Design Help

[andycase]

Hi All

Im just getting started building a wood oven.
I am doing it on a tight budget and using materials i can get through contacts at work cheap.

My base is going to be made out of railway sleepers, 9 x 5, with Reinforced bar going through them to keep them all secure.
On top of them will be a line of sleepers giving a 5inch slab. On top of those will be Paving slabs, 2 inch thick. Then Thermalite bricks as an insulating layer between the oven floor and the slabs.
I am purchasing a premade cast oven that will need insulating and rendering on the outside.

However, i would like enclose the oven in and insulate with loose Vermiculate/Cermaic Fibre blanket.

My question is, i dont want to brick lay on top of the slabs/sleepers base due to weight. However i am handy with timber and have the means and skills to construct a nice looking timber "house" surround for the oven.
In this i can pour in the insulation and construct a roof.
Do you think that the heat passing from the oven will be low enough through all the insulation so that the timber will not be affected?
If it will only get warm then that is ok. I just dont want it burning down!

[Neil2]

Re: Design Help

These things get very hot - over 1000 F. Often hot coals will pop out the opening.

I would serious re-think using timber anywhere in the structure.

[david s]

Re: Design Help

I recently inspected a brick oven that was built over a timber stand. It had a thin sheet of coated steel over the stand and then two layers of solid 3" bricks sandwiching a 1" layer of clay, for the floor, with the oven built over the top. The heat had penetrated through the bricks and burnt the timber supports in the centre. As the dome was built over the floor I could not work out a way to remove the floor, repair the burnt stand and add an insulation layer.I suggested he demolish and start again. A real pity, with all that brick cutting and dome work gone to waste.