Florida Igloo

[leemc]

Well after a lot of planning, hand wringing and negotiating with my wife, I have started my oven (actually back in September). I plan to do a brick clad igloo with an offset center chimney. I really like the look of the WFO Jamie Oliver uses in his new series on the Food Channel - in fact, that along with this site, is what got me interested in building my own oven. I have attached a snapshot pulled from Google Sketchup that I want it to ultimately look like along with a couple of pictures of what the site looked like before I started.

I have three elements to my oven planned that I have not seen on many others. The first is the arched hearth bottom which I am just doing for looks. Another element is the center dome chimney. Again, I just like that look better than the over the arch chimney. The last thing is that I want to double the oven as an offset smoker. I will detail how I plan to do that in subsequent posts but - I think that it isn?t something that is too hard or expensive and can be easily abandoned if it doesn?t work out. I would love to get some feed-back on those last two issues especially.

I have a construction background so building the structural elements are not a problem with me. I am currently at the structural hearth point and getting ready to do the hearth insulation. I will post my progress history photos with comments on each stage in posts to follow.

Thanks

Lee

[leemc]

Re: Florida Igloo

Here is my base slab prep. Don?t have to worry about getting below the frost line here but I did want to get some positive slope on the slab under the wood storage. It?s pretty humid and rainy here, especially in the summer, so I want any water that gets in there to find its way out.

Just used a wheelbarrow and hoe to mix - a good workout for a 46 year old guy but not to bad. Sore for a couple of three days though.

Lee

[Les]

Re: Florida Igloo

Lee,

Looks like you are off to a great start. I don't see any issues with the arched hearth - will look great. The chimney may be a problem unless you can seal it tight to retain the heat. This is assumed that you will want to bake in the oven as well.

Good luck on the build!

Les...

[leemc]

Re: Florida Igloo

Dry stacked the concrete block and filled every other cell with concrete. I then attached the form ledgers - consisting of a plywood rip and a 2x4 - to the inside of each block wall with Tapcons. These will provide support for the hearth form deck at the edge of the wall on each side.

At this point I had a decision to make. I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to put brick inside the wood storage area or just go cheap since want to put some doors on it to cover the opening eventually. But I decided - why go cheap at this point? I did want to lay brick as many courses high as possible because it?s going to be a nightmare laying it under the hearth after I pour it.

Also I want to say that I am no brick mason but I think I am picking it up. I wanted a rustic look anyway!

[leemc]

Re: Florida Igloo

Les

I think I am going to struggle with the chimney but I have some ideas that might make it work. I will run them up the flagpole here and get some thoughts once I get to that stage. I will have a dome to build between now and then though.

Lee

[leemc]

Re: Florida Igloo

Starting my formwork now for the hearth. The arch will be a little tricky, but I my Idea is to attach a curved ripped plywood to a 2?x4? every 18?, then run 1?x2? strips perpendicular on the curved plywood at 6? to 8? on center. A thin 1/8? sheet of Luan plywood could be wrapped onto this arch and still support the weight of the wet concrete. It may look a little like overkill, but I?ve seen the disaster of a form failure before an I didn?t want to see it here.

Lee

[Les]

Re: Florida Igloo

Some have put in dampers - don't know how effective they were in retaining heat. The real problem (just occured to me), is when you are generating the fires of hell, the heat will be escaping. The whole point of the design is to reflect the heat back down to charge the floor. At any rate, God speed!

Les...

[leemc]

Re: Florida Igloo

Les

I don't plan on having a center dome exit for the flue gas, but an arch flue with an off the arch chimney. I plan on running the flue gas between the inner and outer dome, up to the center and out of the chimney. Just an idea - it looks like it works for the Jamie Oliver oven. I just got to figure out the best way to make it work

Lee

[Les]

Re: Florida Igloo

OK - I undrstand now (never seen the Oliver build, will google). Outside the box and VERY COOL. This envelope gets pushed with every build - love it!

Les...

[RTflorida]

Re: Florida Igloo

Im WFO speak - you are doing an interpretation of a squirrel tail oven (where the flue pipe wraps back over the dome and up the center or back).
I believe I have read that it is not recommended (and does not meet national fire code) to have any single bend greater than 30 degrees...maybe dmun can step in and clarify, I'm thinking I read this in one (or more) of his posts.
In any case, good luck, it will be a sweet build when you pull it off.

RT

[Frances]

Re: Florida Igloo

Those bricks on the inside of the wood storage area are very cool.

I didn't want cement block on the inside of my oven stand either, and went with solid stone walls istead... so what if you rarely see in the inside of the stand, you still know its there!

Chimney off the middle of the oven will look great, too. I thought the chimney over the front was weird to begin with, but after looking at it for all this time I don't even notice it anymore.

[leemc]

Re: Florida Igloo

RT

I saw the posts on the squirrel tail oven and it will be similar to that except that I want to vent from the front to the center and I plan to do it all inside the insulation layer between the inner and outer dome. I plan to make sure it draws well before I install the outer dome just in case I have to reroute or resize my flue.

Frances

I agree even though I will have to learn to lay brick from an incline position!

Lee

[Archena]

Re: Florida Igloo

Hi,

Disclaimer: I'm a total novice and I haven't built anything yet. That said my design also calls for modified squirrel tail. Instead of the usual back to front I'm planning on front to back since I like the look of the chimney in the back. I'm looking forward to seeing how things go for you, since it will be quite a while yet before I start my build.

For you folks that are considering bricking in the interior of the stand, since it's for cosmetic reasons have you considered just using face brick? Some construction adhesive and a little bit of mortar for the visible joints and you're done. It's got to be easier than try to construct a brick wall in an enclosed space... Just a thought...

So, are you planning to enclose your oven?

[jengineer]

Re: Florida Igloo

It can be done. MHA did a similar one whwere it actually vents in the front but as Lee points out it then squirrel tails back. This forces the hot gases to do a lot of turning and could greatly increase the size of the dome height. Biggest thing to rememebr is to not neck it down and to provide smooth transitions around the corners. In other discussion here the vent pipe was going up in a home DMUN was readily able to quote some numbers.

Check out MHA News - 2006 Meeting - Backyard Oven with Peter Moore for the pics of a squirrel vent

These quick build ovens at MHA are NOT insulated and are torn down at the end of the meeting. The quality of the masonry work is first class. You can get pointers just by looking at the builds

[nodoubt68]

Re: Florida Igloo

Thanks for posting the link to the squirrel vent dome. Great for a look.