Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Here we go, second time lucky... I hope! Now that the temperatures have finally risen above freezing we were able to redo this thing.

Do you know, my husband is completely incapable of lifting a sack of cement without ripping a hole in it? Does that often happen to you lot? I'm telling you, the car, the garden path, the shop, all covered in a sprinkling of gray powder... but I should talk, I'm just incapable of lifting one.

It'll be so nice to be building something again!

[berryst]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Well sometimes a mule is just a mule. But other times you just gotta thank god that you've got that beautiful animal makes all the difference

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Of course you're absolutely right berryst, I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without the help and support from my husband. Who cares about a little bit of cement dust...

So here's the progress, such as it is. One pic with what I've got and one with the Chimney I originally wanted to put on the Pizza oven before I realised it wouldn't stand the heat. The next challenge is how to get from the basic square shape of the bottom up to a round resting place for said chimney. Should have built another dome, shouldn't I?

I'm exactly five bricks short for the archway in front, and the local seller said they'd only sell hem by the palet . So I called up the production place, 1 1/2 hours drive away, to ask if they could help... They have put the bricks in a box and had them delivered to a construction site five minutes away from here... For free, just like that. Made my day, I can tell you, what a nice person!

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

And here is the second leaning arch of Allschwil.

Working on this really makes me wonder how I ever managed to build a whole brick pizza oven all by myself. I stand and look at it in wonder before turning round and taking half an hour to slap another not-quite-streight brick not quite in place...

Must have been posessed by the WFO deamons, is all I can think of.

[egalecki]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Repeat after me, "imperfections add character".

I look at my oven too and wonder "how on earth did I do that?". Now I'm trying to figure out how to make the gas grill disappear altogether so I can usurp the place I made for it so I can build a grill.. Do you suppose my husband would notice if it just disappeared???? Would he think it ran away?

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Funny you should mention that - I told mine that the insides of our gas grill had rusted away.

Admittedly this also happens to be true, but he didn't go out and check...

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Ok people, I've realised what I'm building here is more like an outside fireplace than anything else. And now I need some advice, please.

As you can see I'm doing the transition from the firebricks to the chimney a bit like I did for the vent transition on my oven with a polystyrene plug to give the inside shape. Then that'll be covered with about 6 cm of concrete or mortar or somesuch...

So can I use regular mortar, or do I need to get hold of some refactory stuff? How hot is it all going to get? How does cement hold up to fire anyway? Because I'm also wondering whether I can have the fire right on the concrete hearth or whether it also needs to be covered with firebrick...

And another thing, will it need insulating on the outside or could I just slap some mortar over the bricks? Will it get hot enough to cause cracks?

Does anyone know what commercial fireplaces are made out of?

Google has been singularly unhelpful, so I'd be really grateful for any ideas or advice!

[dusty]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Hi Francis,

I know I have been away for a while...but is that your barbeque-grill thingy? I ask because I never thought of it having a top and a chimney.

But since it does, I suppose it will get really hot in there. Like an oven probably. May want to use high-heat mortar, even if is the homemade kind with the portland, sand, lime, and fireclay. It may crack, so perhaps you should wait until that is all done with before you mortar the outside.

I don't suppose you will care to insulate it unless you are concerned with it retaining heat.

And you can light a fire right on the cement, if it is properly cured (not wet) it won't hurt.

Either way, when it is done and covered with beautiful mosaics, as I'm sure it will be, no one will care!

dusty

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Hey Dusty, nice to hear from you!

Thank you for your advice... in actual fact I just slapped on some regular concrete I had lying around so we'll just have to see how that turns out. I'll light a few test fires before adding the next layer. And you're right, mosaics will cover a multitude of sins.

The chimney was meant for the pizza oven originally, and so it was also lying around - which is the reason why my barbeque-grill thingy will have a roof. I suppose I should start calling it a barbeque-grill-fireplace thingy instead. Catchy name...

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Progress report: The grill is now ready for a first fire up to see how many cracks I'll get and whether it can be covered with mosaic as is.

First pic shows why its important to use some kind of releasant when making a mould...

I ended up covering the bricks with a mixture of vermiculite, mortar and cement, in the hope that it would give some slight insulation and be a bit more heat resistant. It's also a good mixture for filling and shaping - I got the idea out of a book on cement sculptures. Then I covered the outside with a layer of mortar and the inside with some left over refactory mortar stuff.

Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed... I'll let you know how it turns out!

[cynon767]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

It looks like you have the makings of a great Argentenian asado parrilla there! Mmmmm, chimichurri!

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

An asado parilla is basically a big grill... right? Where you grill a whole heap of stuff very slowly over coals? It looks really good, but I can't quite work out what makes it different from a regular grill...

Anyway finished the floor of the oven with firbrick on a bed of sand, and added the roof, which needed some slight adjusting to fit over the archway. And then we lit the first fire...

...smoke all over the place . Probably (and this is a wild guess here) the dimensions are all wrong and I think the chimney may not be wide enough. But after sawing a bit out of it I discoverd its out of copper, so of course the chimney stays. I'll just have to remember not to hang out the washing when I want to use it.

It grilled the sausages very nicely. And the fire didn't go out or anything. No cracks so far. So I think I'll just call it a resounding success and get on with the decorating...

[cynon767]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

An asado parilla is basically a big grill... right? Where you grill a whole heap of stuff very slowly over coals? It looks really good, but I can't quite work out what makes it different from a regular grill...

A parrilla is a grill, yes... Traditionally, asado was meat stetched over frames and grilled over open pit fires; it is still often done this way, but these days grill is often built into a fireplace like yours. Sometimes it's referred to simply as a parrilla, or else called a churrasquera. The brick walls and semi-enclosed box are reported to provide some amount of reflected/radiated heat, although I can't really verify how true that is. Also, by building the firebox with an open front, it's easy to arrange the coals for heat control.

Whatever you call it, yours looks great, and I can't wait to see how the decorations come out!

[Frances]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

One last post on this thing before I start the decorations....

Well I blocked up the gap between the roof/chimney bit and the grill with vermcrete, and it improved the draw no end (surprise, surprise... )

We had a grill party for our twins 6th Birthday last Saturday with 25 people. It all worked out very well, plenty of room to grill lots of stuff all at once, and the distance between the fire and the grill thingy turns out to be just right, too. (One brick width, in case you were wondering.)

We had everyone making their own shish kebab things with a choice of lamb, beef, chicken, bacon, three different sausages, mushrooms, onions, peppers, aubergine, marrow and cherry tomatoes.

It was delicious, nearly as good as what comes out of the oven!

[christo]

Re: Pompeii Grill in Switzerland

Frances!! You've been busy while I've been gone. It all looks great!. Makes me wish I'd left room on my patio for that. Bet that will also warm up the area on cool (oh yes Switzerland - make that cold) nights.

Really nice job and the spread for dinner looked excellent. I especially like the big rose napkins - My wife keeps trying to sneak things like that into our house. I stop her every chance I get. But she's more a roadrunner and I'm more coyote....

Christo