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I built a WFO last year using a modular kit. The housing was made in brick with a tiled roof - all old materials reclaimed from part of our house we had altered and rebuilt.
The oven worked great and we really enjoyed the pizzas and slow roasted meat we did in it. Unfortunately, in December, I started to notice some cracking in the dome. This got worse and worse and I became worried that the dome would collapse. I got in touch with the supplier and after some correspondence and sending photos we agreed that he would supply another oven and pay for the reinstallation.
I received the modular oven about 2 months ago and a few weeks later the builder came to fit it. We removed the arch and surrounding bricks from the front, hoping to slide out the chimney and dome. As we tried to do this everything collapsed in on itself and we and up with a pile of pieces!
We then prepared to fit the new dome. First thing we noticed was that it was about 3 times thicker than the first one and it took 3 people to lift it - I had carried the original one on my own. The new dome had a lot of fibres in the mix and the other one had none at all. The second thing was that when we offered it up to the housing it was an extremely tight fit. In fact, it was about 5mm too wide at the widest point of the dome.
Rapid phone call to the manufacturer and he said that he'd sent out the same 80cm oven he'd sent originally. We made some measurements of the original floor slab and determined that I'd originally paid for an 80cm oven but received a 60cm oven and we'd built the housing around that. So, now that I had the corrrect oven my housing was too small!
Options were to have another 60cm oven, completely demolish and rebuild the housing or make the bigger oven fit in the smaller housing somehow. Because the garden had just been returfed and was getting established after having been used as a builders yard we decided on the third option.
Fortunately the dome was very very thick at its apex so we ground off about 5mm on each side. Then we removed the bricks that were adjacent to the apex, sliced them in half lengthwise and refitted them. This gave us about 3 inches clearance at each side. Because I'm using the top quality Insulfrax blanket this was enough. Front to back depth was greater but we were able to pull the chimney forward and then just fill in the space around it with bricks cut to shape.
I fired it up last Thursday and had some small fires over the next couple of days. I used it in anger on Saturday night and found it to be much better than the first oven;it drew better, it held its heat longer and the bigger floor area made cooking a lot easier. There was no problem with hot spots where the housing had been cut away either.
The supplier claims that the first oven was cast by someone else and he had no control over quality - he casts them himself now and they seem to be much better. The mix up over the size seems to be that he had two ovens going out that day and someone got a bigger one than they'd ordered and I got the smaller one.
Still, he has agreed to pay the costs and all's well that ends well (I'm hoping!)
The oven worked great and we really enjoyed the pizzas and slow roasted meat we did in it. Unfortunately, in December, I started to notice some cracking in the dome. This got worse and worse and I became worried that the dome would collapse. I got in touch with the supplier and after some correspondence and sending photos we agreed that he would supply another oven and pay for the reinstallation.
I received the modular oven about 2 months ago and a few weeks later the builder came to fit it. We removed the arch and surrounding bricks from the front, hoping to slide out the chimney and dome. As we tried to do this everything collapsed in on itself and we and up with a pile of pieces!
We then prepared to fit the new dome. First thing we noticed was that it was about 3 times thicker than the first one and it took 3 people to lift it - I had carried the original one on my own. The new dome had a lot of fibres in the mix and the other one had none at all. The second thing was that when we offered it up to the housing it was an extremely tight fit. In fact, it was about 5mm too wide at the widest point of the dome.
Rapid phone call to the manufacturer and he said that he'd sent out the same 80cm oven he'd sent originally. We made some measurements of the original floor slab and determined that I'd originally paid for an 80cm oven but received a 60cm oven and we'd built the housing around that. So, now that I had the corrrect oven my housing was too small!
Options were to have another 60cm oven, completely demolish and rebuild the housing or make the bigger oven fit in the smaller housing somehow. Because the garden had just been returfed and was getting established after having been used as a builders yard we decided on the third option.
Fortunately the dome was very very thick at its apex so we ground off about 5mm on each side. Then we removed the bricks that were adjacent to the apex, sliced them in half lengthwise and refitted them. This gave us about 3 inches clearance at each side. Because I'm using the top quality Insulfrax blanket this was enough. Front to back depth was greater but we were able to pull the chimney forward and then just fill in the space around it with bricks cut to shape.
I fired it up last Thursday and had some small fires over the next couple of days. I used it in anger on Saturday night and found it to be much better than the first oven;it drew better, it held its heat longer and the bigger floor area made cooking a lot easier. There was no problem with hot spots where the housing had been cut away either.
The supplier claims that the first oven was cast by someone else and he had no control over quality - he casts them himself now and they seem to be much better. The mix up over the size seems to be that he had two ovens going out that day and someone got a bigger one than they'd ordered and I got the smaller one.
Still, he has agreed to pay the costs and all's well that ends well (I'm hoping!)
Good luck with your new oven.
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