Casa100 Build - Chico CA

[hillscp]

Yeah, the Sat Dish is awesome LOL. It's actually on the house behind my property.

The prep table is awesome too. It's 13' long. We were putting fold up tables there for parties until I finished it.

[Giovanni Rossi]

Nice work! Really like all the prep/work surface. I think a lot of builders wish they had more space for that. Also great that you have space for covered and uncovered entertaining. Many years of fun ahead.

And, I'll bet you're the only guy who's added a sat dish to your oven...sorry, couldn't resist .

[JRPizza]

It turned out nice - looks like a great place for a party!

[hillscp]

Been a while since posting here but I thought I would wrap up the thread. Here are some images of the final product. Pizza Party Palace!

[hillscp]

I have a question about tile and stucco. I want to put a 4.25" x 4.25" Mexican tile border around the hearth of my oven. There will be stucco fields above and below. I want the tile to be embedded in the stucco field. I uploaded a little drawing but my thinking is that I would lay down a 1/4" layer of stucco over the rough concrete edge of the hearth then let it cure. Next lay down 1/4" of thinset and the 1/4" thick tile. Next apply stucco to 3/4" above and below.

I also entertained just embedding the tile in stucco without thinset but I don't know if the tile will stick to the stucco.

[hillscp]

After fretting a lot about how to build a roof I finally came up with this. Maybe I can move ahead now... Good news is I've had two pizza parties! I'm going to leave it flat and cover it with roll on roofing. Can't see the top anyway unless your 6' 10"

[hillscp]

I've been making steady progress since the rain stopped. I got the metal frame built for the house. I built a box around the chimney and filled it with fire blanket. The plan is to put a masonry cap on top. I've been building small fires. Yesterday I brought the oven up to cooking temp. The roof was 1000 f. All the black soot burned away. This morning the oven walls are still 570 f. I think I'll cook something in there later today. I'm struggling a bit with how to put a roof on. Right now, the plan is a metal roof and paint it green in the spirit of patina copper.

[hillscp]

I have no idea how much wood it takes to get an oven up to pizza temp (or any temp). My friend keeps inviting me over to the restaurant to fire up the oven and make some dough. I'll have to take him up on it. His oven never cools off.

[Gulf]

hillscp , Beautiful pics of the almond blooms. That orchard is awesome in full bloom. For the past few years, dead fall limbs have been my primary oven source for fuel. It has already dried while still on the tree and burns fast without lots of smoke. If it has been a couple of weeks since the last rain, it is ready for the oven. If I gather it right after a storm, I will place it under one of my sheds for about a month before using. I always keep back a firing or two of dry wood for emergencies: power outages etc. Mixed in with what they call seasoned wood (which is not totally dry) it works great. The dead fall in the below pic is of dead fall pecan. Like oak, as long as there is a little snap when it breaks, it's good wood. I'm guessing that almond wood is similar. The smaller stuff, I bundle with natural fiber string. That makes it easier to move and handle later. With the natural fiber string, a whole bundle can be placed in the oven.

I think that you will be rewarded by getting with the land owner or the caretaker to find out when the older trees were being thinned and if it was ok to gather dead fall. Not many folks down here pass up my offers for cleanup

JRPizza ,I have a manual two cylinder hydraulic Harbor Freight splitter. I have used it from time to time. I can't do the axe thing anymore lol. I have some large pear wood that I removed from my neighbors yard on hand. The HF splitter will definitely get used for that.

[JRPizza]

I picked up a small hydraulic splitter from Harbor Freight, and although slow it sure saves the wear and tear on the body. It's especially useful on the smaller rounds as you can make nice uniform pieces vs swinging an axe and hoping you hit the right spot, and not any meat
On the rare occasion I can get some free fruit wood I save it for live fire cooking and use any soft wood I get for getting the oven up to temperature.

[hillscp]

Thanks Gulf. It will be quite a chore splitting the wood. I have a wood stove too so I'll probably use most of it in there. That is a great idea going out in the orchard and picking up limbs. There was a huge smoking burn pile on my way in and I'm sure that's probably where the limbs ended up. Almond wood is prized around here as firewood, cooking wood and WFO wood. I have a friend who owns a restaurant with a WFO. He uses almond wood exclusively but he pays a premium to have it split up. California produces 55% of the worlds Almonds and most of them grow where I live (along with Walnuts). Here are a couple of beautiful orchard shots from last spring (I'm an amateur photographer)

[Gulf]

Almond doesn't grow where I live, so I'm not very familiar with it. I shy away from most anything that needs splitting. Usually, I am going in behind firewood cutters and taking the small limbs that they don't want to bother with for free. I can't help but wonder if that beautiful orchard has a debris pile of free limbs?

[hillscp]

The work has been a little slow due to a vacation and my day job and the weather. It has been really foggy here for the last several weeks. The kind of fog that drips off the trees like rain.

• Progress so far
  • I got the hearth poured. I drilled holes for drainage. No tile though
  • I set the FB Board and the floor. I tried to float the floor on sand but I could not get that to work to my satisfaction. The floor has small "ears" on both sides and they would not stay flat plus I was pretty sure I was going to end up with sandy pizza. I put the dome on with the floor embedded in sand and I was absolutely not happy with it so i took it all apart and started over again using the refractory mortar that comes with the kit. I was afraid I would not have enough to do the floor and seal the joints but it was perfect. I had to mix the mortar pretty wet because the board soaked up moisture. I finally got a spray bottle and wet the FB down. I also kept the ffoor wet for a couple of days while the mortar set.
  • Set the dome
  • Trimmed off the FB Board.
  • Sealed the dome joints with refractory mortar
  • Wrapped the dome in fire blanket today. They say they provide enough for three inches of insulation but there is enough for four
  • Had to stop because it got dark and a big pacific storm is coming and will dump 6' (1.8m) of snow in the high elevations over the next three days. Hunkering down
  • Covered it with a tarp.
  • Came inside and poured myself a glass of bourbon. I'm too old to stack wood LOL

Bought a cord of almond wood today and stacked it. My daughter Abbey helped me. Lots of splitting in my future...

[hillscp]

Been a while since I posted. The Hearth is poured, It appears that the oven has a winter solstice alignment in the northern hemisphere.

[hillscp]

Thanks for looking out for me I have a couple of things to do before the pour. Straps and lifting the rebar up. It's supposed to rain until next Wednesday though so it might have to wait. I have it all covered in a tarp so the form won't warp. BTW there are 3 1/2 inch #10 screws in all the corners.