West Virginia Casa90 Build

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

Contractors laid the concrete block base for the pizza oven this morning. Here's a picture after most of the rows of block were completed.





Went with a total of 5 courses of block, right at 40" tall. With the top that will be added, the base should be right at about 43" above the patio. Started raining just as he finished so put a tarp over the top and didn't get any additional pictures. The blocks will be faced with the same stone as the fireplace is made from, about 4" thick so the entire concrete pad will be covered.

You can also see where landscape fabric has been placed under the areas where there will be either pea gravel for a walk way or river rock for cover. About half the area will be covered with river rock and the other half will have mulch.

Might be able to start some construction on the oven late next week and make this thread a bit more pizza oven focused!

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

Contractors are nearly done with the outside patio area. The roof was completed on the pavilion and the pavers are nearly complete. Here's a picture of the area.



The base for the pizza oven is nearly complete. Concrete blocks are in place and stone to match the fireplace is being added today, hopefully to finish tomorrow. There are 3" pavers for the counter top that are being laid on 3" angle iron to help support the oven.



I hope I'll be able to begin the oven construction in the next couple of weeks but happy with the look and layout so far.

Thanks for looking.

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

Here are a couple of pictures of the 99% finished stand for the oven. Landscaper will finish up setting the pavers this week and then I'll be able to start the oven construction. Hope to open up the crate with the oven in the next day or two and will post a few pics before I get started with the build.

Here's the overall view.



Close up of the stand, pavers over the cinder block foundation. The top is 3" thick pavers laid on 3" wide, 1/4" thick angle iron for support.



Here's my helper checking out the area, our foster puppy that will be here a few more weeks.

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

Finally got a chance to open the crate that the Casa90 arrived in from Forno Bravo. Everything was packed well and don't see any issues. Added a few pictures as I was opening things up. I won't be using the single wall pipe and chimney cap that came with the kit so will have to post an ad later. This is a 24" long piece of pipe (6" diameter) and the cap to go with it. I purchased 8' of the 6" DuraTech pipe and a cap to get the chimney up above the roof.

Does anyone know the approximate weight of each of the 3 pieces of the dome? I'll move the pallet to within about 25' of the oven site but will have to move it by hand from there. Wondering what we're in for in terms of weight.

It also looks like I'll be able to set the oven on the pad and let the chimney extend up just outside the edge of the pavilion roof. Won't have to cut through the roof this way yet the front of the oven will still be under the roof line once the arch is added- don't want wet pizza if baking in the rain or snow! Could have saved a bit of money by using the single wall pipe but the other pipe is here and it will still be "near" the edge of the roof.

Hope to start construction in the next few days- rain forecast for today but will see if things open up.

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build, Finally Started!

Was finally able to start installing our FB pizza oven. Here are some pictures. We put the insulation blanket and floor stones on the stand first- used sand to level the floor.



Then started used our small tractor to move the 3 dome pieces over to the stand. Had to go behind the existing fireplace on a bit of a slope but no real problems other than we removed one plant so it wouldn't get crushed. In the perfect world, we would have built the oven before putting down the patio floor but it didn't work out. Here are some shots of that process.





After getting the three dome pieces in place, did a trial run for the chimney, pipe will just get by the edge of the roof without having to make any cuts or changes to the metal roof. Picture shows one piece of chimney pipe temporarily set on top of the oven. Will have a second piece of pipe and a chimney cap to get well above the roof of the patio pavilion- probably could have gotten by with a 2 foot piece of pipe but only have a four foot section but better a bit high than too low from a smoke perspective.



Hope to be able to apply the refractory mortar to the dome to seal it and attach the chimney in the next day or two, will also think about a decorative arch- I have some stones that were left from the fireplace and stand so might give those a try. Leaning towards a stucco igloo for the final finish.

[Gulf]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

Real nice Dave,
One very beautiful place you have there. Are the kit ovens from FB normally set on blanket? I would have thought that they would be set on FB board.

[Laurentius]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

Hi Dave,

Is that Blanket or Fiber Board under your hearth? If its blanket why is it so roughed up? It should be board.

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

My fault for terminology, it's actually fiber board and got roughed up a bit as we positioned the 3 oven pieces. Sorry to mislead!

[mrchipster]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

I am even more-impressed the further you go into this project, absolutely beautiful and well thought out.

[kkgator]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

I appreciate the fact that you took pictures. I recently purchased a composite oven to put on a trailer. Seeing your oven in stage s has helped me tremendously. I also thought that I would probably need an engine lift to lift the pieces onto the trailer. Keep the pictures coming! I absolutely love what you're doing!

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

Thanks for the kind words kkgator. I think an engine lift would probably work, I was thinking about renting one of those when I realized I could get to the stand if I drove the tractor behind the fireplace. I think that two strong people could probably lift the pieces as well but we're kind of in the boonies here and didn't have anyone available to help. My wife is willing but isn't able to lift a lot of weight so really happy the tractor worked out.

Thanks to everyone else for the kind words and encouragement too- we've had rain most every day lately but hoping to at least seal the 3 dome pieces together with the FB mortar tomorrow so. I also took a trip to Lowes today (about an hour away) to get some stucco but turns out they don't stock it there anymore even though their website indicated they did- will have to look for another supplier, most likely a concrete supply company early next week.

More pictures when I make some progress!

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build, Oven Sealed

Used the FB Refractory mortar to seal the 3 pieces of the oven together. Instructions call for about a 3" wide band of mortar about 3/4" thick- doesn't seem like a lot but think I'm close to the correct thickness. You also use mortar to seal around the base of the oven covering the fiber board. Here are some pictures as I went along- I've never used mortar before so was pretty slow- good news is this will be covered by blankets and stucco.

This is before I started.



This one shows the oven after I trimmed the fiber board around the bottom of the oven.



This picture shows progress on applying the mortar, note the professional tools, lol.



One more showing the top of the oven as I've applied the mortar. You can also see that I mounted the ring for the chimney. I originally was going to run the chimney through the roof of the pavilion but later was able to set the oven just outside the footprint. The double wall chimney pipe is way overkill but it's what I have and too expensive to ship to return so will go with it. There will be 8' of chimney on the oven.

[IMG][/IMG]

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

Here are a couple more pictures. This one shows the oven as it sits from behind the fireplace.



I played around a bit using some of the left over blocks from making the fireplace and stand to see how they would look as a decorative arch for the oven. My block cutting skills are not impressive but I like the look. More importantly, my wife thought it looked good. I'm hoping that as I stabilize and even out the gaps in the bricks with mortar, it will work out.



I have a 3" thick paver that is like what was used for the top of the stand that I can put in front of the oven for a landing area- this would be about 1" lower than the oven floor and not sure if that would be a problem or not. Might find a 1" thick piece of green granite that I could place there to bring the floor and landing area to the same height.

For those of you with ovens, do you think it would be a big issue to have the landing area lower (by 1") than the oven floor?

I also have about 1/2 of the bag of refractory mortar left, is there any reason I can't use this to mount the decorative arch, not in the heat path really but I have it on hand?

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I didn't find stucco mix locally but think I'm going to just mix it up from the basic ingredients. Found a stucco recipe in another post using 1 part portland, 1 part lime, 5-6 parts sand for the base coat and then 1 part portland, 2 parts lime, and 4-5 parts of fine sand for the finish coat. I have a small cement mixer so this seems easy enough.

Next steps are to set the arch and then put on two layers of fiber blanket. I picked up a roll of hardware cloth that I'll use to try to form the dome and as the base for the first stucco coat. Interesting project so far, can wait to start curing in a week or two!

[kkgator]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

I wish that my project was at the stage that you are at! Thanks for the mortar shots! From what I read, the FB mortar sets up fairly fast. Did you have any issues when you applied your mortar or is there anything else that you would have done differently?

I'm waiting for my trailer to be finished before I start my oven build and the rain around here isn't helping either. July rainfall for Gainesville, FL 2012 just over 6" and this year we finished just over 20".

Thanks for posting!
Kenny

[davemartin88]

Re: West Virginia Casa90 Build

It only took about 30 minutes or so to apply the mortar and I didn't notice that it was trying to set or get hard to work with. Part of the reason I only mixed half the bag was because I was unsure how long I would have to work with it but that made up a pretty good size batch to use anyway.

More when there is progress.