Corner Build in South East PA

[Chris inPA]

Well, I'm jumping into this head 1st. I have my fire brick and poured the slab today.

[Grahamstein]

Got any pictures so your progress so far?

[Chris inPA]

Yes, but I can't upload them from my phone for some reason. I'll have to download onto my PC then upload later tonight.

[Chris inPA]

When I try to upload a picture I get an error message that I'm over the 2.0 size limit. What am I doing wrong?

[Chris inPA]

Having already exceeded parts of the budget, I'm planning on using the 5:1 mix of perlite : Portland Cement instead of using CaSi board between my hearth and my floor, Will 4" be adequate?

[Chris inPA]

I'm using medium duty fire bricks. I was able to source these used from a lady who had a large kiln years ago. She had a stack of about 1000 bricks. I bought 250 for $400.00. This part of the build is under budget. So, far it's the only part that is.

[Chris inPA]

Has anyone ever used a product called Roxul as the insulation over their dome? Below are the manufacturer specs. They state use to 1200F. Would my bricks exceed 1200? This is considerably less $$$ than the other products I'm considering. I may do 1" of the Aluminosilicate wrap followed by a blanket of this if the firebricks can be expected to exceed 1200..

Roxul #40220 Specifications

Zoro #: G8641543 Mfr #: 40220
Strength: Medium	Length: 48"
Thickness: 3"	Density: 8#
Approx. R Value: 12	Material: Mineral Wool
Moisture Absorption: No	Item: High Temperature Insulation
Standards: ASTM C612 Type 1VB,E136,E84, C665,C795 Stainless Steel, Chemically Inert	Width: 24"
Temp. Range: 0 Degrees to 1200 F	Color: Green

[Chris inPA]

After reading more about it, I believe that this is a rigid board, not a pliable blanket. Yeah well........

[UtahBeehiver]

How big are your pics? Most phones default size are much larger than 2 Mg so you need to reduce pic size. If you don't know how Google it. Mineral or Rockwool is not the best choice for either floor or dome insulation. If budget is an issue you can go with 8 to 10 - 1 pcrete at least 4" thick, 6" better. On the table posted, some of the key requirements are compression strength at 5% deflection the other is K value. 4" 5 to 1 pcrete is you "minimum" recommended floor thickness, more would be better.

[Chris inPA]

Thanks. I'm planning on going with a 6" slab of 5:1.

Planning for that: I'm thinking about only doing 3 courses of cinder block for my hearth base instead of my original plan of 4. 3x8 = 24. 4 inch slab for the hearth. 2.5" firebrick. 6 inch pcrete = a total of 36.5" height of the cooking surface.

[UtahBeehiver]

Rule of thumb for floor height is roughly elbow height.

[Mongo]

Thanks. I'm planning on going with a 6" slab of 5:1.

Planning for that: I'm thinking about only doing 3 courses of cinder block for my hearth base instead of my original plan of 4. 3x8 = 24. 4 inch slab for the hearth. 2.5" firebrick. 6 inch pcrete = a total of 36.5" height of the cooking surface.

I recommend you give careful consideration to the height of your cooking surface. Specifically to how much you will need to bend over to tend to your fire and pizzas.
It's most definitely a personal choice but do your back a favor. Make a mock up of your oven floor and your outer arch, then simulate reaching into the 'oven' to build a fire and use a broom handle to place and tend to 'pizzas'.

I'm 6 feet and my oven floor is 48.5 inches from the ground.

[Chris inPA]

Today i stripped the forms off of the slab. Now it's time to start with the blocks.

[Grahamstein]

I recommend you give careful consideration to the height of your cooking surface. Specifically to how much you will need to bend over to tend to your fire and pizzas.
It's most definitely a personal choice but do your back a favor. Make a mock up of your oven floor and your outer arch, then simulate reaching into the 'oven' to build a fire and use a broom handle to place and tend to 'pizzas'.

I'm 6 feet and my oven floor is 48.5 inches from the ground.

I'd second this. I built mine with 5 courses of block, 4"slab on top, 2" of perlcrete, 2 inch casi board and the 2.5 inch oven floor on top of that. I'm 6' tall and its a pretty good height for me. I didn't want to have to bend over constantly while cooking. I'll have to put a tape measure to it but I think my final height is just about 48.5 as well. Which mind you is about 8 inches higher than the standard. I think maybe 2 inches shorter than what I built would have been absolutely perfect, but it's damn close.

36 seems really low.

[Chris inPA]

Thanks. 36 is standard height for a kitchen oven. That's where I got that idea from.

I'm going to add a 4th layer of block.