pizza oven finish/weather/advice

[Goofypr]

Hi all,

long time reader, not much posting though. I have a clay oven, constructed of a dome firebrick with chimney and door arch, layered with vermiculite on top. As we are in a wet climate mostly, Ireland, I have found I need to weatherproof this oven. The vermiculite after drying out this year is still very crumbly looking. I want to be able to leave it out uncovered year round and be able to use it during rainy periods.

I was was thinking I could scrape off some of the vermiculite and relayed it. Then build a brick wall around oven and fill it with vermiculite for even more insulation. Then put some kind of slabs or roofing across the top to weatherproof it. If it’s sealed airtight, would there be a risk of the bricks combusting? I have seen a video of someone doing it this way, but I felt I may need to leave some kind of vent, to ensure heat if any can escape from vermiculite.

I feel I could attempt a stone build around it but I dont have the carpentry skills to construct a roof, and am considering getting someone to do this job for me. But can’t justify the quotes I’m getting currently as they appear crazy.

Thoughts/advice would be appreciated. Picture of oven below. Thank you.

[Gulf]

The bricks won't burn. It sounds like you are describing a pillbox fort design with a concrete roof. That would work. But it would be much easier to build a simple open shed over the oven. There are plenty of resources on the web for DIYs. Can you post a wide angle side view of the oven? What is that structure behind it?

[Goofypr]

Yes I basically want to build around it and fill it in with vermiculite and put some kind of slabs across top to keep water away. But afraid it might all combust if I use standard bricks or slabs.

[david s]

The usual method with an oven at your stage is to render it with a render/stucco mix and when that’s really dry, paint it with an acrylic paint to waterproof it. You can buy a ready mixed cement render or make your own using 4 parts sand 1 part cement 1 part hydrated lime, by volume. This would be a far less time and money input than building a structure right over the oven.