok or not, but whatever). Then it was time for...



Oh man. My back hurts just looking at this pic. I think I used 27 bags. Not too bad as I know bigger stands can use a lot more. Still....it sucked. And the finished product:



Not the most aesthetically pleasing slab, but it'll do. I couldn't get all the pebbles pushed down into the concrete when I did my floating. Not sure if my concrete was too dry or too wet, but I suspect one or the other. I made a small slab in my front yard a couple years ago and it turned out better. Oh well. So that was Sunday and I've been misting it since. I'd like to take off the forms Friday or Saturday and start placing the oven. Do you guys think that will be long enough?

[terdferguson]

That was two weekends ago. Last weekend....on to the forms. I mostly used 2x8s and screwed them into my brick and cinder blocks with tapcons.



That's my father in law helping me out. He's a carpenter and I'm a guy who doesn't know what he's doing soooo....yeah he was a big help with this part. I'm making an arch for my wood storage area. Again I read through some other builds to get ideas how to accomplish this. I bought some flexible stuff from home depot which has one side that's a nonstick surface. I forget what it's called. Here's my completed arch form:



I put 5 support pieces under the arch. Here is the finished forms:



Oh yeah. I also layed the bricks you can barely see at the bottom of the wood storage area. I wanted this to be raised up off the ground to prevent water from getting in. My patio slopes towards the wfo, so it was necessary.