36" in Seattle

[bruced]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Hello Keith,
The pizza looks great, and from someone who has made pizza and bread for many years (decades actually), I know about the quest for the perfect crust. The single most significant change I have made over the years, is to work with a fairly wet dough. You need the moisture to soften the dough so that it can expand more easily during rise and bake. It is also a lot easier to stretch the dough really thin. Mine is wet enough that only gravity is necessary to stretch it as thin as I want. It is even slightly sticky when not dusted with flour, and when kneading. It takes practice and enough flour on your work surface and peels. Bread is more difficult to shape with a higher hydration %, but if you keep turning it under, or kneading it inward to develop tension, it will spring in the oven and give you a better rise and perfect crumb.
Sorry if this is already part of your process, but I am amazed how many long-term bakers I come across who don't get the crumb they are looking for, or a tough crust because of dry dough. You clearly have the baking part down nicely.
Bruce

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Do you grind and polish it before or after sealing it

Polish first
Seal second....

Cheers
Mark

YouTube - Polishing Concrete Countertops?ConcreteNetwork.com

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

The plan is to put granite tile down, so I don't care about the concrete too much. On the other hand, we do kind of like the counter as it currently is and if I add much more it will become flush with, or worst become higher than, the oven floor. I poured it a tad higher than I intended.

Thanks, maybe I'll just polish it down. Do you grind and polish it before or after sealing it?

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I'm my own harshest critic at this point. Everyone else thought it was fantastic, I still think there's room for improvement.

Hey Keb,, I think we all are our own worst critics.. Your build is looking great.. I found the SBC very easy to work with,, Like putting frosting on a cake.. Great Idea putting in the drains.. (did you use the acrylic fortifier)

As for your pizza's, If they tasted as good as they looked,,,, because they looked good..
I found the worst part of my build was finally being finished.. Nothing else to look forward to on the weekends,,,Then I found out all the diff things you can cook.. The whole oven process can be very theraputic..

One more note,, If your not happy with the finish of your concrete counter, they sell hand polishing pads on ebay for about 10 bucks each..Diamond Hand Polishing Pad - 800 Grit - eBay (item 140076538572 end time May-02-10 21:27:15 PDT)

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Nice looking pizza's - how has the crust been working out for you?

Considerably better. I haven't experimented with the recipe yet (because I wouldn't have any idea what to modify). I just tried very hard to get the balls flattened quickly with minimal "working" and attempted to cook them on a really hot floor to minimize their time in the oven.

I'm my own harshest critic at this point. Everyone else thought it was fantastic, I still think there's room for improvement.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Looking good. That tomato mushroom pizza looks tasty. Why only 4?

We only had six people, plus salad and dessert. There wasn't any point in making more than that...plus it was one 500g recipe so it was a logical "chunk".

The tomato mushroom pizza was also pesto but I didn't put enough pesto on it.

[fxpose]

Re: 36" in Seattle

People are starting to throw parties. Very nice!
And your oven is starting to take very good shape. Unique.

[Tscarborough]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Looking good. That tomato mushroom pizza looks tasty. Why only 4?

[tfasz]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Good work on the stucco/sbc. I'm sure I will be hitting you up with some questions on it in a few months.

Nice looking pizza's - how has the crust been working out for you?

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Threw our first "party" last night, a mere six people and four pizzas, so pretty mild. Everyone was super impressed. Check out the ace bandage on my "tennis" elbow. Got that pipe-bending and hammering rebar for the counter last week, ugh.

One margherita, one pepperoni, one goat-cheese/spinach, one pesto/mushroom/tomato.

Also made a hearth bread later. It's okay I guess.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

This weekend I took the forms off the new counter. I am quite pleased with it. It is very dense concrete, not necessarily butter smooth on top (which I only floated with wood, not magnesium, but very solid, and the under-face and sides are extremely smooth where the (too) high water content really creamed up against the forms.

Maybe it'll crack to pieces from being mixed too wet, I dunno.

Then I started stuccoing the oven with surface bonding cement. I was not prepared for just how bizarre the stuff is. It is truly weird. The work is quite a bit slower for me than I imagine it is for most applications because I have to work it over those numerous strange edges and corners, many of which are concave. I think stuccoing the large exterior faces will actually go much more quickly. If you look closely, you will notice that I stuck on little drain-aways at many of the weep-holes with the intention of letting water drip into the planter beds instead of running down the stucco (behind the eventual plastic liner and under the planter beds).

Also, I applied most of the talavera tiles with Liquid Nails. Just a few more to go.

[fxpose]

Re: 36" in Seattle

I was using that 2x6 to pack the concrete down a little and sort of screed the concrete. I say "sort of" because without opposing form walls I can't properly screed. One side of the counter runs up against the side of the oven if you see what I mean.

Using a longer screed would have enable you to bridge across between the form walls.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

It looks like you're using a wood float in the new pic, May be why you're not getting the finish you want...

Did you finish using "metal" ??

That "new" pic is from the hearth, so it's pretty old. Um, yeah, I admit that wood is not suppose to finish as smoothly as magnesium. I don't particularly care since I intend to cover the whole thing in granite anyway. In fact, a rougher surface might bond to the tile thinset better. I'm just not sure how one would go about achieving a smooth finish if one wanted to; it's hard to believe that magnesium would make that dramatic a difference relative to the results I've achieve thus far...but all that aside, I readily admit that one critical component to getting a smooth finish is using the proper float in the first place, i.e., magnesium.

[kebwi]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Keith,
Be careful about adding too much water, it is a major cause of excessive shrinkage and results in a weaker product that is more prone to cracking.
Dave

Yeah, this one may have been done a little too wet, unlike the foundation and hearth, which were too dry (it's hard to hit that sweet spot). I must confess that my thinking was along the lines that since the counter doesn't need to be particularly strong (there will never be any load resting on it, and it is itself supported by the hearth over much of its area) that strength was slightly less crucial than for the foundation and hearth.

That said, cracking would still be undesirable (it doesn't matter aesthetically since I will be covering it with granite anyway, but nevertheless, your point is taken)...and all other things being equal, one would generally want to "do it right" just for its own sake.

Hope I didn't ruin it, and I really hope it doesn't suffer structurally (chip, dip, buckle, sink, collapse, etc.). Clearly, there's nothing I can do about it now.

BTW, that's 3/8" rebar. I used 1/2" for the foundation, primary wall cores, and the hearth, but only 3/8" for the cores of the additional side wall and the counter, including over the suspended area. Hope that's okay. If I anticipate a serious problem in advance, I can put more vertical support into that small triangular area on the left, but it would be nice to see the need coming in advance, if you get my meaning.

Thanks for the advice.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Re: 36" in Seattle

Keb,,

The reason I ask is this..

it should be floated with a wood or metal hand float. This embeds aggregate particles just beneath the surface; removes slight imperfections, humps, and voids; and compacts the mortar at the surface in preparation for additional finishing operations. Where a smooth, hard, dense surface is desired, floating should be followed by steel troweling. Troweling should not be done on a surface that has not been floated.

It looks like your using a wood float in the new pic,, May be why your not getting the finish you want...

Did you finish using "metal" ??