Greetings from Wisconsin

[cplain]

Waving the newbie flag here. My family and I are moving to Madison, Wisconsin in two months...buying a house with almost an acre lot. It's just calling for a wood fired oven. Like many others I've been reading about, I have no masonary experience. But looking over postings and reading your tales of adventure I'm confident I'll muddle through.

Already have a rough idea on an oven/bbq combination. I'm not planning on starting until spring of 09...so allowing plenty of time to learn, plan and ask lots of questions of you all. Hopefully will also give me some time to scrounge free/cheap materials.

So I'm looking forward to the collective wisdom of you all...and if anyone who's built an oven in the Wisconsin area would like to get together...I'd love to see and learn in person.

Thanks.,..

[thebadger]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Cplain

Let me be the first to welcome you. I'm in Cincinnati. I started my oven building planning last March. I'm getting ready to cure/insulate.

Don't worry about masonry skills - I had/still don't have any and still was able to pull it off. I will say I'm somewhat a DIY'er so that helped out a lot.

Just ask a lot of questions and use the plans FB provided.

Dick

I know, I know - given your northern climate be sure to do research on the type of footer you'll use.

[cplain]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Dick

Thansk for kind words of encouragement. I checked out your thread on "the badger build"...very impressive! You're an inspiration to guys like me thinking about undertaking this project.

Craig

[CajunKnight]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Welcome aboard and hope you enjoy your stay. I understand the feeling on looking for cheap and free materials. I plan to build for as little as possible myself.

[dbhansen]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Nice to see another Wisconsinite! Welcome. I'm up in the Fox Cities area (Appleton). No oven yet, but I'm hoping to be done building one by the end of summer.

[gjbingham]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Wiscaansen, huh? Welcome. I bet you don't last till '09 till you start. Easy stuff - oven building. Don't waste a year. Download the free plans from the FB store and read them several times. Decide how you want to proceed, then go for it.

[SpringJim]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Yeah, welcome....do some searching...there are loads of good posts here

[cplain]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

I'm doubtful I'll last a year until starting but I've got a few thing slowing me down:
1. It's going to take months to get thru the posts on the forum. Lots of good stuff I need to learn about (for example, I just now realized WFO = Wood Fired Oven...I thought it was some take on WTF {what the f*ck])
2. Wife has got painting and installing of wood floors at new house, then have to rebuild deck before I can start on WFO
3. It'll take some time to scrounge up freebies...it's gonna have to be "cost effective"

Already learning so much...great group here. Seeing all the other projects really makes a guy want to jump in...

[jcg31]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Hey Cplain, welcome to the forum and Wisconsin. I am up in Sherwood, about an hour-forty northeast of you and 10 minutes from dbhansen. The upper midwest isn't particularly well represented in the wfo world so it is great to get the beginnings of critical mass going here in Wisconsin. My oven is nearly complete with finishing work on the enclosure all that remains. Interestingly I started my oven in the late fall and worked through the winter and I am finding that I was a whole lot more productive on the build and attentive to the forum during the less pleasant weather months than I have been this spring. Part of that is due to the fact that I am spending too much time playing with the oven and not enough finishing and part because the arrival of tolerable temps brings other distractions. At current run I should be done by the 4th.

Moving to means moving from, where might that be?

[cplain]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Moving from Milwaukee. Got a job with Madison Area Technical College (I plan on hitting up instructors in construction and culinary arts for tips as I move along on this project)

I just got done reading about thermocouples and saw your postings there and clicked on your webcam link. Very cool! Does it work during firings? If so you'll have to publish a schedule so we can watch.

[asudavew]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Wiscaansen, huh? Welcome. I bet you don't last till '09 till you start. Easy stuff - oven building. Don't waste a year. Download the free plans from the FB store and read them several times. Decide how you want to proceed, then go for it.

George is right on!
It quickly becomes an obsession!

Welcome aboard.

Dave

[schallert]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Cplain,

West Madison here. Have been really excited about this for a few weeks, started excavation for the foundation a few days ago. This oven will be apart of an elevated patio in my backyard, up a hill. I have some questions regarding building the stand partially into the hillside. Drainage, backfill, and foundation base. Can you or anyone provide me with info to help?

Also, any CODE issues?

Dan

[dmun]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

We've seen ovens partly supported by retaining walls, the hearth poured directly on the ground behind the wall. The retaining wall should be masonry, and have proper footings, not a stack of railroad ties.

Most building departments consider freestanding pizza ovens the same as barbeques, and don't issue permits or do inspections. The same setback from property line issues apply as for sheds. (Here, five feet) Your chimney should be two feet above anything within 10 feet.

Welcome!

[cplain]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Dan:

Great to have somebody so close...

I can't answer on code because mI haven't looked into that yet...we've yet to move. Also, I'm actually going to be in the town of Blooming Grove. Until it's annexed by Madison, it appears the town wroks well with builders...their one inspector is very nice and helpfu.

Big question...where are you getting materials? Did you buy firebrick, mortar, etc. yet? I haven't had time to do much looking yet...

Craig

[schallert]

Re: Greetings from Wisconsin

Craig,

Same here. We can share a lot of learnings and have the opportunity to see results and techniques first hand. I just in the planning phase. I have my new patio roughed in and before I create the backside retaining wall and pavers, I need to excavate the foundation properly. I will document and share my plans before I begin. This forum is the awesome. Such great people with shared passion. We can discuss building materials soon.

Dan