42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

[americanteek]

I finally took the plunge this weekend. The stand and hearth are done, not too much trouble but a lot of work for two days.

It measures 78" square (minus the diagonal) - 36 bags of 80# sakrete went into it yesterday. It will never move. I plan to finish it as an igloo. I built the base larger than I needed so it will have ~12" deep of counter space on each side of the oven.

I decided to go with the FB board and the blanket, already have those. I just need to get my firebrick from the masonry supply down the street.

I'm planning to go with an extra wide/deep flared vent area. Maybe 30" wide at the front.

[texman]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

Looking Good and that was a fast start! Have you considered what the floor height of your oven will be ? you might consider your height and what a comfortable floor height would be for you. I made mine higher (about bottom of elbow) and i am glad i did. I used vcrete beneath the FB board so a lot more floor insulation was gained besides the height.
Also, what spacing of your rebar in slab did you do?

Texman

[americanteek]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

Looking Good and that was a fast start! Have you considered what the floor height of your oven will be ? you might consider your height and what a comfortable floor height would be for you. I made mine higher (about bottom of elbow) and i am glad i did. I used vcrete beneath the FB board so a lot more floor insulation was gained besides the height.
Also, what spacing of your rebar in slab did you do?

Texman

The bottom of my hearth slab is 38", 5 blocks tall, with 3" of slab. With the fb board and the firebrick it will be pretty close to my elbow height, which is 44". I'm 6'2", and I knew I didn't want to be stooping over all the time. But my wife also didn't want it to be so high it was unusable for her, plus we are using the area around the dome as counter space, so that's the height I settled on.

For rebar I went with 3/8 and ended up using 20 10' sections. Spacing was ~8" with some extras. You can't really tell from the picture but I poured a big lintel across the top to connect the two sections of the diagonal. I built a form rather than bother with the angle iron. The lintel is 5" below the slab, so it is 8" thick in that section and has extra rebar.

[texman]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

Sounds like you have it well under control. Looks like it is time to start cutting brick. I have a corner build as well and really like it. I did not do the flared vent but they seem to be a good idea. My vent landing is short and caused some heart burn to correct, but it makes working the oven nice by not have the huge reach. Keep the pics coming!

Texman

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

Nice start, AT. You're gonna love being able to glance out the window to see how your fire is doing. Like Texman, I'm partial to corner builds too. Great weather ahead for you. Post lotsa pics

John

[americanteek]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

Some love from my 5 year old.

[americanteek]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

Without the forms. Definitely some imperfections but nothing that won't be covered by the finish layers. It felt great to stand up on top of it and feel how solid it was. I even jumped a few times. Pretty sure it isn't going anywhere. Tomorrow morning brick time starts. I'm getting three trees put in around the outdoor kitchen area which are also getting delivered/installed tomorrow.

[americanteek]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

I thought I'd upload this as well to give an idea of what we're going for. Our home is a 1971 time capsule that we're updating. Being in Arizona, the Arizona room idea is very popular - walling in the outdoor patio and make it a room. The problem as the new buyers was that left us with no patio area besides a few feet of concrete. So we knew we wanted to go big, we had 23 yards of concrete pad put into the backyard for a firepit area, hot tub pad, and of course the outdoor kitchen. Before doing anything we hired a landscape architect to give us a plan for what we wanted so we could work towards it as time went by. This is the portion of the plan that shows what the outdoor kitchen layout will be, more or less. The part labeled "new gate" was just put in this week. The part labeled "walk" has not been done yet, and we may never do that. Generally speaking the layout of the bar/bbq/pizza oven will be exactly as it is on this plan. Hope that makes sense.

[texman]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

very nice plan, that will be nice. Have you already completed the underground work? (water, sewer, electric) I can tell from the pics yet but i see the sink and definitely want lights somehow.

Texman

[americanteek]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

We stubbed out conduit for all those prior to pouring the slab. Lighting plan is still somewhat in the air, but we definitely will have lights on the pizza oven.

[americanteek]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

Made some progress today. First course of dome bricks tomorrow. I'm pretty pleased with the HF saw. Any tips for shaping the inner arch template?

[the_dr_masuess]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

Its looking like you are making quick progress which is great! Keep up the good work.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

It is helpful to sandwich two templates together with a spacer in order to provide access to point mortar into the bricks. Also, use wedges under the form to release it easily after setting bricks to clean up mortar.

Since the inner arch provides the surface that your door butts up against, it needs to be a true plane. To accomplish this, some have suggested building the inner arch horizontally (like a barn wall) then standing it up into place. If you create a placemark for your arch form, it will act as a suitable guide.

[edsiajb]

Re: 42" Mesa, Arizona - Corner build

Looks great! I too have been using a HF saw...it has been great. It does have a few limitations (depth of cut, etc) but has been well worth the money.

Do you plan to use an IT? And if so, do you plan to keep the floor template in place during the build?

I sure would like some Mesa AZ weather right now...I would be able to make some progress with my build! We're expecting a low today of 12 and high of 34....in Alabama! Just too frigid for me to spend much time outdoors.

[americanteek]

Well I should probably dust off this thread. I got side-tracked back in February and then the heat crept in before I could get it finished. So the last few weeks have been a lot of activity. Many pictures to come.