Slab thickness

[dmun]

Re: Slab thickness

Yep, a freestanding oven on a slab on well drained crushed rock is pretty much standard.

[Millstone Man]

Re: Slab thickness

Our caliche clay (aka black gumbo) is anything but standard. The foundation repair companies do quite well here going back and putting in piers for all those slabs that should have been good enough.... With that said it does not need to meet the standards of a full masonry fireplace with a 25 foot brick chimney.

[aurik]

Re: Slab thickness

I spoke with a vendor at the Arlington Texas Garden Show today about building a WFO who claimed to be a master mason and he told me that I should make my foundation slab atleast 12 inches thick. Is he all wet or just trying to discourage me from building my own WFO? He was trying to sell me a $3500 prefab oven that he claimed I would be making pizza in 2/3 hours after he started the build.

Phil

This wasn't the same guy that had the $10k oven that he would basically bring in on the back of a truck and have a forklift put on your slab?

[Neil2]

Re: Slab thickness

"Our caliche clay (aka black gumbo)"

A slab alone will work fine. The slab should be well reinforced. The worst that can happen is settlement which, if even, is no problem. Even if it is uneven it is not a problem unless your oven tilts so much that pizza slides out.

[Raffy]

Re: Slab thickness

If your pizza sauce and toppings start to shift/settle to one side of your pizza then that is really one uneven oven hehehehe

[Neil2]

Re: Slab thickness

If it does start to settle unevenly and becomes a problem, you can straighten it out. Use the same technique that was used to stabilize the leaning tower of Pisa. Stack some weight on the higher side for a while.