Greetings From Louisiana

[Erniegarcia76]

Hello all! I've posted a few posts, but thought I would introduce myself more. I'm an internist and sleep specialist in Louisiana, an avid cook, and just had a 34 inch custom WFO put in my backyard. I've always loved cooking, and am essentially the only cook in the house. I've wanted a WFO for years, and had the plans to build one. But, when my wife had a mason come and price out some stone work in the front and back of the house, and he mentioned he'd built over 50 WFO's, I had him give me a price. He ended up giving me a very good price in my opinion, and I set the dimentions that I wanted. This gentleman builds ovens based on his 2-3 years in Navaho country and his experiences with their ovens. He really did a great job, and the oven is performing wonderfully. I fully cured it, and still got some cracks in the stucco. He is going to come back in around 6 weeks, let it crack some more (almost inevitable), and then apply a mesh and more stucco on the exterior to minimize it long term. There are no interior cracks to speak of so far, only spider cracks in exterior stucco.

It takes me about two hours to get it up to pizza temp, and it holds heat tremendously. His insulation measures are almost over the top, but it really pays off with it's ability to keep in the heat.

Anyway, I've attached one picture for everyone. This was my first cure burn, just a few sheets of newspaper...I just really like the picture!

[AndrewL]

Re: Greetings From Louisiana

Welcome Erniegarcia!
I hope you post a few more pics. I am interested in what a WFO might be like from someone who has built 50. How long did it take? Why was the insulation over the top?
BTW; 2 hours to heat up seems a bit long.

[Erniegarcia76]

Re: Greetings From Louisiana

I posted pictures of the oven in the photo sections. And, given I've only fired it up to temp 3 times, I expect the heating time to improve over the next 8-10 firings.

The insulation of the dome included the fire brick dome, 4 inches of fire clay, 6 inches of concrete, 4 more inches of fire clay, 6 inches of compacted sand, and then the exterior brick/stucco shell. There is a foot of cement/vermiculite mix under the hearth.

None of his ovens look the same, he is quite the mason.

[eprante]

Re: Greetings From Louisiana

Wow! That is a lot of thermal mass on the dome. Should take a while to get hot. I couldn't find your pictures Ernie, what section did you post them in.

Eric

[fxpose]

Re: Greetings From Louisiana

The insulation of the dome included the fire brick dome, 4 inches of fire clay, 6 inches of concrete, 4 more inches of fire clay, 6 inches of compacted sand, and then the exterior brick/stucco shell. There is a foot of cement/vermiculite mix under the hearth.

By 6 inches of concrete I hope you meant cement/vermiculite mix, because otherwise, what you've got on your dome seem like all thermal mass.

[Erniegarcia76]

Re: Greetings From Louisiana

Yes, it's a cement/verm mixture. My pictures are in the brick oven photo section, I'll put them on this thread tonight when I get home.