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Moving a commercial modular oven!

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  • Moving a commercial modular oven!

    I am currently in the process of moving my restaurant to a new location,
    and having failed to find any relevant thread on this particular topic, I
    decided to start one.
    I have a Modena 160 oven. 6 foot diameter on a stand, it had been finished
    with a light weight gypsum bonding plaster coat and mosaic tiled (as in pic).



    My dilema was how to get this out of the building it's in, moved 30 miles,
    and in to it's new location.
    Moving it in one piece would involve knocking a wall in the previous
    restaurant and removing several door frames, not a major issue. But getting
    it into the new (much smaller) location would require removing the entire
    shop front fascia on a listed building, with mains electricity cables, phone
    cables etc. all having to be moved temporarily. This was obviously not an
    option. So we decided to dismantle the oven. It started with chipping off all
    the lovely tiles and the plaster work.



    Then we removed the five interlocking sections of the dome. This was
    surprisingly easy. When we first assembled the oven, we pointed and sealed
    all joints with refractory cement, as per oven installation instructions. But
    these joints seem to have shrank slightly on drying out, leaving a hairline
    crack along each joint. This meant each section pulled apart easily, with the
    only difficulty being the shear weight of them. Apologies, I did not take any
    pic at this point. Then we were left with the stand, oven base, and the
    precast oven floor.



    This is where we ran into problems. The precast floor has a large meandering
    crack in it which has actually left the floor in three separate pieces. The floor
    sits loosely on top of the insulation bricks inside the base tray with a 8"
    (approx) space between it and the edge of the tray. As this tray is the the
    widest part of the whole unit, we would have to tilt and turn it to maneuver it
    in and out of the different buildings. Since the floor is in pieces, we don't
    want to risk any further damage by taking it out of the tray but if left in the
    tray it would slide around when tilted and possible crumble to bits. So we cut
    short pieces of 3x2 to surround the floor, wedging it into place.



    This is our progress so far. In the next couple of days I will post more pics of
    the move. We intend to ratchet strap the floor to the tray to make the whole
    thing as one, then lift it off the stand with an engine hoist, and we could
    possibly roll it on the tray's side assuming it's all solid. We shall see...
    Last edited by andrewpizza; 06-07-2015, 03:10 AM.

  • #2
    Re: Moving a commercial modular oven!

    When you strap it together place 2x4 pieces across the top to add support across the center of the floor. The straps alone will stretch allowing the slab to possibly shift . Since you put the shorts around the perimeter you may want to screw those top pieces into the shorts you have in place and strap over the whole thing. A piece or two of sturdy ply with a couple of 2x4 pieces near the center to add downforce would also be good.

    Drawing tries to show ply over your shorts and ply screwed to shorts.

    2 -- 2x4 risers for downforce. You may want to also screw these risers to the ply from below.
    And
    Straps over everything.

    Good luck that is a big thing to move
    Last edited by mrchipster; 06-07-2015, 06:02 AM.
    Chip

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