Big commercial Pompeii oven?

[rick]

While building my own Pompeii in Holland I was approached by a restaurant who asked if I could help build their commercial oven. They were thinking of a diameter of 70"-80". Anyone ever done that? It would be taking the Pompeii oven another step forward. Can anyone reflect on additional sizing of such an oven, mortar for an every-day-use-oven and the costs of building the dome versus buying one?

[CanuckJim]

Re: Big commercial Pompeii oven?

Rick,

There will be others on this forum that could speak better to practicality of such a large Pompeii dome, although as a mason I'd have to say it could be done, but it better be done carefully. That's a lot of weight. My feeling is that you would probably need outside bracing (rod and plate steel) to reinforce the soldier course. Even possibly within the dome as Redbrick has done. This would likely involve custom bending, but it could be managed. Have a look at Sunnyfield - The Bakery Project to see what I mean. It's not the same type of oven, but the reinforcing is similar.

A cast refractory dome would eliminate these issues, if you could get one that large.

For an oven in continuous use, you would have no choice but to go completely with refractory mortar, otherwise longevity would suffer. Careful calculations would have to be made regarding flue size.

Jim

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Big commercial Pompeii oven?

I think it's possible. The large oven I saw at Sagunto (and still will get pictures) was probably double that size. It had used the bricks on edge, so only the thin side profile showed. They looked more like a clay tile than a firebrick.