Oven in a hill

[BostonBrad]

Hello all, new to this forum and wow what a resource! I've got a rather adventurous idea for my first WFO and was hoping to get some feedback from you experts...

Has anyone attempted to build an oven recessed into a sloping hill? Essentially it would be buried with only the door visible, think Hobbit hole. My guess is that the dome would fail under the weight of the soil (and any foot traffic) so I was thinking maybe I could make a separate support structure around the entire oven to take the weight. It would also leave an air pocket between the oven and the surrounding soil. Please feel free to tell me this is a stupid idea and not to waste my time and money but please also tell me why. I'm here to learn.

Cheers

[Toomulla]

The devil is in the detail the dome would support the weight insulating and keeping it dry would be the issues

[Gulf]

Hi Brad,

Welcome to the forum. I can't recall one exactly like you are describing. There have been several ovens which were built into a retaining wall, mine included. The weight over the dome is not the problem. Like all arches the weight over and around an arch or dome makes it stronger. The problem is water. Water/ moisture will render the insulation layers useless and and the result will be a very poor performing oven. Many of us who have built into retaining walls took many extra steps to combat water just from getting to the stand under the oven where it can wick upward into the insulation. French drains are a pia to install and there are also moisture barriers to consider. Keeping moisture out of the oven is critical for the oven's performance.

Keep all of this in mind when you design the "support structure and air pocket" around the oven. It will be a lot of extra work and I'm not so sure that it is worth it. But, it can be done, if that is the look that you want and you are willing to do a lot of extra work plus shelling out the $$$.

[deejayoh]

Agree with Toomulla - keeping it dry is probably the biggest issue. Domes are pretty strong and will support a lot of weight, but hydraulic pressure is another issue