Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

[david s]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

Thin steel + heat= fast corrosion.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

How many home delivered pizzas can you get for $3500?

[lwood]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

Goes to show ya that just cause he is a great chef.....doesn't mean he knows crapola about WFOs. Maybe it's just for pizza, and you can be cooking pizza that night. What a deal....$3,500 and you too can have one in your backyard. Too much extra $$ laying around, I guess. How many of those things do you suppose they sell?

[lwood]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

The door is in the wrong place.

[chidding]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

3 and a 1/2 thousand bucks!! for that?

Ok I guess you know my answer.....

My entire outdoor kitchen cost $1000 in materials.. now way i'd spend $3.500 on that haha.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

So we stopped by Costco this afternoon for a few items and guess what I saw near the entrance? A commercial WFO from Mario Batali brand.

3 and a 1/2 thousand bucks!! for that?

Ok I guess you know my answer.....

[aceves]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

So we stopped by Costco this afternoon for a few items and guess what I saw near the entrance? A commercial WFO from Mario Batali brand. The price seemed way too steep for my budget! My entire outdoor kitchen will not even reach the price of this WFO!!! Seriously, with all the free materials and discounted firebrick that I've gathered, my entire kitchen will be built for WAY LESS than this bad boy!

Granted, if you buy this WFO, you will have it up an running the same afternoon in your backyard, but there's something to be said about building your own WFO with your bare hands. I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that pizza just tastes better in an oven that you built yourself!!!!

Anyhoo, just wanted to post this up and hear your thoughts on this... Do you prefer to lay down some $$ and buy this thing on the spot or do you prefer to save some serious $$, invest some sweat equity and build the WFO yourself? I know I'm posting to the FB forum, so I would assume that 99.9% of you will go for option 2!!!!!

As for the Costco WFO, it was a cast dome divided up in 6 sections, with a cast-iron swing-out door, metal stand, metal enclosure, and metal brush with a stainless peel.

I showed the WFO to my wife, but she sort of looked, sort of didn't. I can't wait to have my WFO up and running and having her REQUEST a pizza night, roast night, bread night, etc!!!!!

aceves

[brickie in oz]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

Glad to see you have it all covered and sorted.

[aceves]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

Hi Brickie,

Thanks for the heads up. Yes, I have a 10 foot long concrete board and 10 "L" brackets underneath the counter bricks. The brackets hold the weight (along with the existing blocks), and the concrete board keeps all the bricks lined up perfectly level. I did foresee a brick coming undone and flipping towards the person leaning into the counter and possibly injuring him/her, which is why I opted for the supporting concrete board.

As for the blocks in the fire pit, thank you for the warning. Change of plans: I will be lining the inside of the fire pit with firebrick. I have plenty of firebricks, so this will not be a problem and no added expense to the project.

I truly appreciate all your suggestions. This is what's so great about the FB Forum!! So many friendly people keep us "new builders" in check! Thanks!!

aceves

[brickie in oz]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

I dont want to burst your bubble but, is there something underneath holding up you counter bricks?
Concrete blocks in a fire pit? Concrete is notorious for exploding/spalling with heat.

[aceves]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

Hi FB builders!

OK, so I've been a little slow to start my dome, but now that I have all my materials, I will be starting in the next couple of weeks!

In the meantime, I've been keeping busy with stuccoing my outside kitchen and completing my fire pit and brickwork on the outdoor cabinets.

Below is a photo of the mostly completed fire pit. I used real stone for the facade and bullnose brick for the caps. You'll notice that I ran out of mortar for the filler on the brick, but I'll be finishing that up tomorrow. I plan to "stucco" the inside of the fire pit with some home brew refractory mix, so the block will be covered.

I plan to use the same stone for my WFO stand to go with my new fire pit's stone theme.

The next pic shows the ledge/bar that I built on the outdoor cabinet. This will face the WFO and will serve as a built-in shelf where people can sit and enjoy their pizza! This cabinet has a 10 foot long countertop with an opening for a stainless sink. We poured the concrete countertop a few months ago and will be installing the sink in the next few weeks as well.

More pics to follow!

aceves

[aceves]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

I forgot to mention that I received my FB Insulation Board today and also went to HD to pick up some fireclay, lime, sand and portland cement for my home brew mortar. All I need to do is put together my Indispensable Tool and I'll be ready to build!!

I plan on start cutting firebricks and building next weekend, so more pics to follow!!!

Thank you FB for the super-fast delivery of my FB Board!!!!!

aceves

[aceves]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

Hello FB members!

SO I GOT MY FIREBRICKS!!!! 300 pieces for $90. How did I get such a great deal, you ask? I followed fellow FB member Dusty's advice: I contacted a local brick manufacturer, asked if they had any firebrick "seconds" or "number 2s" available. "Seconds" are the "rejects" due to discoloring, deformities or cracks. They said yes, they had about 300, at $0.30 a pop. I jumped on this deal, as I did not care about discoloring or deformities (as I am going to cut them in half and taper them!). As for the cracks, well, I would be selecting the ones with no cracks to use for the floor and dome, and hopefully have enough "good" ones for the whole project. At 30 cents a firebrick, I knew I had an awesome deal!!

I drove to the manufacturer's location, and they had 300 pieces on one pallet, all shrink-wrapped and ready to go: the entire pallet for $90. IT'S A DEAL!!!!!

They loaded the pallet on to my truck, and boy did my truck drop!! That was over a ton of bricks on that pallet!!

Drove it home and started to unload it, piece by piece. And let me tell you, about 250 of the firebricks are PRISTINE!! That leaves me with 50 firebricks with dings, cracks, and chips. As I was unloading them and re-stacking them in the garage, I was separating them out into 2 stacks to make it easier to select when I am building the WFO.

Some of them have different shades of color in them along with yellow, and some are entirely orange. But that is OK with me, as I will be picking the best ones for the floor and the better ones for the dome. And as for the dome, color isn't really an issue, as they will soon turn HOT WHITE when I fire up the WFO!! I want them for their functionality, not their color.

So there you have it. I have more than enough firebricks to complete the project, and I got them at a FRACTION of the retail price. I also picked up a few standard red cored bricks for my arch in the wood storage area. More on that later!

The name of the brick manufacturer? HC Muddox in Sacramento, CA. Thank you HC Muddox! You guys have an excellent product and offer excellent service! You guys rock!!

And I would like to give a special thanks to Dusty here at the FB Forum. He recommended this route and that's exactly what I did. Thank you, Dusty!! And all you FB Members: try to score some firebrick "seconds" if you can, it's totally worth it!!!!!

Here are some pics of the pallet of firebrick, view from up top, a close up of some of the firebricks and their imperfections, and a pic of 1/3 of the pallet already unloaded. Now I can say: I moved a ton of bricks today!!!!!

aceves

[aceves]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

Also on the same San Diego trip, we entered a ceramic/pottery store near Old Town and I saw this mini-oven with very interesting mosaic finish. They are broken pieces of brick! It looks great, don't you think!? I might be considering doing something like this to my own WFO.

This is a good idea for all you builders that have bricks left over after your build: just break them up and design an intersting feature on the outside of your WFO!!

aceves

[aceves]

Re: Corner Install with Kitchen/Prep Area

Hi FB Members!

Just thought I'd share a few photos I took on a recent trip to San Diego. My family and I visited Old Town San Diego and I snapped a couple of pics of a early-settlement brick oven!! It's was huge and beautiful in it's own right. Not sure how they vented the fumes though. Do you think they might have been cooking pizzas back in the day?? Anyways, enjoy the pics!

aceves