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Living up north, frost is a concern. I am planning a lengthy countertop as an addition to the wood oven. The counter will be concrete. To get around having to dig an extensive 4ft deep trench and building up with cinder blocks from there, I have been working on the following plan and any thoughts you have are appreciated:
1) dig a series of fence post holes and use 8 or 10 inch sauna tubes filled with reinforced concrete as the legs that hold up the countertop and hearth. Tubes will go down 4ft into the ground to get below the frost line.
2) Build a form for the countertop / hearth that will sit on top of the sauna tubes. Cut holes in the bottom of the form to accomodate the sauna tubes so that they fit into the form by an inch or so. Support the form with wooden blocks to arrive at a 30 inch countertop height.
3) drop sauna tubes into place through the top of the form.
4) lay rebar inside the form to provide the countertop and hearth with strength.
5) suspend rebar down into the sauna tubes and connect it to the rebar laying horizontally in the form for the countertop / hearth.
6) Pour concrete to fill the form and sauna tubes at the same time. This will result in a single unit.
This will be built in a rural area and I figure getting the fence posts dug will not be a problem. Once the tubes are in place and the form supported, it is a simple process of having a cement truck fill it up. This will greatly accelerate the building of the hearth and counterop - if it works...
My questions outstanding:
1) does this sound crazy?
2) how wide a span can concrete reinforced with 1/2 inch rebar cover. This will determine how many sauna tubes I will need.
3) The hearth is poured in 2 layers (1st - the basic concrete and 2nd - the insulated concrete as the top layer). Do you have to wait for the first layer to fully cure before putting on the top layer?
Looking forward to any suggestions you have.
1) dig a series of fence post holes and use 8 or 10 inch sauna tubes filled with reinforced concrete as the legs that hold up the countertop and hearth. Tubes will go down 4ft into the ground to get below the frost line.
2) Build a form for the countertop / hearth that will sit on top of the sauna tubes. Cut holes in the bottom of the form to accomodate the sauna tubes so that they fit into the form by an inch or so. Support the form with wooden blocks to arrive at a 30 inch countertop height.
3) drop sauna tubes into place through the top of the form.
4) lay rebar inside the form to provide the countertop and hearth with strength.
5) suspend rebar down into the sauna tubes and connect it to the rebar laying horizontally in the form for the countertop / hearth.
6) Pour concrete to fill the form and sauna tubes at the same time. This will result in a single unit.
This will be built in a rural area and I figure getting the fence posts dug will not be a problem. Once the tubes are in place and the form supported, it is a simple process of having a cement truck fill it up. This will greatly accelerate the building of the hearth and counterop - if it works...
My questions outstanding:
1) does this sound crazy?
2) how wide a span can concrete reinforced with 1/2 inch rebar cover. This will determine how many sauna tubes I will need.
3) The hearth is poured in 2 layers (1st - the basic concrete and 2nd - the insulated concrete as the top layer). Do you have to wait for the first layer to fully cure before putting on the top layer?
Looking forward to any suggestions you have.
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