A big Hello from England.

[Wickolad]

Hello to all you forum members.
After many months harvesting information from this forums many experienced and highly talented members, I have finally made a start on my WFO.
Having sourced materials over a good length of time, getting bargains where possible ( some turning out to be not so) I got to the stage where I found myself looking for excuses not to make the leap.... and Start the build, probably due inexperience and the fact I like to know exactly what I'm doing before I start. So, having now been furloughed from work due to the Corona virus, I have time on my hands, all the materials required ( I hope) and no valid excuses.
I'm looking to build a 39" Pompeii style domed oven and have started the main base and stand using handmade red clay bricks ( A bargain I recently acquired), incorporating it into an existing retaining wall and using the steps up to the raised garden as under counter storage space. Concrete and rebar foundations laid in the raised side of the garden and first double skinned course of bricks laid to get everything level. Tomorrow I shall start building the main stand to gain the recommended height of approximately 40". The front wall of the base ( the business end) is to include 2x brick arches that will give access to the under counter storage.
Hopefully it will all work out according to the plan I have in my head, but it is a work in progress and quite fluid at the moment. I shall see how the brick fall or hopefully, not.
No doubt, it wont be too long before I'm begging for advice.
Stay safe everyone.

[Podasols]

Hello from Noth Yorks. A tremendous oven - I've admired your photos - just great !
I've recently finished my Pompei - really not sure I'd have ever really got on with it until lockdown.
I'll sort out some photos of the build for this forum in due course , but I've only just joined despite using it for very helpful reference along the way - thank you all.
I have a question - please can you tell me what you used as the adhesive and grout for you final outer layer - the granite or marble ? Also - is it heat and rain resistant ?
My oven is currently a dome of heatproof render awaiting an outer ( largely cosmetic) layer. This is outside mesh / thermal blanket and inner firebrick dome. I have a suitable quantity of slate floor tiling ( about 10mm thick ) which I'm considering cutting into 10cm tiles , probably smaller nearer the top and it's this that I'm wanting to stick/grout.

Many thanks - hope your first pizza was good !

[Wickolad]

Hello from Noth Yorks.
I have a question - please can you tell me what you used as the adhesive and grout for you final outer layer - the granite or marble ? Also - is it heat and rain resistant ?
My oven is currently a dome of heatproof render awaiting an outer ( largely cosmetic) layer. This is outside mesh / thermal blanket and inner firebrick dome. I have a suitable quantity of slate floor tiling ( about 10mm thick ) which I'm considering cutting into 10cm tiles , probably smaller nearer the top and it's this that I'm wanting to stick/grout.

Many thanks - hope your first pizza was good !

Hi Podasols, apologies for the late reply. I didn't receive any notifications so have only just picked up on this.
I first sealed and stabilised the render of the dome using Sika Bond SBR+ before applying the finishing layer of 10mm Granite / Quartz tile.

The granite is bonded with Mapeii Flexible floor and wall tile adhesive, suitable for under floor heating to approx 90 deg C according to Mapeii Technical. Its also mould and water resistant and suitable for exterior use.
I left this to fully dry for 2 days before grouting with Mapeii Ultracolor Plus, which is water resistant, suitable for joints of 2- 20mm, flexible, suitable for underfloor heating, colourfast and quick drying [mix small amounts at a time its only useable for 15 mins depending of OS temp etc.

One thing I would say though is that if you wish to maintain the shape of your dome, you may have to reduce the sizeof your tile as 100mm SQ will give a lot of flat and raised spots. It all depends how smooth you want the finished sphere to look. I found I had to break the tiles into pieces no larger that 3", I got away with a few longer pieces, but these tended to be narrow shards so fell in line pretty much.

Both the adhesive and the cementitious grout are suitable for shower and wet rooms and are safe for Exterior use. I hope this helps, please message if you require any further info.

I'll make sure to look out for your build pictures with interest, happy cooking.

Best wishes,
Lance.

[Podasols]

Hi Lance,

Many thanks for getting back to me. This is really helpful. I've been using Vitcas stuff, and very impressed with it , but they didn't seem to have a suitable grout and suggested I used their tile adhesive as grout. I guess this might be ok, but I like the sound of your stuff and will check it out. The exterior of my dome only gets hand hot when the oven is at about 400 c so well within the range you quote.

I agree with you about the possible exterior tile size. I was hoping to get away with 100mm square at the bottom - where the sides are vertical, but expecting the introduce a taper to the tiles as well as reducing size as I go up. Much the same as I had to do with the bricks for the dome. My existing floor tiles are 300 square so 100 or 75 ( minus cuts ) is easy enough. I'll cut strips and then cut those up with a taper. Unfortunately , it doesn't break cleanly like your granite appears to have done, so I can't do the random shapes you have used - which do look excellent !

I'm clearing the photos off my phone as I write and will try and get them uploaded as soon as poss.

Best wishes,

Simon

[Podasols]

Hi Lance,

I don't know if you'll get some sort of alert as I've now posted my build, but here's the link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KMMqLi8DLT7qiVfb8

Best wishes,

Simon

[Wickolad]

[QUOTE=Podasols;n432491]Hi Lance,

Unfortunately , it doesn't break cleanly like your granite appears to have done, so I can't do the random shapes you have used - which do look excellent

Hi Simon, thanks for that I'll certainly have a good look at your build.

Haha, yes the random shapes. I'm sure you mentioned your tiles were slate or limestone 10mm thick.
I saw a video about breaking tiles for mosaics and the guy simply held the tile chest heigh, arms outstretched and dropped the tile onto a concrete floor. I tried this with my 600x300x10mm granite/quartz tiles and it remained in one piece. I then tried it adding a bit of a throw at the floor, that did it, but only 4 or five pieces at best and it had a tendency to fly anywhere it fancied. I did this for 4 tiles then quit when one hit my inner calf with the corner... Nice jaggered gash to the leg! Not a good idea smashing granite in shorts.
I then decided it was far better to put the tile face down on some clean plywood sheet and hit the back with a hammer. This proved far better and found you could actually alter the shape of the random smash by tilting the face of the hammer rather than a flat strike.
I would imagine this would be a very similar result with slate / limestone tile, may be worth a try.

The Mapeii colorplus grout comes in numerous shades. I found that Screwfix were one of the cheapest suppliers as there was a couple of £ off per 5kg bag.

It sounds like you have it just about sorted, good luck with the grouting and happy cooking.

Best wishes,

Lance.

[Wickolad]

Hi Lance,

I don't know if you'll get some sort of alert as I've now posted my build, but here's the link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KMMqLi8DLT7qiVfb8

Best wishes,

Simon

Hi Simon, I've looked through your build photographs and your resulting oven looks great.

I initially replied with some cautious advice re installing a rear wall to tie the three parallel walls together to restrict any possible lateral movement. Ive deleted that as now I've looked on the laptop and not just on my phone I see you've installed several substantial pieces of angle iron (how on earth could I have missed them haha). They're even slotted into the stone so I would imagine they'll lock everything together fine. I'm definitely no expert, so not in a position to be handing out such advice as my initial deleted reply, as well intentioned as it was. I cannot wait to see your finished dome and would imagine the slate is going to look fantastic.

On a different note, that bread you cooked looks absolutely fabulous, I honestly cannot wait to start cooking and experimenting. You're certainly ahead of me there, I've still to finish my curing fires. I got 4 done over 4 days then it was a wash out for a week. Ive just got to stock up on seasoned timber to get the curing finished and onto some cooking.

Whereabouts are you in North Yorkshire? I love that part of the world and we're regular visitors to Whitby and surrounding areas, a beautiful part of the world.

Keep up the good work.

Best Wishes,
Lance.

[lightsofroy]

Hi Lance - inspirational build, beautifully finished. I'm in the preparatory stages of my build, having recently decided that enough was enough and I should just get off my backside and do it. As it stands I have a hole in the ground. Now just waiting for a suitable run of good weather to get some concrete down. As I write this, it is snowing in Leeds.....It's April and it's snowing! Anyway, i dare say i'll be in touch for advice and guidance at critical points! out of interest, how many firebricks did you get through with your build? cheers, Alex

[Wickolad]

Hi Alex, thank you for your kind words. Hopefully the weather will pick up in the next week or two, its certainly different to last April when I started my build.
You are certainly on the right forum to get advice, help and support with your build. Theres a wealth of knowledge amongst its members who are really generous with their time and efforts to assist.
I'm no expert, what I have learned during the course of my build was all obtained from this site, months of reading through build archives and Q&A's on subjects I wished to get a grip of.
I will gladly provide any advice where I can and hopefully some kind forum member with far more knowledge than I have acquired during my build will come forward and offer you sound advice too.

I seem to recall I used 29 bricks for the cooking floor and approx 150 bricks for the dome, these are cut in half so you actually end up with 300. I also obtained a few spares as backup due to struggling to get materials in lockdown, and not sure how many, if any, i used of those.

There is a very useful excel spreadsheet on this forum, which is a brick cutting angle calculator. Follow the instructions and you are able to enter your brick sizes, oven diameter etc and it calculates how many bricks required for dome, floor and bricks per course or string. I'll try to send you the link.
Also, any queries, have a search through the forum first, if you cannot find what you need please feel free to ask.
If you need a fast response, put it up on the pompeii oven construction part of the forum, it seems to get more traffic on their and faster responses as far as I'm aware.
Good luck with your build, remember help is always at hand.
Best wishes,
Lance.

[Wickolad]

Hi Lance - inspirational build, beautifully finished. I'm in the preparatory stages of my build, having recently decided that enough was enough and I should just get off my backside and do it. As it stands I have a hole in the ground. Now just waiting for a suitable run of good weather to get some concrete down. As I write this, it is snowing in Leeds.....It's April and it's snowing! Anyway, i dare say i'll be in touch for advice and guidance at critical points! out of interest, how many firebricks did you get through with your build? cheers, Alex

Hi Alex,
this is link to the dome calculator spreadsheet I mentioned above. I found it an invaluable tool for calculations bricks and cutting angles.
https://community.fornobravo.com/for...eet-calculator

Regards,
Lance.