Casa 2G90 Stand Dimensions

[pfrank]

I'm pouring the foundation for my Casa 2G90 this week so I'm triple checking all the dimensions.

The FB Installation manual calls for hearth dimensions of 50"W x 57"D. Fine.

But the photos in the manual show a block stand that it 3.5 blocks W (56") and 4.5 blocks D (72") I understand the need for the stand to be slightly larger to allow for stucco/tile finishing materials, but if the stand is 6" wider than the minimum hearth width (3" per side) why would the stand be 15" deeper than the minimum hearth depth? The landing area is already factored into the 57" dimension?

And if that doesn't confuse me enough already, the materials list calls for "50 8x8x16 blocks, 12 of which are cut to 8x8x12" but the rest of the installation manual never mentions or shows where the 8x8x12 blocks come into play.

Can someone make sense of this for me or, better yet, if you have a Casa2G90 with a block base, can you tell me what your unfinished stand dimensions are?

Thanks.

[cook4fun]

Re: Casa 2G90 Stand Dimensions

God morning pffrank / aka : serf,

I'm looking at getting a CASA 2g 90 as well...and actually was about to post a nearly identical set of questions...the only "extra" question I was going to ask is about the height of the cooking floor (all reading suggests "elbow height"), yet I need to have it a bit higher...so need some thoughts on the backwards math to produce the correct height (probaly 44-45 onches (vice the 42 ")

Did anyone ever answer your Q's ?

Hope your build is going well

Keith

[pfrank]

Re: Casa 2G90 Stand Dimensions

Hi, Keith.

I've completed my build so I'm happy to try to answer our shared questions -- at least according to how it worked for me. As the premise of your questions suggests, this is an adaptive process, so whatever you read needs to be adjusted for your individual circumstances and desired outcomes.

I built my base 3.5 blocks wide by 4 blocks deep (56" x 64"). Those dimensions seem ideal when building toward an exposed igloo (at least the casa2g90), but it would be tight (IMO) if you're planning an enclosing structure. We talked about all manner of possibility before deciding that we really like the look of the igloo and didn't want to hide it. We personalized a bit by building an irregular ("artistic") wall on two sides of the igloo as the photos of our finished build show. Even at that, fitting the igloo and the wall on the 56" wide base was tight.

As for the height to the cooking surface, mine is about 42.5" above the ground. Here's how I got there.

I began on a slab that wasn't quite level, so over the footprint of the stand we poured a concrete base on top of that that was about 1" thick on the front.

I built up 4 courses of cinder blocks for another 32".

Then I laid a course of half height cinder blocks for another 4". I'll explain the reason in a minute.

Next I poured my hearth to about 4". Pretty much everyone on this site recommends pouring a hearth a little thicker than the recommended 3.5", so who was I to argue.

Then comes the insulation material, sand and fire brick floor -- combining for ABOUT another 4 or 5". Let's just call it 4.

So that's 1 + 32 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 45. I built to that height because we wanted to lay patio pavers on the ground around the oven and I needed to account for those 3". Since the ground would come up by 3", 45ish - 3 = 42ish.

Construction materials (and certainly my construction skills) are less than precise, but my math skills are pretty good, so felt fairly confident about what I was doing from a calculation standpoint. So knowing that I needed to account for the pavers that would be laid on the ground and needing to build slightly taller than my desired end height is the reason why I laid the course of half height blocks that I mentioned earlier.

So if you're building to a target cooking surface height of 45", you could reverse engineer based off my measurements to get an approximation.

Starting from 45" I subtracted 3" of height by adding the pavers on the ground, so if you don't need to make such an adjustment you're still at 45". But I also had that approx 1" of concrete to level things before my first cinder block was laid, so adjusting that out (assuming you don't need to make such a tweak) leaves you at about 44". You could certainly make your hearth a little thicker to get closer to 45".

FWIW, I'm 5'10" and find my cooking surface height quite comfortable. If you're a bit taller then adjusting the height accordingly seems to make sense.

I hope this helps a little bit and I'd certainly be happy to answer any other questions or clarify. We love the WFO. Just had 15 people over last night and made 9 pizzas. Great fun.

Good luck!

Frank

P.S. I never did figure out why the material list suggested you needed blocks to be cut to 8x8x12. I Always consider it a good assembly job when I have parts left over at the end of a project. ;-)