Cheap Chimney Options

[FalconFlight]

I've just finished building the stand for my pizza oven in my back yard and was pricing out a chimney.

I'm building a 42" low vault dome brick oven. I would like to build a brick chimney from the red bricks I have from my 1930's home. We took out our old chimney for the furnace when we where remodeling.

Do I need to have a Duravent liner or perhaps a Tera cotta liner for this? I'm trying to find a cheaper alternative than buying the 8" anchor plate, chimney and cap.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[SableSprings]

Re: Cheap Chimney Options

I set up a double terra cotta inner liner structure for the functional portion of the chimney and built a regular brick outer (visible) chimney. It's worked great for almost four years now. I added the second liner thinking it would keep the actual bricks from ever getting hot and to keep the "fragile" tile joints more protected...in retrospect, that was overkill. I've attached a few pics below of "what I did". The first three pictures were of the initial build and the temporary winter roof.

The next spring, after I removed the winter roof and built The Dragonfly Den around the completed oven, I extended the chimney with more terra cotta/brick and then created a split brick oven facade making the pompeii dome look like a half-barrel form oven. The upper terra cotta chimney is capped with the spark arrester which keeps water out and flying ash/sparks in (since our summers are pretty dry down here).

More pics on my web site and in my albums (access through the links at the bottom). Hope that helps...

[FalconFlight]

Re: Cheap Chimney Options

This looks really good and is along the same lines as what I was thinking.

Where did you get the terra cotta liner? Also how did you accomplish the transition from the brick to the chimney? Did you use hi temp mortar?

[SableSprings]

Re: Cheap Chimney Options

This looks really good and is along the same lines as what I was thinking.

Where did you get the terra cotta liner? Also how did you accomplish the transition from the brick to the chimney? Did you use hi temp mortar?

Thanks for the complement.

1) Source: I got the liners at Willamette Graystone...possible you have them in Washington, but any place that deals with concrete block and bricks should be able to get them for you. I made the mistake of getting 8" and 12" square pipe and didn't think about the measurements being the outside dimensions. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably just use the 12" and skip the double liner construction.

2) Transition: I cut two tiles at an angle so they fit together and formed a lower, wider base (gathering the smoke emerging from the oven) and a top that matched the uncut tile dimension...basically the two cut sections were joined as a trapezoid. I also had to cut both tops & bottoms so the set would sit fairly flat when I joined them together and provide a flat top joint for the next tile. I used refractory mortar and several sections of nylon line to hold them together. My inner (fire brick) and outer (regular brick) arch opening were sized so I could just set the tile "smoke funnel" on top.

3) Attachment: Each tile I stacked up was joined with refractory mortar. The outer bricks were just set in with type-s mortar (the higher lime & strength stuff).

Hopefully the pictures below will help explain what I did here...the first picture is from the right side of the brick arches and transition area before the flue funnel was put on top. The other pics aren't in order, just thought they might be informative.

Today's baking day so I'm off to bake a dozen baguettes and later tonight a neighbor is bringing down the "stuff" to make Steak Diane in the oven. I'll make sure to take some pics of that. I'll check in tomorrow to see if you have any more questions that I might be able to answer with the flue & chimney.

[FalconFlight]

Re: Cheap Chimney Options

Sounds like you are reaping the benefits of having a wood fired oven.
This will get me started in the right direction. I'm going to a brick manufacturer today, they will probably know where to get terra cotta chimneys if they don't carry them.

Thanks again for the help. I would love to see pics from you baking.

[SableSprings]

Re: Cheap Chimney Options

I went back through my build notes and found that I did use a little refractory mortar to set the base tile "smoke funnel" onto the brick arch. From the pictures you can see that I took firebricks and laid them (with R. mortar) from the arch sides up against the flue tile. I figured that was all I needed to really hold the base tile unit in place. The firebricks and the refractory mortar effectively locked the flue tile column in place while creating a reasonable smoke/hot gases seal.

[FalconFlight]

Re: Cheap Chimney Options

Great thanks! I'm starting to build out my landing. I just found a cheap alternative to the high temp mortar that I was using. Fire clay and S-Mortar Mix (50/50) which was 10 times cheaper than than the premixed mortar I was using. I'm going to give it a try this evening. I wish I had known before I bought the other stuff.


Did you by chance take any photos of your dinner party?