About to start a corner build

[Grahamstein]

Hey guys, I'm a long time lurker but this will be my first post, and build.

My plan so far is to pour a slab, 82x82 with the oven on a 45 degree angle, with the front being 46in wide across the opening. I wanted to see if I could ask you guys for help just double checking my design for errors.

I plan on building, using a forno volta 100 oven. By my calculations the dome exterior is approx 48", I plan on using straight vermicrete insulation 6"thick. Then building an outer brick dome over it. The oven will have an approximate OD of 70". As of right now I'm planning on setting my oven opening 9"back from the front edge of the hearth

Does that all seem to jive?

Here is a quick hand sketch I did.

thanks in advance for any help.

[Gulf]

Hi Grahamstein,

Welcome to the forum. Here is an old link to a build that installed an oven like you have chosen. You may find some measurements in it that you can use. Richmond outdoor kitchen pizza oven build.

[Grahamstein]

Thanks. I had seen that build before, and yes it's got a lot of similarities to mine. I wish slancy was still around because I'd like to see how his oven held up with the joints mortared together like that.

I had tried messing with SketchUp and freecad but I can't get the hang of them. I think by the time I figured out how to use it I could have just built the oven, correcting mistakes as i go.

I broke down earlier today and just laid the design out on the floor with painters tape. It seemed like everything should work out but like they say, garbage in, garbage out. It can be hard to tell in your missing something. But I've been planning and reading about this enough that I think I'm pretty well versed at this point.

I went back to my bookmarks to look at some old threads I've saved and found my first was in 2009. Realizing I've wanted to do this for 11 years is really giving me the motivation to get cracking. The patio install is starting Monday and my oven will be the main feature in a whole outdoor kitchen I am building.

I know I'm new but you guys on this forum have already helped me immensely. The amount of science and planning that goes into a build is amazing to me.

Thanks again
-Mike

[Gulf]

I broke down earlier today and just laid the design out on the floor with painters tape.

There is nothing wrong with that. Here is some advice that I recently offered another new member.

You are doing it right by researching as many of the corner builds on this site that you can. JR can tell you that I have no experiece with CAD programs lol. But, I do a little pencil and paper drafting. However, on complicated smaller projects, I have often found it best to go full scale. You may want to consider doing that. You can get some cardboad from an office supply store or just tape some box panels together to make a canvas large enough to work with. Find the dead center and use a wooden yard stick to draw out the ID of your oven. A trick that I have used is to drill a very small hole on the 1" mark for a pivot point.Pin that at the center. For a 42" oven, the radius would be 21" so, you would need to drill another small hole at the 22" mark to compensate for the 1" pivot point. Scribe that circle and subsequent circles to represent the OD of your oven's brick dome, and the thickness of your insulation layer(s). Now find the correct placement of your oven's inner arch. Look at JRPizza 's build. He's already on board. Now, lay out and draw the foot print of your flue gallery (outer arch) including any face brick or finish that you intend to install. You may have to tape some more cardboard to the front of the canvas to compete that task. Once you have that all down, you can cut the oven's foot print down to shape. This can be used to position the oven fore and aft on a marked out section section of concrete that represents your oven's stand. Allow for steel framing if you are doing a "doggie style". Then make adjustments for your oven's stand if needed.

This is kind of bassackwards of the way most have done. But, it is best to take all of this into consideration before the stand and dome are built. After that, most of us are just compensating for what we wished that we had done different .

[Grahamstein]

The landscaper finished up today. My cement mixer arrived from harbor freight as well. Going to start pouring concrete next week.

[Grahamstein]

So things are moving along, albeit slower than I would prefer. I got all of the cement slabs poured and the cement block is arriving today to start on the stand. I intend on using blanket insulation over these dome, then a layer of vermicrete, and an outer brick dome for my exterior. What's the preferred way on making the dome waterproof to protect it from the weather?

[UtahBeehiver]

An overhead structure is the best. Looks like you are from NY so your winters will be tough, With the number of open mortar joints on a decorative brick outer shell the weather will be a factor. Some builders have been treating their stucco with a high quality brick/stone waterproofer. If you want to see a nice brick outer shell, look at Gulf's build, but is also under a shelter and down in the South where the winters are not as brutal.

[Grahamstein]

This gulf guy seems to be the man with the master plan around here. I'll check into it. Here's photos of the progress as you can see the inspector and my assistants are jumping in to make sure I'm doing things right. I was considering adding a render layer over the vermicrete, before putting on the outer brick dome and waterproofing that as well. Or is there a simpler way of waterproofing the vermicrete, say aluminum foil over it?

[Grahamstein]

The rest of the photos so far

[JRPizza]

Your oven is placed similarly to mine and it looks like it might be at the low end of your patio slope, I get water running downslope and kind of wish I had raised my slab an inch or so to keep the water out of the wood storage area.

[Grahamstein]

Yeah I thought about that to, but didn't want to go to crazy with the slab. I put a groove in between the slab and pavers, I was thinking of also putting stone veneer on the floor and drilling a few drain holes through the base of the stand

[Chach]

I ended up pouring 2 1/2" on top of the wood storage floor after I built the stand and i pitched it out. I was worried of water getting in as well.

Ricky

[JRPizza]

If water can drain down through your pavers drain you shouldn't have any problems. I don't get a ton of water but if it is raining hard I can't cook in my socks

[Chach]

If water can drain down through your pavers drain you shouldn't have any problems. I don't get a ton of water but if it is raining hard I can't cook in my socks

I installed a channel drain in the front of my entire structure to re direct the rain water because I was getting pooling in front of the fireplace on my pavers so for some good measure I installed it in front of the entire structure and ran a pipe from that to the back of the yard and now no more pooling.

Ricky

[Grahamstein]

I ended up pouring 2 1/2" on top of the wood storage floor after I built the stand and i pitched it out. I was worried of water getting in as well.

Ricky

That's a good idea, maybe after I have the first course of block mortared down I'll do that as well before I pour the hearth