36" pompeii in WI in the winter

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Here's some pics of the finished arch. I think I might have gone overkill on the buttressing, but hey, It's better to have too much than not enough, right? The vent slot on top is 4x12". I found a 4x12" to 8" round sheet metal adapter at Menards that I will mount on top. The heat break will have ceramic braid on the inside 1" where the gap between the arch and the dome is 1/2". The bricks are tapered out from there to a 1" gap in which I will fit a 1" thick calsil collar. More pics on that later.

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Just be sure to build it so that it is not hard to replace, i.e. make sure it is fitted into the entry, and loose or lightly secured. For a home oven granite will probably outlast you, but may spall in minutes.

Ok, That sounds like a good idea.

Here are the pics as promised. We finished the dome and are now working on the vent arch. The sheet metal form worked a treat to the last row. Something I wished I would've paid more attention to is the staggering of the joints. I wasn't really aware how important it was until I was almost done. But from what I've read, it just means there will be a possibility of more cracks. It's really not as bad as it looks some places in the pics because of the way I cut the bricks until the 9nth row. They where angled one way and I changed the angle direction from row to row. In some places the joint position changes as much as 1" from one side to the other.

[Tscarborough]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Just be sure to build it so that it is not hard to replace, i.e. make sure it is fitted into the entry, and loose or lightly secured. For a home oven granite will probably outlast you, but may spall in minutes.

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Thanks Guys, I was thinking of granite as well. There is a place around here that I can get some dark blue/grey granite from which would go well with my color scheme. Some people say it doesn't hold up but like Chris said, It's not that hard to replace.

[SCChris]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Soapstone stains relative to the finish of the stone and this is a function of what you want and how you like it. Unfinished it's a dark gray and since it's non-porous keeping it clean is easy. It's relatively soft so it does scratch. The finishes are either mineral oil or wax both are a snap to apply and keep up. Also since soapstone is some portion of Serpentine and Talc, there is a wide variance in both hardness and color. The more homogenious the color and the darker the more serpentine the slab contains and the more durable.

Chris

[Les]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Thanks Chris,

Our winters can be fairly brutal. I know that granite is not recommended for an outside counter (that's why I used porcelain). But as you say, it is a small area and if the piece does go south, it's not that big of a deal. I understand soapstone stains and that's what I want to avoid.

[SCChris]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Les, I have Granite in my entry for a couple of years and have not had issue and it is easy to keep clean. When I put it in it was replacing a soapstone entry that didn't relate in color to anything else in the oven let alone the patio. The granite has some red in it and that ties into the granite worktop.

I don't know that the Carson City winter, freeze thaw cycles, might not tear up the granite. I have no idea how it might do in this environment. How does granite do as a patio worktop in you area? Have you considered Soapstone in a single slab or bricks. Soapstone won't absorb water or grease and scratches are easy to sand out. As long as you have a small gap, heat break, between the oven floor and the entry you should be good. Either way you go, if you don't like it and or it starts to breakup, it's not such a large area to deal with.

Chris

[Les]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

I have replaced a granite floor in an oven entry that had crumbled, does that count?

Absolutely, and it's information that I needed. My other thought was to use stainless but someone that done it mentioned that the steel curled. What would you recommend we use? I would love to have a surface I could wipe clean.

[Tscarborough]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

I have replaced a granite floor in an oven entry that had crumbled, does that count?

Admittedly, it was a commercial kitchen, and almost 10 years old, but it had been in bad shape for years before they called me, and I replaced it with more granite and a written dis-allowance of warranty.

[Les]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

It hasn't been that bad in regard to getting wet. The biggest problem I have found is that the bricks get soiled from cooking. I was going to replace mine with soapstone but heard that it gets stained just as easy. Has anyone here used granite for the entry? That would solve the wet issue as well as staining.

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

I have another question. As I am planning to use fire bricks for the vent landing floor. What is going to keep rain from blowing into the opening and seeping into and in between the fire bricks? It seems like the joint in between the landing floor and the counter top on the front would pose the most problems this way. I can't seem to find anything on this around the forum. I've thought of making some sort of door to put on the front when the oven isn't in use, but I haven't seen anyone else do that.

We got the dome closed in today and started on the vent arch. I'll post pics later.

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Thanks, Gulf & rsandler! I think I will go with my original idea with some buttressing. I like rsandler's transition up into the vent pipe. Sharkey made something similar.

The only inconvenience of building a wfo inside that I've come across so far is that I can't start the curing fires and start cooking when I get the dome finished. There's a dust collector in the shop that exhausts outside though.....Soo maybe I could hook that up and create some mega draft. J/K I have read of people curing with a propane torch. The pompeii plans say to only burn wood in the oven though, so I'll have search the forum some more about that.

[rsandler]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Aaron,

My entry arch is similar to yours (inasmuch as it's a full semicircular arch), and I ended up doing a vent area one brick thick with a 6 inch gap in the middle and a full heat break between the vent and the oven. So, the inner and outer arches were only about 1.5" thick (I made the outer arch a little thicker than the inner arch). It seemed pretty shaky as I was putting the arch together, but once the mortar set overnight that thing was solid.

I made the heatbreak by placing a piece of cardboard between the floor bricks of the landing and those of the vent, giving me an air gap of about 1/4 inch. So far it seems to be holding with no problems, although it's only been together for ~3 weeks! I packed insulating caulk into the gap on both sides of the arch, and just left the cardboard in at the floor, figuring it will eventually burn to ash.

[Gulf]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Thanks Russell. I like how shallow your vent area is(Gulf's is way too huge for me), but if I'm going to do a thermal break I want to make it a complete one...or as nearly so as practical anyhow. I wonder if your outer arch would hold up if it was connected to the inner arch by insulating fire bricks at both ends of the vent slot.

Anyone else willing to chime in?

Thanks,
~Aaron

If you go with a full thermal break, I would recomend "completing" the inside portion of what I call the heatbreak arch. Even if the completing arch bricks are only 1" to 1.5" That said, I do believe that buttressing is needed. (more so, if you don't complete the heatbreak arch).
Just sayin' .

[AaronTheGeek]

Re: 36" pompeii in WI in the winter

Aaron,

This may help, I did not do a completely isolated thermal break like Gulf did but my arch is similar to yours. I cut the bricks so there was minimal contact with the dome arch then stuffed the slot with a ceramic rope then used high temp caulk over the CF rope. Look at my Picassa album for more details.

Thanks Russell. I like how shallow your vent area is(Gulf's is way too huge for me), but if I'm going to do a thermal break I want to make it a complete one...or as nearly so as practical anyhow. I wonder if your outer arch would hold up if it was connected to the inner arch by insulating fire bricks at both ends of the vent slot.

Anyone else willing to chime in?

Thanks,
~Aaron