UK Pompeii & BBQ build

[Faz]

I've been posting on and off on here for a long time, and recently started construction of my Pompeii, which will also have a double BBQ to one side. It is a corner build.

Pic 1 - Area cleared of slabs




Pic 2 - Pouring the slab - damp course and rebar/mesh already in place




Pic 3 - Block work completed

[Faz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

Part II

Pic 4 - Block work, showing BBQ area to left




Pic 5 - Oven formwork in place - you can see the lintels spanning the woodstore if you look carefully, and the rebar / mesh in place.




Pic 6 - The oven slab poured

[Lburou]

Great Start Faz!

Looks like a good location for you, and a good start...I like to see a plan come together!

[Faz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

Another update on progress over the last couple of weeks (well weekends anyway).

Slabs finished with vermicrete base poured for oven.




BBQ area slabs poured, ready for the BBQ to be built from brick above it.




My first arch - purely cosmetic rather than load bearing, as the lintel above is supporting the slab. The gap will be filled with brick pieces prior to applying render of the top.

[Faz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

Finally started on the construction of the oven itself yesterday.


Hearth bricks laid out and marked up.



Hearth marked out - I dry laid the cut bricks on the hearth then used spray paint to mark the outline. (I only broke one of the bricks - if you look carefully you can see it )



Hearth bricks mortared in place and some of the soldier course in place. The soldiers are storage heater bricks cut lengthways with the thick end placed to the inside of the oven.

[Faz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

Soldier course completed and quarry tiles fitted over the hearth bricks. I bedded the tiles on a very wet mix of fireclay/lime/sand/cement and then pushed a slurry in to the small gaps between the tiles using my fingers.



Now I just need to get my head round exactly how to do start the oven arch off - I can lay the bricks in a couple of different ways and I need to have a bit of a play around today to figure out what is the best way, especially as these bricks will take quite a lot of weight from the dome.


And finally, the reason why I hadn't been able to make much progress recently My stepson's Ministox, now sadly requiring quite a lot of work on the engine following a bit of a collision.

[brickie in oz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

Are your bricks made from concrete?

The TC tiles will just crack from the sudden intense heat from a fire.

[Faz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

The bricks are a very dense refractory brick used in night storage heaters - these are heaters that heat up over night using cheap electricity and then release the heat during the day. The heaters have a 2kW electric element in them so I am pretty confident that they will withstand the temperature.

[brickie in oz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

Fair enough but they look like concrete, never seen purple firebricks before Id be making doubly sure before you make all that effort in the build only to have the thing fail with the heat from a fire.
2Kw is not a great deal of energy in the terms of a wood fired oven (its only 8.3 amps at 240volts, thats not even enough to warm the fire bricks in an oven, but it will cook toast), plus there is no direct flame involved with a heat bank unlike an oven.

Have you got a sliced face of the brick to show us?

[david s]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

I was also under the impression that heat banks used concrete to store the heat. As heat banks are not subject to high temps a quality refractory is not required. Those bricks certainly do look like concrete. If it were mine I'd be doing a little more research on those bricks. Alternatively you could continue the build, cross your fingers and find out once you jack the temp up.

[david s]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

Faz,

You may have a problem with water accumulating at the back of the oven where the supporting slab meets the wall. If it were mine I'd be drilling some holes in the wall, before your build gets to a point where this is inaccessible, so it can drain away there.

Dave

[Faz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

I wil post a picture of the cut surface later on. It is a bit late to rip it out and start afresh, as the dome is now 2/3 complete!!

I have thought about the water accumulation issue already and I am planning on creating a fall from the rear corner to the front to allow the water to drain away. The surface will be tiled so hopefully the water will flow away quite easily. That's the plan anyway!!!

[brickie in oz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

I wil post a picture of the cut surface later on. It is a bit late to rip it out and start afresh, as the dome is now 2/3 complete!!

If the bricks are indeed concrete you will have no option unless you like eating grit with every mouth full as the concrete will disintegrate rather rapidly with heat and flames.

[Faz]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

True, but they are not concrete bricks!!

[Neil2]

Re: UK Pompeii & BBQ build

There are refractory bricks and there is refractory concrete.

Everything else is not refractory and as Al says will not likely perform adequately in the long run.