Foundation reenforcement question

[Chef Ryan]

hello I am New on here and tried to search for this and couldn't find it so I apologize if this has already been covered.

I am am getting ready to have my concrete poured in my yard. They will pour basically a big L shape so I can build my BBQ pit/prep area on one part and the wood burning oven on the other part. The area for the oven will be more than big enough at 7.5' deep by 15' wide (oven will come to with 1 foot or less from the front and back edge. The back edge of oven will be tied into existing block wall) I live in central California (no freeze) and live in new construction (less than a year old) property used to be farm land but builders removed topsoils and brought in clay soil and compacted the crap out of it (extra large trencher still had issued getting through it is some spots) the house has had almost no settling issues.

Ok now to my question. The concrete guy said I didn't need to do any rebar or other reinforcement and if I was concerned he could pour the oven area a little thicker. With the area of the pour being so large and no freeze level will his suggestion of no reenforcment be good enough? Should I make sure that they put a good gravel base down first or can they just pour over existing soil? Are there any other things I would make sure they do in preparing for the pour?

thank you for all the help and I do plan on documenting the build with photos and everything. Still trying to decide between size somewhere from 42"-54"ish (I would like to cook 3 pizzas at one time during parties)

[SableSprings]

I would always put in rebar for a concrete slab. No matter how well the clay soil has been tamped down, if it gets a little moisture it can move/shift. I would put down a layer of gravel and rebar on top for the slab pour. For our foundation slab in the Dragonfly Den (18' x18'), I had them excavate so the area under the oven would be 6" of concrete and the remaining slab would be 4" thick. When the excavation was done, they put in a layer of gravel, tamped it well, and put in rebar before the slab pour. We also had a slight slope put into the slab, so it drained away from the oven end. I can now power wash the slab and it drains off nicely .

Hope that helps, these are certainly just my suggestions based on experience...not that I'm a licensed contractor

[BenKeith]

While I don't know squat about what I'm doing trying the build my oven, I do know a little about concrete from years of having been around construction and here's my feeling on it
For the size oven you are planning on, that easily could end up being a couple of tons sitting on the slab for the next few generations. I live in middle GA and just poured my slab so a possible 42" . I took mine down to the clay base, put in about 6" of well packed sand but didn't put any gravel since I don't have to worry about the ground freezing. I put about 12 pieces of rebar, 6 one way and 6 the other with a layer of the square wire and poured a 5" layer of 5000psi concrete. I considered that to be about the minimum I wanted to trust mine on. I've seen way too many houses and fences has the slab shift or settle and crack. I want mine so when {not if} it settles some, the whole thing moves and not just part of it and making a huge crack that could go right on up through your oven.