Exterior Finish

[jinsko]

Hi Everyone-

A quick update and a new question. Thanks to all of the excellent advice for proper firing, the oven is working beautifully. Beyond my expectations, in fact. I'm cooking pizzas at well over 700 degrees, in about 3 minutes, and they've been fantastic.

I also lined the interior with as many fire bricks as possible without taking up too much valuable cooking space and the heat retention is excellent. I made a quick, half-assed door out of cardboard sandwiched by ceramic blanket and wrapped in aluminum foil, put it on the oven when it was about 500 degrees and the next morning the internal temp was still around 400 degrees.

So now we're turning to the exterior, which is my question. We're thinking of just doing a simple stucco or cement of some kind, but not sure what or how. Can I just cover the blanket with some chicken wire and stucco it? (pic of the oven as it is now is below) Or would people advise something else or some other method? Unfortunately, we should have made our base a little bigger, as there isn't a great deal of space around the oven to build on. But there's enough for a coat of something. But a coat of what?

Thanks so much as always!

Best,
Jeff

[cobblerdave]

Re: Exterior Finish

G'day
Of course you can cover that blanket directly with wire and render. You don't require a layer of pearlcrete to do that. The pearlcrete just to get the lumps and bumps out , you can do that just as well with further coats of render.
Great to hear you getting enjoyment out of you oven that's what there for!
Regards dave

[jinsko]

Re: Exterior Finish

Thanks, Dave. Do you have a recommendation for stucco vs. some other sort of concrete finish?

-j.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Exterior Finish

G'day
Old school is 1 part Portland cement 1 part lime 6 part sand. You can replace the lime with waterproofer for the last layer, but that might be a bit expensive for a small job.
Myself, even though I've never used them, would try one of those a acrylic pre mix type. Made to be easy to use and more resistant to cracking etc.
As for which one I hope someone would recommend a product that you can get locally
Regards dave

[Greenman]

Re: Exterior Finish

Jeff - I used mortar of lime, portland and sand with the addition of a little plasticiser to cover the vermicrete and finalise the shape of the dome. For the final coat I used an acrylic texture coat (applied with a very coarse roller). That provided the final colour, and a waterproof seal that has a level of flexibility to resist cracking. The product I used was Acratex and after 18 months of very regular use the finish is holding up fine and still none of the fine cracks that might be expected with just the render.