Challenges and progress of building pizza oven on a slope

[UtahBeehiver]

The door will dramatically help with maintaining the heat in the dome.

[Yokosuka dweller]

A couple more photos of the door. I put some bbq insulation tape around the inner lip. Let's see it should improve heat retention.

[Yokosuka dweller]

Still haven't finished stucco the oven, but have cooked some pizza, bread and slow cook pork shoulder. It's been great.

Firing the oven is not difficult but managing the fire and temperature for the right temp at the right dinner time is a learning curve I haven't mastered yet.

I finished welding my door. It's 16 gauge / 1,5mm mild steel with heat resistant stove spay paint and 4"/10cm of leftover inswool insulation in the door. I'm swell proud of the final result, the black stove color makes it look, well...awesome I think. The welds were not pretty, because this is my first real weld job, so still trying to figure out how this thing works...but the angle grinder is my friend. I mig welded the thing, and I think (hope) it holds up. The door is inspired by others who came before me here, among others UtahBeehiver with the wooden handles - I used wood from a peach tree that had gone down in last autumn's taifun. And also JRPizza who pointed to the importance of making a real thick door and for sharing the great idea to weld the nuts onto the inner sheet so that the handles can be unscrewed if necessary later on. Thanks!

[Yokosuka dweller]

Alright, finally finished the perlcrete iso-layer on the dome. Relatively round. Will let this dry for a good while before figuring out what to cover it with. Also got some steel (1.5mm) and cut/grinded pieces for oven door today. The door will be 10cm (4") thick. I wanted stainless but it's cheaper to weld normal steel, so I will paint this with stove paint to try and keep corrosion at bay.

Next is welding this, which I've never done before, gonna be fun.

Hope everyone is well, where ever you are, whether locked down or working to keep the wheels spinning.

[Chach]

Very nice. It is very exciting getting that first pizza for sure. How long did you fire the oven for? It still could be wet but your walls and dome are not nearly hot enough to clear yet. Dome can get to 500 Celsius and higher. 400 Celsius and higher for walls. The bricks have to saturate with heat for a good bour to hour and a half. You probably have to drive more water out if the floor cooled that quick im guessing. You'll get there. Congrats.

Ricky

[Yokosuka dweller]

Thanks Gulf and Alomran. Yes, I did as recommended and added a good half inch of overhang at the narrowest spot - just using a 1:1 mix of cement and sand, mixed quite dry so it wouldn't run on the vertical face, which was a bit tricky. Before stuccoing I grinded some slots into the side of the hearth where the stucco would sit and then 'painted' with a mix of cement and water to create a wet sticky surface for the stucco to bond. It seems to work, but certainly won't win any beauty contest. It matches well the entire DYI-ish look of my oven.

On a side note, I made our first pizzas in the oven last night. First one came out great, second one not so great. It's a learning process but still a special moment. Important is to have a live flame to create crust, which for the second pizza I only had embers.

I fired the oven for a couple of hours yesterday, it got up to around 400C on top of dome, 300 on side walls, and around 250 on the floor. The dome didn't clear though... I wonder what the temp has to be for the dome to clear. Insulation works well, hardly any temp difference on top of the dome, and below hearth was only 30 degrees C after firing several hours. I am preparing a piece of pork shoulder to slow cook in the residual heat this morning.

And also I can record my first cracks. Just hairline cracks in the mortar. Almost symmetric -in the mortar of the flue arch, between 3rd and 4th course on each side.I think this may have happened because I mortared the bottom bricks of the outer arch to the stand rather than letting them float. But, who knows...and it's not structural I think, but I guess I could try to repoint it...if it matters...

[Gulf]

For only 1/2" of hang over, you can just place a temporary support underneath until the render/stucco sets up.

[Alomran]

I started on the p-crete insulation layer over the ins-blanket. Mixed 60/40 perlite/vermiculite to 8-10:1 cement and threw in a few handfuls of clay powder. Drymixed and added water and it was pretty workable.

I'm running into an issue though. My oven stand isn't 100% true and plumb. DIY limits on my skills I guess.

On one side of the dome I am about 1" from the edge, which is okay for rendering. But on the other edge I am only 1/2" from the edge.

This is normal, Gulf has had a bespoke remedy for the edges, https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...xFSjZNX1hkSFl3 A great idea and it is non-intrusive and cost effective remedy. Good luck

[Yokosuka dweller]

Chach, yes you are correct, lots of things to visualise every night before sleeping. It's obsessive, haha...I've found a blacksmith in the area and will try to ask them what it would cost to cast 4 bows for the roof structure. Won't have to carry much weight so might be possible to do it that way and connect the cast iron to 4by4s as rectangular support strutcure around the dome/hearth. Let's see.

Fired the oven a few times the last couple of days - starting from coals to small fires and this morning a larger fire with some flames - burnt some of all the forms from the build - felt good. Got the entire dome up to around 200-230C for 4 hours before letting it die down. No cracks, yet....This evening, 6-7 hours later the oven - without door - was still 90 degreesC, so the insulation definitely helps.

Looking very much forward to really fire it up and see the dome clearing..soon.

[Chach]

Decisions decisions lol. Never ends on these projects. Doing the curved roof was probably my favorite decision I made as it broke up the squareness in the yard and gave me a other look that was different than most. Guy on Food Network has a pizza oven with a barell roof I seen it on one of his shows and loved it. Can't wait to see how you finish.

Ricky

[Yokosuka dweller]

I started on the p-crete insulation layer over the ins-blanket. Mixed 60/40 perlite/vermiculite to 8-10:1 cement and threw in a few handfuls of clay powder. Drymixed and added water and it was pretty workable.

I'm running into an issue though. My oven stand isn't 100% true and plumb. DIY limits on my skills I guess.

On one side of the dome I am about 1" from the edge, which is okay for rendering. But on the other edge I am only 1/2" from the edge.

I wanted to render, and then make a brick split veneer like Gulf and others have done. But given my space limitation, I won't have space at least at that narrow ledge to do a full 3-coat stucco.

If I cast a small cantilever to increase edge space, probably it wouldn't hold up.

I wonder if I can just make a lime rich render of cement, lime, sand, and trowel it on. Mostly in about 1" thickness, except at the narrow spot. I've got alkali resistant nylon fibers that I'd throw into the mix and then wet sponge to create a smooth surface. I also have a fat based liquid that I found in the home's store here, it is supposed to be mixed with concrete to create water resistance. I would add that to the render mix with the nylon fibers. And then once dry/cured I would consdier to paint it with a wather resistant acrylic (colorless) to max out water resistance, before plastering a brick veneer.

Anyway, long text here, but just sharing in case anyone has any do's and don'ts for such rendering solution. I'd also consider like DavidS recommendations to keep the render moist - maybe even with cling wrap. But my doubt is - if I cling wrap the fresh render isn't the wrap itself going to create indentations and 'maps' in the render? At least that's been my experience when covering wet concrete with plastic - it destroys the finish...

One important question also: I have a tuna jaw and some fatty pork marinating. I want to put some coals into the oven today and grill these items. Is it okay to cure the oven with half shell of v-crete drying on the outside?

[Yokosuka dweller]

Looking real good!

Thanks Chach, although it's nothing compared to your whole outdoor area. Definitely something I aspire to do as extended project, if budget, wife (and time) allows. I also been looking at your (and others' ) build for info and inspiration on how to make a curved roof structure to protect the oven. I really like what you've done on oven enclosure. But I will probably leave the oven 'open' and just have a roofed pergola type of structure to protect against the worst downpours. Curved roof beams could be done in steel but I don't know how to weld, so that's not an option. Can also be cut in solid wood, as long as you don't curve the cut so much so you run across grains. You used fat ply, isnt it? That's definitely an option, but like with glu-lam probably I can't do that given I'd keep the beams open to a degree of weather impact. So, still mulling over this one...

[Chach]

Looking real good!

[JRPizza]

The slots were a trick I learned from work I had to elongate a few of the holes in my anchor plate, but figured it is mostly a tension joint so tight holes aren't necessary. I would not have needed to do so except I free hand drilled my holes and had a bit of angle/wander so the bolts did not end up exactly where I wanted them to be. I should have used my drill press like you did!

[Yokosuka dweller]

Did you cut slots in the tops of your bolts or make other provisions to prevent them from rotating? Don't remember if I needed to hold the bolts as I tightened the nuts but figured it was cheap insurance vs having to deal with a "spinner"

Hi JR, yes I did cut slots in the bolts - great method to control the bolt from the top, which if you had not shared I wouldn't have though of. Mortared the bolt bricks yesterday and had to pull them apart and re-do to ensure the bolts actually come up where the anchor plate holes are - a bit tricky. Am leaving it to cure for a few days before tightening the anchor plate. I think the bolts will be mortared in pretty snug by then, so should be relatively doable to tighten the nuts.