Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

[stonecutter]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Ron, sorry for going off topic a bit and I hope that it wasn't confusing.

[ronwass]

While waiting for my insulation delivery, I started building the wood shelf.

Well, I can't cure the oven without the insulation, because I can't get the temperature up much past 300 deg.

So, I decided to start building the under-oven wood shelf. As you can see, the joists are made of pressure treated 2x4s. The decking is made of cedar deck boards. $50.00 for for 10 foot boards. Yikes. I didn't want to use the much less expensive pressure treated deck boards because I figured that some of the chemicals would seep into my firewood and then be burned in the oven. This is probably a very big exageration on my part, but the cedar does look better.

The second picture is from the side, so yes, the middle joist does go in the right direction.

I'm going to slightly round the boards with a small 1/4 inch cove at the sawn end, then paint the pressure treated wood beneath it the same color that I am going to paint the new deck that you can just see behind the oven.

The red stick sticking out from the oven leg is a temporary thing I am using to hold my water hose.
My idea is to leave about 3/4 inch space between each deck board for best drainage.

BTW, in the first picture that is oak on the left that I found in the woods near my house, and which I am saving for cooking. I don't know what that stuff is on the right. Some maple, and something else. I'm going to use that for curing burns.

The second picture was taken when rain was threatening, hence the rain tarps over the oven.

[ronwass]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Ron, sorry for going off topic a bit and I hope that it wasn't confusing.

No prob. Seems to be the curse of my thread. My posts would have this thread at about 3 pages. With the tangents, it's up to 18 now.

[ronwass]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Some of the young Japanese customers have a fantacy about USA housing, they believe that living in an import house is like living the American Dream. I do everything that I can to make that true. I build houses that make you feel at home in--comfortable, safe, and warm...in a structure that can take a lot more seismic forces than the traditional zairai house and is much warmer and comfortable to live in.

So, yes---in one way people are buying based on framing member sizes, but 2x4 is really a building style that utilizes north American sized building components. I help the customers get USA products to make their house American--like doors and windows, flooring, carpeting, linoleum, cabinets, siding, roofing, furniture, lighting, plumbing fixtures---you name it...I can source it from people that I have worked with for the last 18 years located in Portland Oregon and Seattle, Washington... they consolidate supplies from all over the United States and ship to Japan!

I have been working with Japanese tradesman and contractors showing them how to properly install and maintain the products that we import into Japan.


Don't limit products to be only from USA, we have imported container loads of "sheeps wool" insulation from New Zealand and that is a great "natural fiber" building product that has exceptional insulation qualities!

So they aren't necessarily asking for a specific stud size, but the term has come to mean an American Style of house. Do I get the general idea?

One more question, Are they generally tending to be smaller buildings than what we have here? Housing generally is smaller there, hotel rooms too, although one of the most comfortable hotels I ever stayed at was in a tiny room (in a big hotel) in Tokyo.

Love Tokyo and Japan. Food nirvana.

[mikku]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Another "off thread" answer but here goes.
The sizes of the houses are usually determined by the location within Japan.
Another determining factor is the location of a structure within a city.

As an example: Tochigi Prefecture, Utsunomiya - near the train station, land can be purchased for around $1200 to $1500 per square meter and a lot size might be 130 meters square. So you might put a 100sq meter house (two story) and pass building codes for percentage of land used for structure.

If you built in Tokyo, the land might be 100 times more expensive.

If you build where I live, land can still be gotten for $30 per square meter for typical lots of 450 to 500sq meter.

An average size house in my area is around 1450 square feet. Tokyo much smaller because of the land factor and being able to make payments even at zero interest on a 35 year loan!

Some companies like Honda help their employees with getting loans and have huge retirement bonuses to help the final payments to finish a loan!

The houses I build now--if you did not look at road signs or license plate numbers of cars parked in driveways--the house could be from any New England neighborhood and fit right in--including all the furnishings.

My builds is similar to that of "Sarah Susanka", or a Northern Minnesota architect named "David Salmela"--you can google his name and see his work as photographed by "Peter Kerzie".. Two of the homes I built for Davids' customers are showcased in books that display his special type of design. I'm proud of the work I created working with him--he was always a pleasure to work with. But that was 30 years ago.

[mikku]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Yes, 2x4 has come to mean American but not USA specific. It means North American style of housing. Canada spends huge amounts of money promoting their products in Japan. The State of Washington also sends delegations here for training seminars and sales events.

Second about house sizes--it depends on how deep the customers' pockets are! I have built 5000sqft homes here --generally though, the 2x4 house is slightly larger than standard Japanese construction--but that is only my observation, maybe not accurate!

It is more and more difficult to find USA produced products for importing--you probably have seen it when you have gone to the store to buy almost anything.

I like a new brand of clothing coming out of California called "American Giant", their prices are a little elevated but their quality is superior. I've special ordered some things for customers as gifts!

Better quit--wife just gave me the evil eye! Cheers

[mrchipster]

Re: While waiting for my insulation delivery, I started building the wood shelf.

I'm going to slightly round the boards with a small 1/4 inch cove at the sawn end, then paint the pressure treated wood beneath it the same color that I am going to paint the new deck that you can just see behind the oven..

If it was my oven I would stain the treated and not paint, using a clear stain will not peel and look good to boot. Staining in the future is easy, quick and inexpensive. It is almost impossible to recover from a painted deck once it starts peeling and you can never get good paint coverage on spaced deck boards. Semi transparent or opaque stains have the same problems as paint.

My two cents

[ronwass]

Finished wood shelf. Still no insulation delivery.

Here is the finished shelf loaded up with unknown wood for curing in the front, and oak in the back which I am saving for cooking.

Insulation, according to tracking is in Keasby, NJ. Only one state over.

Regarding Staining, Mr. Chipster, unfortunately, because of the existing deck that you can't see, and the new deck extension that you can see in the back right, the wood of the oven stand will have to be painted with and opaque stain. The wife has already bought the first gallon.

And I know it is ugly, but the hose holder is temporary.

[ronwass]

chimney base ready for chimney

This is my second try at this base for the chimney. It was "fun" cutting out the circle parts of the middle bricks.

[ronwass]

Insulation, finally.

Well, I finally got my delivery of the blankets and the chimney. I must say that FornoBravo is a little over-enthusiastic with their packaging. I have MUCH excess peanuts, bubble wrap and cardboard that I need to find a way to recycle. Great service though.

Anyway, the wife and I dutifully put on our HEPA masks and wrapped the dome three times. Then I put on the chicken wire, which is hard to avoid high spots over the blanket.

I wore a short sleeve t-shirt, and I must say, I was itching for the rest of the day. That stuff is nastier than regular pink fiberglass insulation that I have used many times.

I lit a curing fire and really got it roaring, but I could only approach 500 degrees in the middle of the oven. The front and the side that the fire wasn't on only got up to about 300. Am I missing something? Door?

As you can see, I utilized a couple of tapcons to help taughten the chicken wire.

[ronwass]

starting the scratch coat of stucco.

This is an unusually messy and slow job, especially where there is some stray space between the insulation and the chicken wire. Almost as slow as cutting and mortaring bricks. I have patience for about an hour at a time. I've done about a third of the oven in two sessions.

What you see is about 7 loads of stucco. Each load is 1 part cement, 1 part lime, and about 4 parts sand. I am foregoing the fireclay. Each part is a cup and a half.

I hope to finish the oven using a total of i bag of lime, one 94lb bag of portland cement, 1 bag of fireclay. (I never needed the droppings I dutifully saved.) and about six or seven bags of mortar's sand, although the cement of which I still have about a half bag, is starting to congeal in my garage because of the lack of air conditioning in there.

[mikku]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

The appearance of your oven really changes as the insulation and render coat work progress. Soon you will be making pizza and all kinds of goodies in your own DIY WFO!

I fired mine up on Saturday night hoping to do something Sunday after finishing work--too late and the weather was not cooperating. Today we have a tropical storm passing over my area--huge amounts of rain, heavy winds--they are called typhoons here--Atlantic called Hurricanes. Anyway everything is tied down to keep from having flying projectiles. National "old person holiday" but outdoors is out of the question--unless you like looking like a drowned rat!

Keep up the good work!

[ronwass]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

Hi all. I'm back after a long cold winter here. Firstly I must report that my questionable foundation didn't move an inch, and the ground was definitely frozen through and through.

Still to finish on the oven, are the finish stucco coat, and some kind of a door. We have glued little penny tiles on the under stucco coat and will surround them in the finish. Pictures to come.

We have made pizza several times. The NY Times dough recipe of a few weeks ago seems to be working really well. Half 00 flour, and half all purpose. I'll be leaving this forum and joining the pizza making one soon.

The oven holds about a 700 degree temperature after about a 2 hour pre-heat, using a lot of wood. Pizzas cook in about 3 minutes and are delicious.

[ronwass]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

So I have applied the finish stucco coat as well as some little dime tiles for decoration. The only thing left is some tiling around the sides of the concrete base. My neighbor actually makes tiles, and I've commissioned her. She says she will get to them sometime this summer.

I started doing this finish coat, by small batch of stucco by small batch, and troweling it on, and it was a drag. Thought it was going to take forever. So I decided to mix a large batch up in a wheelbarrow, like I was doing a load of concrete. Then I just slathered it on by hand. (or by glove, as it were.) Took less than an hour to do about half of the oven.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Rockland County, NY 36" build with pictures.

G'day

Great to see your ovens survived the winter and is up and cooking

Regards Dave