A few build photos of my oven

[ogopogodude]

My mason is finishing up the 2nd outer (cosmetic) brick dome over the initial firebrick igloo dome (that has already been coated with a vermiculite stucco 2" coating) .. and I asked him what he is going to put in the "void" between the oven dome and the brick dome... his reply was that he was intending to mix up the many bags of vermiculite and pour it in ... once he was about 2/3's finished the brick outer dome.
Won't this be expensive and not at all useful? What about expansion & contraction of the heat of the day (sunshine) as well as contraction (winter) etc... won't this bugger up the outer brick work? Why not simply use R factor insulation (which I already have a huge parcel bag of anyway, as this won't expand/ contract) ? Please ... oh so experienced people here on the forums, ... give me your advice as he is going to be continuing his work tomorrow. FYI, this isn't his first pizza oven as he has built several (of the arch/barrel type) ... but this is his first igloo / dome configuration.

[mpmckenzie]

Hi,
Building something similar myself. I agree that you'd want to keep the infill compressible to a degree to avoid the risks of cracking. The difficulty your mason will have is supporting the upper layers of bricks as he lays them. I've gone for a weak vermicrete over 3" of insulating blanket.
Can't seem to attach re-sized photos at the moment.
Good luck,
Mark

[ogopogodude]

Here's the update : as I am at work, I texted my mason guy and he said that he is simply pouring the bags of vermiculite / concrete into this circumferential void area as "dry" ... and I guess this means he ain't mixing it with water, etc , ... so it will be just "powder"

[ogopogodude]

This sounds better to me ... any advice from experienced pizza oven people on this topic?

[fox]

That is a lovely looking oven, it might not be the most usual way to build one but I think your masons idea will work very well.
I am not sure how he will place the top bricks though but having two casements filled between with dry vermiculite will give a very good insulating effect.
Why can’t you discuss his ideas with him?

[ogopogodude]

I have a really good rapport with my mason, .. it is just that I am at work whilst he is at my residence. He is very knowledgeable as he has done many an oven in the past (my pizza oven is his 3rd this year). But I am a newbie and when I see all these "youtube how-to oven build" videos .. I see that there are a hundreds of different ways to fabricate an oven.
For example, .. I saw at least 2 oven build youtube clips, where after the cinder bloc foundation was done, there was a "floating R-bar" concrete pad poured so that this pad of concrete (with the actual dome on top) could expand and contract independent of the base foundation. I thought that this was a mandatory thing as it just made sense. Then watching other videos I saw that there many oven builds that did not do this, .. as long as there was an insert of thermal-expansion/contraction resistant material placed BEFORE the firebrick base (floor of the oven).

[ogopogodude]

... Then I saw this series of three video builds by a member here (Les McNeil) and how he made a Sketch-up 3-D model and this made me want to virtually copy his build of his pizza oven. Before I even started my build, I made sure to over-engineer the base by digging four holes into the ground (due to my climate area of frost heaving) .. then placing 3' vertical Sono-Tubes (10" diameter of (R-Bar embedded) concrete followed by a 5" thick 6'X6' pad of concrete.

Then my mason took over from there ... and he watched the video of my proposed ideal oven build (since I really liked the vertical chimney being located centrally over the oven for cosmetic effect) and my mason said, .. that was a good build but that he could improve upon that big time... and he did.

[mpmckenzie]

Hmm - can post images from my phone it seems!
My vermicrete layer has some “give” in it if you push with 3” of blanket beneath it.

[ogopogodude]

OMG .. !! That is one NICE oven build. Can you post more pics.? The two tone dark grey .. and then lighter red brick .. looks fantastic. So, I am surmising that there is a very slim void between the outer dome and inner dome... unlike mine where there seems to be a canyon void.

[mpmckenzie]

There was a void but it's been filled with 3" of insulating blanket and 2" of vermicrete. My brick-laying is not good enough for me to be able to build an igloo without some form of support. So, the vermicrete is there as a formwork as well as giving more insulation. Hoping that any expansion of the outer dome will be minimal due to (compressible) mega-insulation and use of thermal gaps.

[mpmckenzie]

Here are a few photos of it at earlier stages to give an idea of construction. Yours will be fantastic.

[mpmckenzie]

And the finished oven..... How has yours turned out?

[ogopogodude]

wow, your oven looks fantastic. I sure do like the prep station of black onyx granite (slate?). Mine isn't finished yet but it is fully functional. All i have to do in the spring is to place two countertops and the cosmetic stone masonry on the lower foundation, as well as mason in a cast iron door for the smoker, then it will be completed. Unfortunately, with the colder Canadian weather, masonry can only be performed in fair weather and this won't happen until March.

[ogopogodude]

I suppose that I should now change the title of this entire post. I am not in any urgent need of advice now, since the dome is completed and operational.

[Gulf]

What do you prefer it to be?