South Jersey Pompeii Oven - Am I Doing This Right?

[mintee]

Chimney is built, and the first round of stucco is on. I drove down to my local brick and fireplace supply store, and told them that I needed more CF blanket to wrap and insulate my clue flue liner before I started laying the brick around and they told me I didn't need to worry. So I just mortared the bricks right onto the flue liner with standard mortar mix.

Also, because I'm going to build a structure around the oven next year, they told me not to waste time with a finish coat of stucco. So I just laid a 3/4" stucco base/scratch coat, and I'm going to go over it with a mortar mix as a final layer today. I bought a gallon of sealant to wash over the mortar after it's cured to prevent any moisture from seeping into the blanket insulation.

I started a pretty large fire last night. The very top of the dome turned white, but the walls are still black. I was just burning scrap wood I had leftover from the build. The dome read 650F at the maximum temperature, and after the fire burnt out I pushed the outer dome template inside and whipped up a super quick dough. I was going to just do some baguettes, but changed my mind and decided to do a pan pizza. My tools aren't in yet, so I was limited as to what I could do. By the time it was ready, the oven was down to 325F, but I made it happen!

I noticed some smoke escaping from the bricks of the flue where I wasn't sure if I had sealed it perfectly, so I'm going to whip up some homebrew and pipe it in there later today.

I still haven't determined what I'm going to do with the decoritive arch. Is there a thread on here describing pros/cons on some decorative arch designs?

This is so exciting!

[UtahBeehiver]

There is not specific thread for outer arch designs but you could look at FB photo gallery. There are several hundred builds there.

[david s]

https://community.fornobravo.com/for...477#post417477
https://community.fornobravo.com/for...449#post417449

if your oven walls are still black it indicates there’s still plenty of moisture in them and you risk damaging your oven if fired too hard at this stage, take it easy until all the black has gone.

[slschoming]

Looks like you got some good help with the stucco! Looking good!

[mintee]

david s Thanks for the info. I was reading it was only black due to the temps not getting high enough. I thought it too temps of 700F+ for the dome to go white. Either way, note taken!

slschoming Thanks man! It's been a blast.

Looks like I'm coming into cold weather now, and I should let the stucco go for another 4-5 days before I can put the final mortar coat on it. I would really like to get this sealed up before we get into the constant 32F mark of winter. Wish me and the weather luck!

[slschoming]

Looks like I'm coming into cold weather now, and I should let the stucco go for another 4-5 days before I can put the final mortar coat on it. I would really like to get this sealed up before we get into the constant 32F mark of winter. Wish me and the weather luck!

Good Luck! I didn't make it. I wanted one more coat of stucco before the cold but my overnight temps are consistently freezing now.

[mintee]

Good Luck! I didn't make it. I wanted one more coat of stucco before the cold but my overnight temps are consistently freezing now.

So what are you doing now? Just tarping it for the winter?

[slschoming]

I have a tarp out there that I throw over the dome when I am not using it. We got about an inch of snow last week when I didn't have it covered so I started slow on my last fire up and worked up to temp a little more gradually than normal, but I never saw any steam coming out of my steam vent. I don't plan to leave it exposed to the elements like that again though. I have a few hairline cracks that formed in my stucco as it was curing so I am a little worried water could get in there.

[mintee]

I have a tarp out there that I throw over the dome when I am not using it. We got about an inch of snow last week when I didn't have it covered so I started slow on my last fire up and worked up to temp a little more gradually than normal, but I never saw any steam coming out of my steam vent. I don't plan to leave it exposed to the elements like that again though. I have a few hairline cracks that formed in my stucco as it was curing so I am a little worried water could get in there.

Yeah, we're not that bad yet. We won't see constant overnight freezes for a few more weeks I hope. Looks like it's only dropping into freezing 2 days this week. Due to the size of my chimney, I can't really cover the entire thing with a tarp. I might just go ahead and treat the brown coat with the sealant that I bought, then next spring finish off the dome and buy another sealant. It was only $30 a gallon. I do need to get in there and fill in the leak from the flue however.

Maybe I can just make a tarp with a custom hole to drape around the chimney. Like your's, my opening firebrick is exposed, as is the opening Fiberboard, so it's gonna be a tricky winter.

[slschoming]

Yeah, we're not that bad yet. We won't see constant overnight freezes for a few more weeks I hope. Looks like it's only dropping into freezing 2 days this week. Due to the size of my chimney, I can't really cover the entire thing with a tarp. I might just go ahead and treat the brown coat with the sealant that I bought, then next spring finish off the dome and buy another sealant. It was only $30 a gallon. I do need to get in there and fill in the leak from the flue however.

Maybe I can just make a tarp with a custom hole to drape around the chimney. Like your's, my opening firebrick is exposed, as is the opening Fiberboard, so it's gonna be a tricky winter.

Polyethylene landscaping fabric is pretty cheap and you can get it in very large sheets (large enough to cover the whole oven, chimney and all), but it might tear if you put it on and off too much. That said, I don't cover my whole chimney, I just have the exposed insulation wrapped to keep it dry.

[mintee]

Polyethylene landscaping fabric is pretty cheap and you can get it in very large sheets (large enough to cover the whole oven, chimney and all), but it might tear if you put it on and off too much. That said, I don't cover my whole chimney, I just have the exposed insulation wrapped to keep it dry.

I peeked back at your thread, and see what you mean. So your stucco dome, you didn't treat it or anything, and your fine with it getting rained on?

I didn't create a steam vent either. I saw everyone talking about them, and my ignorance did exactly that, ignored them. I can still drill through the stucco and add a pipe i suppose. Better than it exploding, heh.

[slschoming]

I peeked back at your thread, and see what you mean. So your stucco dome, you didn't treat it or anything, and your fine with it getting rained on?

Sorry, I didn't explain that very well.. I didn't treat the stucco and DO keep it covered when not in use. But I don't cover the chimney, other than that exposed insulation.

[mintee]

Well, my oven is functional now. The stucco only has it's first layer on it, and it's rained a few times since, but I've also fired it about 6 times without any issues. I'm going to cover it with a clear sheet tarp soon, as the winter will only be getting worse from here on out. Looking forward to spring to get back to work.

I ended up cooking 12 pizza's the Wednesday before thanksgiving, and the next day it was still in the 300 degree range. I started another small fire inside, and cooked the Turkey, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole and Bread Pudding in it. We did a entire thankgiving dinner for 7 of us without turning on the indoor oven at all! Stoked about that! The turkey was dry as all hell, but nothing a little gravy couldn't fix.

[mintee]

Also, as seen in my gallery, and the above image, I've made a prototype door out of wood. I wanted to get the sizes completely right before sending it off to a metal fabricator to finish. It works fine for the time being.

[slschoming]

Looking forward to spring to get back to work.

I know what you mean. It's so hard to finally have a functional oven right as winter is setting in! All my work buddies who have had to listen to me talk about this build for so long are expecting to be rewarded with some actual pizza but the weather has other plans. We did Thanksgiving in our oven too and I was out there by myself under a pop up tent in the snow. We did pizza a couple days later and my family was assembling the pizzas inside and running them out to me and running right back inside. I am ready for it to be warm again.