Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

[james]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Thanks guys. George, the material is a greenish grey slate, with the odd gold piece thrown in. We are using that for all the decks and patios, and we picked it up on the counters and landings. We are going to experiment with a mix of 12" and 16" tiles for the patio, to break up the lines of the traditional 12" tile. The house has grey window casings (faux Tuscan limestone -- pietra serena), and they seem to work pretty well with the grey slate.

The walls are all concrete block and caps, covered with a two-coat stucco. The stuff we used on the house. It's all going to be yellow, to match the oven, the house and the fireplace.

Tomorrow is a new day. We'll see how far we get.
James

[Acoma]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

James, this site looks so well planned, so beautiful. I envy the location of its use. How lucky your neighbors are.

[gjbingham]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Very cool! I love the blue tile (it is tile?) on the front of the oven landing. The wall looks great. What material are they capped with? It looks like concrete.

[james]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Here are the latest photos. We've added a block wall to define the space, and we're putting a "back" on the left hand side to make a seating bench. Lost of couple of days to rain -- otherwise we're humming along.

I can't wait to clean up!
James

[james]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Phew.

Regular mortar, cleaned when it is still a little wet to make way for the grout. Our mortar is grey and the group is a shade of linen.

James

[Ken524]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Ahhh... Thanks! THAT'S the pic I wanted to see. It didn't make any sense to me to have backer board sandwiched between the vent bricks and decorative bricks.

Did you use refractory mortar for the decorative arch or plain mortar?

Thanks so much for the guidance.
Ken

[james]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Ken,

One more thing. I was wrong in my description of the backer board. It is flush with the vent wall bricks. Here's the photo.
James

[james]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Chris,

It definitely helps having a couple of trusted guys to work with. Our team has been together for months and we work well together at this point. Here are the forms for the patio, and the oven and fireplace are almost ready for paint. We're going to match the house, with a yellow base coat and a brown glaze.

Maybe the oven won't look so big after it's been painted. :-)

James

[christo]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

James,

Do you plan to take 80 grit sandpaper and a random orbit sander to smooth out the saw cuts that show on the fireplace opening or do you have something else planned?

You are rapidly getting ahead of me on the patio front!!! I need another 2 tons of crusher run to finish leveling off ( I hope its the last 2 tons - I think I have 10 in there now....)

Christo

[james]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Ken,

We did tar paper and wire lathe on all the hardibacker, the same way we did the house. It helps holds the stucco and stone.

James

[Ken524]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

faced the bricks with hardibacker, setting it back about 1/2" to allow for a mortar joint, then mortared the stone arch against the backer.

Thanks James...

Did you attach the stone to the hardibacker in any way other than mortar?

Looks great!

[james]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Here is the start of the expanded patio. There is an existing smaller patio with a pink flagstone that doesn't go with the house or summer kitchen, so we are extending it and covering it all with the grey slate from the kitchen counters.

Forms today; concrete tomorrow.

The best news of all -- I de-thatched the lawn and re-seeded it, and it worked! We don't have to replace it with sod. Excellent.
James

[james]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Ken,

One more thing. Here is the mortar bag we've been using for all the wall joints.

James

[james]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

Hi Ken,

We butted the metal studs right up to the vent wall bricks, and faced the bricks with hardibacker, setting it back about 1/2" to allow for a mortar joint, then mortared the stone arch against the backer. Mortar the arch with the forms still in place and let it all dry. We can back through with a grinder and smoothed out the rough edges and the face of the stone.

Here's a photo -- it's funny, it shows that we need to improve mortar the joint between the stone arch and the vent brick. Thanks for that!

Regards,
James

[Ken524]

Re: Time to finish the oven; add fireplace

James,

I've been studying the construction pics of the big arch on your oven.

I see where you put the concrete board flush with the fire brick entry. Did you then build the limestone arch and mortar it to the concrete board and brick? Or did you stucco the board, then mortar the limestone to the stucco? Was the limestone somehow attached to the concrete board?

Do you have an pics showing the arch being mortared?

I want to do a nearly identical front to my oven and would appreciate any guidance.

Thanks!