insulate before curing

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: insulate before curing

That's pretty harsh on Engineers, I'm pretty sure we have lots of Engineers on the forum besides myself.

LOL... I have a family full of engineers. It's not to be harsh it just takes me twice as long because I have to explain everything...in small words...and draw lots of pictures. So it takes twice as long.

SO my thinking is

If you insulate then you'll want to protect your insulation from outside moisture, bugs, birds and little kids that want to play. so you insulate then stucco. A vapor barrier works both ways no moisture in and none out. So if you try and cure the oven after insulation and stucco you will trap moisture in the insulation layer. That just prolongs the process

So why not cure the oven first?

[waynespizzaworld]

Re: insulate before curing

To answer your question "Faith in Virgina" as to why not cure the oven first is I have a customer that is wanting to cook pizza. The project has taken a bit longer than first thought. So as I said, if I put on the stucco right after the insulation and the first coat of stucco needs to cure for one week before I can put on the final coat then if I was to cure the oven during the week of stucco cure I would be able to let my customer start cooking one week earlier.

I am seeing from responses here that I would be best to cure first then stucco. I kind of thought so but wanted to check. Thanks everyone .............wayne

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: insulate before curing

I do understand. When customers are involved I learned long ago shortcuts can come back to haunt you.

What will you tell the customer if there are issues with oven temp or steaming cracks from the stucco? Really, I did build you a quality oven?

I checked out your project and you do beautiful work.

[lwood]

Re: insulate before curing

Hi Faith, no doubt Engineers are the worst customers I am faced with a similar situation with the stucco layer. My oven has been in-use for about a year now without a stucco layer. I haven't been able to get more expanded perlite until now. I am getting ready to add another 2 to 3" of perlcrete to the outside of my dome. The dome already has 3 to 4" of un-expanded perlite as insulation. It wasn't enough...duh. Actually it's not so bad, the external temperature of the dome at full saturation is about 150F. So I'm adding 3" of expanded perlite and then stucco.

So that gets me to the same point as this thread. The question, as I see it, is when to apply the stucco. How much curing is enough to apply the stucco layer, without cracking. I think, the more the better. Don't stucco until the insulation is completely dry. Assuming you keep the exterior dry. If you must stucco asap then 10 firings should be plenty to drive all the water out. The pre-stucco stage is a good stopping point, if you can keep the exterior dry. Once the dome is dry, the stucco can be put on at any time.

[david s]

Re: insulate before curing

Lwood, I agree, and you need to give the vermiculite/perlite layer longer to dry because it takes up so much water. I've cracked a couple of outer shells from not letting it dry enough first. Of course if you are doing an enclosure you don't have this problem.

[brickie in oz]

Re: insulate before curing

I feel all dejected being called an engineer as I actually work for a living.

[lwood]

Re: insulate before curing

I feel all dejected being called an engineer as I actually work for a living.

Stop sobbing brickie, your getting the keyboard wet. Your just bored, now that you finished your second oven. You need another project. That's why I drag mine out for a year, so it will I don't get bored. My wife doesn't like it, but she likes the Pizza.