New Seattle Oven

[papavino]

Just broke ground for my WFO yesterday. Getting ready to pour concrete this morning. I really appreciate all the photos and posts from people on the site. I'm an absolute neophyte when it comes to constructing anything more than a pinewood derby car (and that was 20 years ago). With the support and help from some friends, I was convinced to give oven building a go and I can't wait to move on to the stand, hearth, dome, etc. It's all very exciting. And there's something satisfactory about walking into Home Depot and saying "I'd like twenty-seven 80# bags of concrete."

I'll post photos of the progress in the hopes that it will help others make the jump off the fence.

[jrparks]

Re: New Seattle Oven

Good luck with your build. There are a couple of us in the Seattle area who are just completing our ovens. Let me know if you have any questions or need to locate materials.
Cheers,

[papavino]

Re: New Seattle Oven

Thanks, JR. I found that Pacific Topsoils was a great place to purchase my pea gravel for the foundation. They charge about $45 for a cubic yard, and pro-rate it for lesser amounts. Much better than the $3.35 per 1/2 cubic foot at Lowes. The foundation pour went pretty smoothly, and now I'm on to laying out my stand. Is there a particular place that's better than the others for the blocks?

[jrparks]

Re: New Seattle Oven

I purchase my block at Home Depot. Lowes should price out about the same. They are relatively inexpensive. When you get ready to lay your oven floor I have a bag of fire clay for you. I purchase too much and was cleaning out my garage this weekend and trying to figure out the best way to dump it. I hope you are taking pictures and goint to post them.
Cheers,

[papavino]

Re: New Seattle Oven

Yeah, we've been taking photos (so far, only with an iPhone as my camera was out of batteries), and will post them as soon as my friend e-mails them to me. Fresh batteries are in the camera and I'll take a photo of the foundation and post it either tonight or tomorrow. You'll see two big hand prints in the center of the foundation. The price I pay for free labor from a friend, I guess.

Thanks for the fire clay, JR. That's extremely nice of you. I probably won't be able to come get it until early June, as I'm leaving for vacation on Saturday morning and won't be back until June 2. We can arrange for me to come pick it up any time after that.

Edit: Trying to load photos. First is of the full foundation. The second is of some big hand prints left by my help. I felt I had to let that slide since it was a lot of manual labor for free.

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: New Seattle Oven

Nice spot for a Pizza Oven. You going to dry-stack the block like most lately or is there a mason within you that's comfortable with mortared joints? Oh, and what size oven are you planning on? Things go pretty quickly on the base once the foundation is poured and dried a few days. It is really exciting venture to build a WFO and we appreciate the pics, even from the iPhone. Take care, Dino

[papavino]

Re: New Seattle Oven

Dino,

I'm going to dry-stack. I started looking at different layouts this morning (slowly hauling blocks from Lowes after work every day). The original plan was for a 31" oven, but I built the foundation large enough to change that to a 36" oven if I changed my mind. And I think I'm changing my mind.

I'm attaching a photo of me admiring the mesh and rebar before pouring the concrete.

[CajunKnight]

Re: New Seattle Oven

nice going, hope you enjoy it as much i have. (i and my family and friend that is)

[papavino]

Re: New Seattle Oven

We're finishing up the stand today. I figure I can do the prep work for pouring the hearth this coming week, then pour next weekend. I may still be on track for being able to fire it up by the end of the month. I almost have all the employees' names down after all of the little trips I made to HD yesterday.

I'll post pictures of the stand construction later.

Thanks again to JR for the fire clay.

[sofizabrava]

Re: New Seattle Oven

Wondering how much the average forno costs to build in Seattle and about how long (in hours)?
Thanks for any info.

[papavino]

Re: New Seattle Oven

I think the build time is highly dependent on your planning, skills, tools available, supply of willing helpers, etc. As far as cost, it seems to be on par with other areas of the country. I've yet to tally up all of my expenses to date, but I'm probably $800 in so far. Not sure how much more I'll spend, but I still need more bricks, insulating blankets, enclosure materials... So probably somewhere around $1500 to $2000. But I feel like this is one of those Master Card commercials where the eventual tag-line is "priceless".