Wisconsin Considerations

[manumit]

Manumit,
. I really like the red " stone " that you made. Can you supply any links on how to make one?

You WFO looks great

7caesers
Sorry for the delay in responding. Evidently I missed the notification of a reply.

I used concrete dye from menards. I think it was one pint per bag of concrete. I think it took me 3 bags/pints, but it might have been 4. I bought some diamond polishing pads from amazon and a variable speed polisher from harbor freight. It's not supposed to be used with water, but wet polishers are pretty expensive, so I didn't want to spring for one of them. I built a form with a piece of melamine covered mdf and square trim pieces. They've got some flex to them so I could bend them to get the curve I wanted for the front. They were the thickness I wanted the counter to be, so I didn't need to cut them down, which was nice. I had no idea what I was doing, so I just did what "seemed" right and it worked out pretty well.

After a week of setting I took it out of the form and ground it down to expose the aggregate. The polishers need to be used wet, so I'd spray down the concrete, polish, spray, polish... Exposing the aggregate also exposes lots of holes. I saved a little bit of dye from the concrete and made a slurry to fill the holes that will be exposed when you polish. The color doesn't have to be exactly the same because it's already all over with the exposed aggregate. After that set I'd polish it again, and then filled again. I think I filled 3 times to get all the holes.

There is a lot of writing online about concrete counter tops, and I read a lot of that before I did mine. Hope that helps. let me know if you have any more questions, or want clarification on a specific spot.

https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/concrete-cement-masonry/concrete-accessories/liquid-colorfast-1-pt/lc0101aa-p/p-1444429453383-c-5642.htm

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HR5PP9W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[RandyJ]

Randy,

In your neck of the woods the other day visiting the step son in White Bear. Got put to work, made many trips to Menards (we don't have them here in Ut). So while you are doing all your remods you can start scounging around for oven number 2 materials. Since you been through it once you know the drill and this oven will be built faster more efficiently.

Hey Russell, sorry it never worked out for you to stop by and check out the oven. Hopefully we can change that on version 2.0. Yes menards is a great place and they are getting lots of my money here lately as well. I agree that i should be able to knock out the next one faster.

[7caesers]

Manumit,
. I really like the red " stone " that you made. Can you supply any links on how to make one?

You WFO looks great

[UtahBeehiver]

Randy,

In your neck of the woods the other day visiting the step son in White Bear. Got put to work, made many trips to Menards (we don't have them here in Ut). So while you are doing all your remods you can start scounging around for oven number 2 materials. Since you been through it once you know the drill and this oven will be built faster more efficiently.

[Chach]

We do plan to build another oven at the new house but have not had the time to do so yet. I completely gutted the lowest level of the house and completely re did that and tore out the upper level bathroom and just finished that . Now we are in the middle of a addition where we are creating a master bedroom out of a tiny bedroom. So i will have to build a new patio after the addition is completed amd i plan to build a new oven for that and probably also include a Santa Maria grill. I am hoping to get started on it this year but that all depends on how fast i get through the rest of this stuff. I have to take over on the addition after it is framed and enclosed and then do the rest of the work myself. Hopefully i can save some serious cash that way. I also can't wait to stop throwing money out the window as fast as i can.

It never ends...there is always something to do or somewhere to go that puts all our projects on the back burner. I don't even see the money anymore. It gets direct deposited then electronically spent...

[RandyJ]

We do plan to build another oven at the new house but have not had the time to do so yet. I completely gutted the lowest level of the house and completely re did that and tore out the upper level bathroom and just finished that . Now we are in the middle of a addition where we are creating a master bedroom out of a tiny bedroom. So i will have to build a new patio after the addition is completed amd i plan to build a new oven for that and probably also include a Santa Maria grill. I am hoping to get started on it this year but that all depends on how fast i get through the rest of this stuff. I have to take over on the addition after it is framed and enclosed and then do the rest of the work myself. Hopefully i can save some serious cash that way. I also can't wait to stop throwing money out the window as fast as i can.

[manumit]

So did you build a WFO at your new house? After having one I'd have a hard time going back to not having one.

[RandyJ]

Lol that is the truth for sure. I quit keeping track of the budget once i lapped my original 3k i had planned. It wasn't much more than 6k but i stopped keeping track and just wanted it done. But i know how you feel. Sometimes better just to not know and if you spread it out it i not so painful.

[manumit]

If I had counted the time I put into building it I would probably have done the same thing as I did with the budget. At some point I reached a spot where I didn't want to know anymore so I stopped keeping track. It was going to take what it took, and me knowing was just going to make me cringe. On the other hand, I did it so slowly that both the time and budget were spread over several years. It didn't seem so expensive that way.

[RandyJ]

Congratulations on getting it done. I would say that i never actually finished mine. I used it as finished for several years till we sold the house but there were several things i still wanted to do to finish it. Oh well that is the new owners problem now i guess.

as to your points.

1. You are correct that everything takes longer than you think. Or at least you think you have more free time than it turns out that you do. I put roughly 300 hrs in to mine in 3 months.

2. There is nothing you cant do. Just things that you haven't done yet. I deal with this at work all the time. Take it slow and think it through andyou can do almost anything.

3. I wish i was a better planner, but i have a tendency to wing a lot of stuff. Most work out great but there are times i look like a fool.

[manumit]

Lessons learned:

1. People are bad at estimating how long it will take them to do something.
- Before I started I thought this project would take me about 6 weekends over the course of one summer.
- 5 years later... I finish

2. You don't have to actually KNOW how to do anything if you're willing to try stuff and figure it out.
- I made a lot of things I would describe as mistakes on this project, and would have done some things differently.
- I also learned a lot

3. Plan more and better
- Someone else's plans and directions are good, but not a substitute for your own.
- I could have saved myself a lot of time and frustration with better planning.

Thanks to the forum for the suggestions and pictures of your respective builds. They were tremendously helpful. Particularly mfiore . I referenced his pictures A LOT.

[manumit]

Year 5, aka 2019:

There are a ton of photos of a day's work of putting on finishing stone. None are particularly interesting and are all pretty incremental. It is done.

[manumit]

This was the summer I also changed careers and had considerably more free time to work on the WFO. However, this is also the extent of the work I got done this year. The season ended / I got busy. - year 4 done.

[UtahBeehiver]

Thanks for sharing, that is one serious footing.

[manumit]

The mice love that ceramic insulating blanket during the winter while its covered with a tarp. As a result the whole thing stank of mouse urine when I opened it up to work on the following spring.

I switched the chimney type because I had a big crack in the front arch and I was worried about it supporting the heavier chimney type.