steel plate in walls

[ravenja]

is it ok to put 2mm steel plates in the walls of the oven for strength? it would go on the inside of the kaowool insulation. we are worried about the walls and arch falling in because of movement...we are building a barrel vault oven and it has straight walls 4 bricks high with an arch over it. i suggested to my other half that the kaowool should be directly in contact with the bricks so as to insulate properly. he says he needs the steel to hold the walls and arch up. he then wants to put the kaowool on the outside of the steel plates...

[dmun]

Re: steel plate in walls

We've seen builders put a steel reinforcing band around a low dome neapolitan oven without difficulty, so it may work. You're right to be concerned about the structural stability of the barrel vault oven: the usual method us to use a lot of concrete buttressing. It definitely needs to go on the inside of the insulation: insulation is squishy, not structural.

[shuboyje]

Re: steel plate in walls

I would ditch the blanket for the sides of the oven and instead insulate with 6" of 10:1 perlcrete in that area. Then build something structural outside the perlcrete to take the load of the dome. The perlcrete will handle the compression load and transfer it to the structural layer on the outside.