32” cast oven build

[Mereside]

Good afternoon I have been here reading up for a few years dreaming of building my own area for an oven/ bbq, well it’s finally at the stage of laying bricks so here’s the start of my 32” cast build.
so the stones went down first and I bricked round the edges giving a nice area to relax

I finished the base and got into setting out the bricks which is not something I tried before this project but it’s looking ok but slow going lol for a welder.



I have most things worked out but I have a couple of questions,
i have decided to brick the oven up in its own little house with a nice stone roof but after I get to the stage of wrapping it in insulation and chicken wire can I brick it up at that or will I still need the vermiculite/ perlite stage ? , I will update as I go along regards Wayne

[UtahBeehiver]

If you enclose the oven in a structure, you can just pour dry perlite or vermiculite in the enclosure, cheap and easy. The corners can be filled in by old milk jugs or pop bottle to reduce volume in these areas.

[Mereside]

Brilliant thanks for your help, I will post more as I go along, regards Wayne

[Pizzarotic]

i have decided to brick the oven up in its own little house with a nice stone roof but after I get to the stage of wrapping it in insulation and chicken wire can I brick it up at that or will I still need the vermiculite/ perlite stage ?

Hi Wayne, it's looking good so far, well done.

As for the insulation, it depends. If you have a good thickness of blanket then that will be adequate by itself. If you want excellent retained heat then add the perlite/vermiculite to fill the void as additional insulation. Because you have the option of so much loose fill insulation you can also reduce costs by reducing or eliminating the blanket thickness and using the bulk fill.

[Mereside]

Hi Wayne, it's looking good so far, well done.

As for the insulation, it depends. If you have a good thickness of blanket then that will be adequate by itself. If you want excellent retained heat then add the perlite/vermiculite to fill the void as additional insulation. Because you have the option of so much loose fill insulation you can also reduce costs by reducing or eliminating the blanket thickness and using the bulk fill.

I have all the components ready to build including the blanket, I like the idea of a loose fill of vermiculite to help retain heat, I have all next weekend and a full week off work the following week so I should be able to get thngs moving along nicely, just don't want to make a mistake in my build, happy so far though even though my brickwork is slow going, it's not as easy as it looks lol, regards wayne.

[Pizzarotic]

No its not easy but your certainly getting the hang of it. Wish my brick work looked that good.

[Mereside]

No its not easy but your certainly getting the hang of it. Wish my brick work looked that good.

Thanks for that, I am pretty chuffed so far, fingers crossed for the rest of the build, regards Wayne.

[Mereside]

Just having a moment, I’ve booked all next week off to finish my brickwork and get as far on as possible, when I lay my concrete top I am assuming I’m using sharp sand and gravel ? Not building sand and my next question on the flu gallery, I have seen some really nice builds some only use a small sloped gallery, is it better to slope the sides as much as possible to help the smoke draw up the chimney and not out the front or is it inevitable that it will happen, regards Wayne.

[Kris S]

Just my 2 cents: as far as I understand yes avoiding 90° corners and instead using sloped walls in the flue gallery helps channeling the smoke thru the chimney instead of out of the oven mouth.
I also believe using the correct diameter + length of chimney pipe is more decisive in this than sloped vs. straight flue gallery walls.

I think a 6” diameter and 1m long chimney pipe is ok for a 32” oven.

[Mereside]

Kris that’s brilliant, just what I was thinking, will get cracking and post my progress, thanks Wayne

[Mereside]

getting somewhere now, more brickwork and an arch, fingers crossed to get it complete tomorrow, regards wayne.



all looks good so far, going to cut the bricks around the arch tomorrow and i have made a steel base that's powdercoated to lay the concrete plinth for the oven to sit, finally feel i am getting somewhere now

[Mereside]

another step closer, but brickwork isn't my strong point lol, it's slow going.


Ready to pour the base and get onto the dome, well excited, it's slowly coming together, regards wayne.

[Mereside]

sorry for the long drawn out post but my plans changed somewhat and here's where were at, the shed I decided to turn into a bar area to go with the eating area, i got some cheap byfold doors off the internet to refurbish and they turned out to be solid oak and a bargain, i had intended to cast my own dome but somebody close by had a brand new cast dome they didn't want to do anything with and it had sat in the crate for two years so i took it off him so i could get the oven finished so here's a few pics,

[Mereside]

slowly getting somewhere now and i had two boxes of insulation so i filled up the brickwork around the dome so its packed




the doors to the bar have been stripped sanded and re painted along with cladding inside and out to look so much better than before, I finally feel I am getting somewhere, some stone work to finish at the front and a pot chimney to fit over the stainless flu and were going to start using it, regards wayne.

[Mereside]

The bar is nowhere near finished but you can get the idea,

totally lacking in shelves optics or alcohol lol but i will get there