Pompeii started in San Jose

[SteveB48]

Hi All,

Spent most of the weekend cutting bricks. When mortaring the dome, do you apply the mortar to the brick(s?) and then squish it into place so there are no mortar joints inside the oven or do you hold the bricks in their proper position and force mortar into the joint from the outside? On the non-dome bricks, like the arch, what size mortar joint are you shooting for?

Finally making progress!

thanks
Steve

[SteveB48]

Picking up bricks tomorrow. Finally able to get back to it.

Steve

[RandyJ]

Honestly most of what you are looking for is not that hard to find either locally or on the Internet if you look in the right places. I for one if you can afford it would say to put 4" of the ceramic board insulation under the oven. You will then have almost 0 heat loss down through the slab. I got my bricks from a place the does boiler repair. I also got my blanket from them too. As for the bricks if you get the kit you could run out of bricks depending on how you do the cuts , and then you will need to find more bricks locally any way. That is my take on it anyway

Randy

[deejayoh]

I still say that FB should offer an "everything but the bricks" kit for a build.

Firebricks a) too heavy to ship and b) generally cheap and easy to find locally (unless you're in Australia)

Te rest of the stuff - floor insulation, ducting, thermal blanket - is hard to find, lightweight, and a high value to weight ratio

My genius business recommendation is to ship the stuff that is light, valuable, and hard to find - and to tell people where to find the bricks locally.

[SteveB48]

Thanks Mitch! I sent an email to FB earlier today.
Looking forward to your response,
Steve

[admin]

Well it's been a while and not a lot of progress but things have changed. The stand is now complete and I'm hoping to start on the oven next month.

I noticed today that the Pompeii kit has gone up to $1850. That's $600 since I got my quote in Nov of '14. I'm wondering if I should change my plans and maybe consider an assembled oven or modular kit. Does the Pompeii had advantages over the Casa or Primavera? The Primavera would be only 28".

thanks,
Steve

Hi Steve,

First, thank you for participating in the Forum! Regarding the price on the Pompeii, we conducted a full pricing review and found that we needed to make adjustments in regards to our costs. Our kits now include free shipping to support a national market. If a customer would like to pick up at our local facility, we can offer a credit that will vary depending on the product. Just contact a sales rep to discuss your situation.

Regarding advantages and disadvantages, just a couple of thoughts (but I'm sure the Forum community members will give theirs, too!):

• The heat performance in a Casa kit is consistent due to dome cast vs ?joint? fitted bricks with mortar that can vary in heat properties.
• How tight the brick is cut can effect thermal properties
• Casa ovens have a higher grade refractory material
• A kit can improve your project timeline
• The largest Primavera is 28" (it's made from a Giardino kit). A Casa is available in 32", 36", 40" and 44", Pompeii in 35" and 43"

Hope that helps!

Mitch

[admin]

Well it's been a while and not a lot of progress but things have changed. The stand is now complete and I'm hoping to start on the oven next month.

I noticed today that the Pompeii kit has gone up to $1850. That's $600 since I got my quote in Nov of '14. I'm wondering if I should change my plans and maybe consider an assembled oven or modular kit. Does the Pompeii had advantages over the Casa or Primavera? The Primavera would be only 28".

thanks,
Steve

Hi Steve,

First, thank you for participating in the Forum! Regarding the price on the Pompeii, we conducted a full pricing review and found that we needed to make adjustments in regards to our costs. Our kits now include free shipping to support a national market. If a customer would like to pick up at our local facility, we can offer a credit that will vary depending on the product. Just contact a sales rep to discuss your situation.

Regarding advantages and disadvantages, just a couple of thoughts (but I'm sure the Forum community members will give theirs, too!):

[Larry P]

That's the downside to "free shipping" - hurts the locals.

[SteveB48]

Hi Larry,

My plan was to go pick it up. They still charge a $50 loading fee or at least that's what my Nov 2014 quote said. I just checked shipping to 95119 and 94550 and it's now free. I may rethink this.

Steve

[Larry P]

Steve,

I'm starting a 36" Pompeii oven in Livermore and I'm at about the same stage as you are, getting ready to source the refractory materials. I want to support FB for running this forum, but I'm struggling with their pricing. The shipping is a killer, but maybe this price increase is related to the recent announcement about free shipping? I think what's going on here is that it simply doesn't pay to ship bricks any distance. At this point I'm leaning towards sourcing brick and mortar locally and going to FB for insulation only. Maybe take a drive down there to pick it up.

Cheers,
Larry

[SteveB48]

Well it's been a while and not a lot of progress but things have changed. The stand is now complete and I'm hoping to start on the oven next month.

I noticed today that the Pompeii kit has gone up to $1850. That's $600 since I got my quote in Nov of '14. I'm wondering if I should change my plans and maybe consider an assembled oven or modular kit. Does the Pompeii had advantages over the Casa or Primavera? The Primavera would be only 28".

thanks,
Steve

[RandyJ]

People do both but you only need one cell of each brick filled to have a solid wall. So every other does that if they are stagered. But if you are worried then it doesn't cost that much to fill all of them just more labor.

Randy

[SteveB48]

New slab poured. Much better than the previous one. I picked up the blocks last night and had to stack them somewhere so... I need to true things up a bit. Those looking closely can tell I haven't cut the blocks for the angle iron yet. The angles are also upside down. The plan is to fill on Saturday. Are folks filling every other one as the directions say or filling every hole? It seems that if you don't fill every hole the wall isn't completely connected together.

Steve

[RandyJ]

If I were you I would go for the full blocks and half blocks as long as you have the space. You pretty much can't make your stand to big, but you can end up to small. Unless you do not have the room I would keep it simple I made my base 70"x70" for a corner set up and I am glad I over sized it a little.

Randy

[SteveB48]

Back from vacation and back into oven building. The old slab is gone. I'm really glad I removed it. Portions of it were more like base rock than concrete! Since this time I've poured 3 other foundations (sink, bar and kitchen) with good results. Each better than the previous. I'm ready to tackle the oven this weekend.

I know this has been discussed before but I'm having trouble searching for posts on the new forum. I have the Pompeii plans (v2) which call for a 67 x 78 inch foundation. The block stand dimensions say 59 x 70.
70" is 4.5 blocks @ 15.625" / block. 59" turns out to be 3.77 blocks. I have to believe that's an error somewhere as the pictures in the PDF don't show anything other than half blocks.

My question is, do I use 4 blocks for a total of 62.5", 3.5 blocks for a total of 54.7" or cut the blocks to make it really 59?

Thoughts?

thanks,
Steve