Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

[PizzaJoy]

Hi!
My name is joy. I love this site! I really want my "new" aka, not yet even started still bare studs, kitchen. My boyfriend and I just purchased a house and it was without a kitchen, well it had the room that would be a kitchen... HA HA. We have a "back porch" which is actually just a 4x4(generous estimation) little hut looking thing. The architecture of our home is Spanish revival, just so you can try to picture it, I'll be posting photos soon. Anyway, there is a door that leads from our kitchen out to this little "porch". We want to eliminate that door and use the existing enclosure to try and build our oven in, partially outdoors, with the oven door being inside our kitchen. We were actually hoping we could do a mult. opening oven so we could cook indoors or out with the same oven two doors...however, it seems many of you argee that mult. opening ovens are not that efficient and I even don?t know if what we want to do is possible! Have any of you tried to do indoor ovens??? I was reading through the postings and it seems most are outdoors... I have the plans for the pompeii oven and its sounds perfect! I know we would use it at minimum 4 days a week!!! I really like that design because of the quick heat up time! I can fire it up when I get home while I getting everything ready and chopping veggies and shredding cheese OH IM SOO EXCITED!!!!! I would really appreciate some advice!!!!!! I CAN'T WAIT to get started!!!!!

[thebadger]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

Joy,

The answer is Yes, but you'll have a lot more things to consider:

You'll definitely need a permit (can't imagine that you wouldn't)
Safely venting to the outside
Structural issues - these bad boys are HEAVY.

I would do some more searching as I there are threads that discuss...

Good luck.

Dick

[gjbingham]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

Everyone wants an indoor oven, I don't know of any. I get forgetful these days with my egg timers disease (ala Jeff). Cool idea!

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

PJ

do you have the room to take out your pizza on the peel? (pretend your oven opening is 4 feet from the back wall/corner and use a broom handle)

a generous 4x4 does not sound like much space to work inside??

I think a lot of ovens are built after the house (and many other projects) are done so they get put outside. Easier, safer, no smoking, less hassels I think.

Good luck either way!
XJ

[RTflorida]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

I agree with XJ, most ovens are built long after the home. Many code, safety, and structural issues come into play when adding to your home. Simply put, usually much more costly than most people have to spend, when trying to adapt to fit their existing home...so the oven ends up on the patio or in the back yard.
New home construction or a MAJOR renovation are a different story, simply have everything properly engineered, approved, and budgeted before work begins...fewer surprises and less cost overruns, not to mention safer and more structurally sound.

RT

[dmun]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

Just as a side note: I have a 36" oven, and my enclosure is five by five feet, which was tight, especially in the front. I had to rest my vent structure partly on the dome to pull that off.

[cvdukes]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

Hate to damper the enthusiam for an indoor oven, but....

Last pizza party we had here, there was a couple that we had to give instructions to on how to pull out the dough, cook the pizzas, etc. Clearly novices when it came to a WFO...

Now we'ver been over to their house before, and there is huge masonry unit sitting between the living room and the kitchen. I remember that it has a fireplace opening in the living room, but other friends maintain that Terry has a pizza oven opening on the other side into the kithen, so questioned them about it.
Turns out it does have an oven like everyone said. Terry said it (the entire masonry unit) was built at the cost of several thousand dollars. They had a few people over a few time swhen they first built it eight years ago, but that the oven just heated up the house too much and they haven't USED IT SINCE!...
From what I remember of it,and from Terry said, this oven was built to very high standards with all the proper chimneys.
Guess the moral is, something inside the house operating around 1000 degrees is just going to throw out a lot of heat no matter how well its designed or built. If you go the indoor route, really think hard about super good insulating doors and etc.

[gjbingham]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

CVDukes,
Perhaps a hood that vents the heat outside would be a good option, Something above the oven's opening. Heat rises Iin gasses). A vent/hood may minimize the problem.

[cvdukes]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

George,
I agree a hood would improve the situation, but you also get a lot of radiant heat out the oven opening onto other surfaces. As I recall from the original post, seems like there was a fairly small area to put an oven (5X5?). To counteract the heat gain, there would need to be some major amounts of air vented out. So yeah, an indoor oven sounds great but unless you're living in the artic regions, better be prepared to have the fans running at a sound level approaching that of an airplane.

[gjbingham]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

CV,
You might be right. I stand in front of my oven and I hardly notice the heat from the opening. I put my hands inside to put on a log, and I scream bloody murder. I've no doubt that there is heat radiating and flowing out the oven door. If it was inside, it would definitely add heat to a room, though how much, I cannot guess.

There's plenty of indoor ovens, wood fired and gas fired. It's just a matter of managing the excess heat and getting rid of it, at least during the summer.

[RTflorida]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

I can't imagine trying to cool my house in the summer. 95 degrees with 150% humidity (ok, a very slight exageration) AND an indoor pizza oven.....I'd burn up an AC unit once a month, or my house would never cool below about 85 degrees.
Nice thought, though.

RT

[Inishta]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

I would really love to build an indoor/outdoor oven with the door in the kitchen and the dome etc outside. Space saving, unless you had an enormous kitchen would probably be an issue. Even a small oven demands a lot of area. CJim maybe has knowledge of heat issues indoors.

[PizzaJoy]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

Thanks for all the advice! I am a bit worried about the heat too, but the actual oven would be outside just the opening would be inside...I am concerned about the materials used to construct the exsisting the structure its a wood structure with cement board and stucco... I'm worried the oven will get too hot and wood won't be able to handle the heat...even with a properly insulated oven. do you think thats a valid concern or will the stucco and the oven construction keep heat from reaching the wooden studs?

[dmun]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

It's just like building a fireplace, in fact the same building code applies. You have to maintain strict clearance to combustibles, footings, chimney height, everything.

If I remember my building code, there has to be 12 inches of solid masonry between the firebox and any wood, like mantlepieces. You can't do anything in your house without your building inspector. S/He will tell you exactly what you need to do to meet code.

A properly insulated oven will have very little heat around it's enclosure or flue. That doesn't mean you don't have to keep required clearances.

[james]

Re: Need advice on making an indoor kitchem oven

You definitely can install a wood-fired oven indoors, as long as you follow the building codes from your local building and/or fire department and keep them in involved in the process. The Casa and Premio ovens have passed the UL737, UL2162 and NSF tests and we are awaiting a final (no really) site inspection for label adhesion (no really) -- and the new Casa installation guide outlines the UL fire, building safety and operation standards, including setbacks from combustibles, ventilation and setbacks from the oven opening.

We cannot post the manual on FB.com for general release until our listing is complete, but I think it will be useful when it becomes available. It will be a good guideline. Of course it will simplify things for FB oven buyers. :-)

In terms of heat inside the house, the insulation does a good job of holding heat inside the oven, and the only heat you will feel is at the door. We had a site-built oven at our old house (which passed the inspectors), and we used it all the time.

James