42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

[spidersden]

Hello,

I've been a member for a while, but haven't had a place to actually build an oven. We purchased our first house early this year, and now that we're settled in, I'd like to get to work on the oven.

I've had a lot of trouble deciding where to put the oven, but feel that my wife and I have finally got a decent plan worked out. I thought that I'd throw it on the forum and get opinions from other people with more experience.

The grand plan is to add a 14 foot by 28 foot room extension with an indoor 42" pompeii oven tucked into a corner of the 14 foot exterior wall. We'll add counter top w/ a sink, and possibly a mini-fridge, then use the low-ceiling space behind the counter as a closet for WFO tool storage. The room should theoretically be big enough to hold an 8' regulation pool table and an assortment of little 2 & 4-top tables for friends and family gatherings.

This will be a rather lengthy project, proceeding as funding is available, I imagine it will take us at least 2 years to get the entire thing completed. I want to get started with the oven as phase 1, and plan to pour the foundation for the rest of the room when I pour the foundation slab for the oven.

Have I completely lost my mind with this project? Any glaring problems that I'm not seeing? Any special pointers that will keep us from burning down the entire house will be appreciated as well.

I look forward to everyone's input.

Thanks,
~Scott

[Grimaldi]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

Maybe take things one thing at a time if you don't all the funds available to do the plan all in one shot? I would build the oven 1st without starting on the rest of the plan. When you are enjoying a completed oven, the rest of the plan will have a better chance of coming together. IMO

[spidersden]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

I'm a little concerned that I'll have trouble getting heavy equipment wedged between the oven and the house to dig out the foundation for the addition if I build the oven first. Lots of rock and trees that large machinery doesn't navigate around very well.

I just noticed that the pictures attached to the first post are rather tiny. Not sure what the deal is with that, must have happened when I edited the post to fix a typo. I'm gonna try and get the attachments right this time.

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

I have a few questions. What type of flooring are you looking to do for this extension concrete or framed wood? If it's going to be a poured concrete floor you can do the footers and slab first then build the oven then the rest can be worked around when time permits. Also I noticed the house has a second floor to the house the reason I ask is when you fire the oven will the smoke go in the second story of the house. Building codes will not require you to go real high with the WFO chimney so it will be in line with the upstair windows.

First thing you should do is go and sit down with your local building official he will give you information on how the chimney needs to be and safeguards that he will be looking for on inspections. The second is your insurance company and find out if they have any restrictions on WFO.

Have fun and good luck.

[spidersden]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

I believe we're going to go with framed wood for the floors. I think that will leave us the most flexibility for plumbing the counters and getting proper slope on the sewage lines, etc. We'll have to work in some extra support columns under the floor to support the weight of a pool table, but that's not too much extra effort or expense if you're planning on it from the start.

We do have a second floor on the house, it consists of a guest bedroom on the front of the house, a full bath, and a small office on the back of the house. The 3d picture is looking toward the back of the house. We've got a lot of large tulip poplars on the property that act as wind breaks, so that keeps the wind reasonably calm. I'm not sure if I consider a little smoke in the office to be a bad thing, as it'll pull me away from this stupid computer and get me cookin pizza/bread/etc :-)

The only wood fired oven I've spent a lot of time around is a rather large commercial bread oven. How much smoke do these "small" ovens really put off? I run a smoker just off the back porch for 8 hours at a time and generally enjoy the smell of hickory and cherry smoke throughout the house, as it always precedes yummy goodness.

We checked with our insurance company about the oven when we purchased the house, but we were planning on having it be a detached entity at that time. With it detached, it wouldn't affect prices at all. My wife will be checking with them soon to make sure insurance costs won't be insane since we've changed the plans.

Call it country living if you will, but when grilling or running the smoker outside, flies seem to show up by the hundreds here. So, after a summer of fly swatting and cursing the little bugs, I got to thinking that maybe we should close in the oven room. And then I got to thinking "Hey... I really miss playing pool, I wish I had room for a pool table" and things have basically gone downhill from there. I'm fortunate to have a very patient wife.

If I can figure out who the local building officials are around here, I'll try to catch up with them. We're technically in the county, and the county just started enforcing code Jan 1, 2010.

Thanks for the advice,
~Scott

[rodeair]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

I would suggest a concrete slab with footings for the outer walls and extra rebar/mesh for under the wfo. It's not much of a problem to run conduits for elec, and water lines in the slab. This way you can build the oven before building the walls for the room. When pouring the slab, locate the "J" hooks for the walls so they will be in place when the WFO is finished. It's kind of like building a bank. First the vault, then the structure.

[Lburou]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

You are asking for input and I think that is a good idea. I certainly understand about flies. We have the same problem and made a screened porch to keep them away. In the planning stage, that room grew in dimension and even got a second floor and a balcony added above. All-in-all, it was a very good addition to the enjoyment of our home.


When I looked at your proposed footprint, I wondered why you put the stove away from your existing covered deck? Seems it would complement both the original deck and the new pool room if it were close to the existing deck. I realize you probably had a reason to design it like you did

Let's face it, we (or our heirs) will sell our homes someday. It pays to make additions that actually appeal to potential buyers. One goal I had when we did our home remodel was that the final result would not look like it was just an 'add-on' and the money spent would be easily recovered when the house is sold. (Clicking on my user name will take you to my Profile. There, you will see links for my 'Albums'. There is an album there showing our home makeover).

I want to say, as kindly as possible, that you might do well to get some professional advice in designing your addition. Maybe a brother-in-law......?

P.S. A good carpenter/builder will save you a lot of wasted energy, materials and do-overs while complying with the Uniform Building Code requirements.

[rodeair]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

Following the train of thought from the previous post, if it's an off-grade structure, build the corner WFO with concrete foundation, etc., and incorporate that foundation in your first floor pier structure.

[Nic The Landscaper]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

My Only critique is why place the entire oven inside the room you are trying to create? It is expensive to build structures, why not let the back of the oven protrude out of the wall, allowing you to maximize the use of the new space.

as for construction if you build it into a wall, just follow building code instructions for a masonry fireplace and you'll be dialed.

[spidersden]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

Thanks for all the input.

Lee, I plan on running the idea by at least one friend of mine in the construction industry, and a neighbor who's also in construction. Both of them have the machinery necessary for digging footers and foundation slabs, and I'd much rather throw them some money and get the work done than to spend a little less to rent the equipment and do it myself. Always good to help out friends and neighbors.

As far as the oven placement... Well... I've drawn that oven all over our property I've had it plugged into the dining room wall, attached to the back porch, next to the porch, tucked in the corner between the den and master bath, pushed square against the master closet, etc. Most of the reasons for the oven placement boil down to being either large rock outcroppings, or trees. I'd rather not kill any of the trees that help keep my power bills low in the summer. My wife will put a stop to the entire project if her big Christmas tree is threatened in any way

Nic, I gave thought to making the addition be 14x22 and letting the rear of the oven stick out of the back, but think I'll gain some useful closet/storage space if I extend the room another 6 feet. I'll still have a reasonably sized room for game-play and family time, and be able to keep the oven tools tucked safely inside and out of site when they're not in use. Ceiling height beyond the front of the oven will rapidly get too short for me if I match the slope of the existing roof, so I figured that it would make prime real-estate for storage. If I leave the room 14x28, AND stick the oven out of the back, I'll end up too close to the properly line and potentially have problems with the city/county/neighbor.

Photos of the back of the house (there is a small pond to the right of the bush-covered-rock in the middle picture.)

[Lburou]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

You'd better put some safety cones around that tree

Good luck, I like your plan to get by with a little help from your friends

[spidersden]

Re: 42" Indoor Pompeii w/ room addition

Well, things are falling into place little by little. I've been given ~65 block which should make a good dent in the oven stand. I've also had a friend tell me that he would drop by with his little track-hoe and dig the footers for the addition and dig out the oven slab for free. I don't have the building permit yet and the weather has been miserable, so we haven't broken ground.

It occurred to me today that 6x6 might not be a big enough stand for an indoor 42" oven. With this being indoors, I would like to make sure all the smoke goes up the chimney. From reading on the forum, it sounds like the extra height of the chimney will help, but I should probably build a slightly large smoke chamber as well.

As far as an oven finish, it will begin life as a quick stucco finish, which I will later fully enclose w/ metal framed walls when doing the interior finishing on the addition.

Will I have enough room for the metal studs and to build a deeper smoke chamber at the oven entrance with the stand sized this way, or do I need to make the stand an extra half-block wider and deeper?

I should also note that while the oven will be located in the corner of the room, I don't intend to treat it as a "corner installation." I'll have the oven opening parallel to the longest wall of the room.

Thanks!