Joe's 42" Corner Build

[joeykramer]

Hey All, first of all, big thanks to this community, I promise to give back when i have enough knowledge. After a couple of years of researching, buying a new house and having our first child, im ready to build. here's where i am at. Last fall I designed the outdoor kitchen area, poured the foundation and floating slab. this weekend, i am going to continue the build and hope to lay the first course down.

Just like a lot of folks, I have minimal experience in masonry but feel comfortable enough around it to tackle the project. I feel that i am more of a hands on type of guy and not an engineer that needs to calculate ever brick cut and design it out before going outside. I appreciate all of those posts because it helps me understand and envision my build. A couple of things about the projected build:

• 42 inch diameter Igloo style build
• 4 inches of Ceramic fiber board insulation under the floor
• 13-15 inch landing proposed
• Home brew mortar 4:1:1:1

Im sure I'll have a lot of questions going foward, looking forward to it

[RandyJ]

Glad to see you getting started. You are about 2 months ahead of where I was at this time last year. Your stand is looking nice. I can't wait to see it go together. Good luck.

Randy

[joeykramer]

thanks Randy, i followed your build closely. ok within the last 15 minutes i thought of two questions i have...

for you igloo builders how did you manage to tie in your vent landing floor with your counter top or finished area. My floating slab is 35" off the ground, Im going to lay the 4" insulation right on top of that, so that the oven floor is about 42 inches. the 'wings' of the kitchen area will have countertops on a separate level. so how do you fill in the 7 or so inches of space from the floating slab to the oven floor? I realize many have not made it flush, but if i could that would be great. I was thinking of building up perimeter with paving stones, so that a counter top could sit right on top. the sides of the whole kitchen are will be covered with stone veneer. Countertop ideas range from granite to concrete.

2 : where the oven sits on the slab... i am thinking of having the front of the vent landing sit 8 inches back from the ledge of my floating slab, I figure the stone veneer with add on another two inches, and countertop over hang could be about 2 inches as well, so when you belly up to it, it will be 12 inches set in. is that too far back?

[JRPizza]

Joe, have you made a full size layout of your 42" oven on your hearth to see if you really want to reach that far to get into your oven, and if you have that much room? My landing plus decorative arch is going to be pretty much flush with the front of my corner stand, and that is with my oven pushed all the way back on the hearth slab. Do you really have enough room on your slab?

[joeykramer]

Good Point JR. i do have a cut out, its as far back as it can go. How do you like/ anticipate liking that it will be flush. i was envisioning putting a plate on the countertop, maybe just a beer instead

[UtahBeehiver]

There is nothing wrong with having a counter in front of your oven. It is what works best for you. My oven is not flush with the end of my hearth (about 10" from edge of hearth to front of oven), my choice, and I do not find it difficult to reach in with my peel. Gulf has a really deep entry and he just made his tools to adapt. Being an igloo, you can place the finished backside of the oven right to the back side if you want. If you want to have the cooking entry surface flush with the counter top, just be aware, this is a possible entry point for water to get in. Even a inch or so above the counter may be better.

[JRPizza]

Joe, you must like warm beer . I'm one of those engineers you mentioned in post #1 , and figured you can't nudge the oven a little after the dome is built to adjust your placement. I wanted the biggest oven I thought I could get on my stand, which I wanted to make smallish to maximize dining room under my shelter. I allotted for 3" of insulation and 3" of shell, leaving a little over an inch on the back sides. Probably would have moved the oven back a little more if I thought I could have but will have a good 9" to the left and right of the oven to place beers etc.

[RandyJ]

Hey Joe I don't think you will have any trouble with a 12"counter in front of the oven. Mine is 12" with a 13.5" deep vent. Then the 40"oven, and I have no trouble reaching anything. As far as having a beer in front of the oven th IR heat will quickly heat it up. I made this mistake when it was below 0 F and left my beer there for a minute and it was warm to the touch on the side facing the oven and cold on the other. The beer was warm too. I always put my beer off to the side now so that won't happen again. You almost can't understand how much heat comes out of the oven till after you use it. I made steaks again this weekend and I almost couldn't get my hands in there to flip and turn the steaks. I also need to take a little more time off the cook as they were med rare to med in 5 min. I might have to do 4 min next time.

Randy

[joeykramer]

warm beer... i was thinking more to the side of the opening, not in front but yea, i was playing around outside last night and got a feel for it, cold beer and everything!

JR when are you starting up again? I was planning on this weekend, but we might get some snow on sunday, i realize i could cover my work and put a lamp in there, but might not want to take the chance. Cant believe the weather...

randy- without searching your feed again, how big is your vent area?

[RandyJ]

Hi joe. I am going from memory here but I think the vent area was 22.75 inches wide by 13.5 inches deep. I like the size of it as it gives me plenty of room for the tuskin grill. That is a fun tool to use and really expands the food you can cook in the oven. It also is big enough to catch most of the smoke on start up. So I only have a light smoke stain around the entry arch, and I like how it looks.

Randy

[JRPizza]

JR when are you starting up again? I was planning on this weekend, but we might get some snow on sunday, i realize i could cover my work and put a lamp in there, but might not want to take the chance. Cant believe the weather..

It's taking me a while to ramp back up - lots of Spring chores and the weather thing. We never got any snow, but set records for rainfall and have had some killer winds. I pulled out my two forms for my forward and aft vent arches and the tapered bricks I had been storing under my dome last weekend. I need to mark the position of the bricks on the forms then I can start laying them. I found that the building of the dome goes relatively fast, but when I got to the vent it takes a heck of a lot more thinking - you aren't just placing bricks where the IT tells you to, and there is a lot less detailed information on vent building.

[RandyJ]

I would agree that there is not nearly as much info on the vent. One reason for that I think is there are so many different ways to do it. They can range from very simple to way overly complex. And so it requires that each person decided how to do the heat breaks if they are going to do them, to flair or not how much reveal what kind of decorative arch and any other posable option. To a point a dome is a dome but all the vent is all different and kind of like the finger print of the oven.

Randy

[joeykramer]

What's the general consensus in vapor barriers in between the floating slab and insulation?

Does it not get hot enough to melt it under 4 inches of fiber board ?

What kind to use ? I have some in the attic that i used under hard wood floors in my house for above the slab. Would that work?

[UtahBeehiver]

I doubt you will see temperatures under 4" of ceramic board anywhere close to melting any type of vapor barrier you choose to use (visquee, tar paper, etc). Since you are doing an ingloo and in New Jersey is your oven going to have a roof over it? It is key to make sure that if water migrates in that is does not get absorbed by the CaSI. Some builders have drilled a weep hole in the heath floor as well or raised the CaSi higher than the hearth surface, ie pavers, lots of way to skin the cat.

[Mullins]

Can someone explain the logic behind having vapour barrier under the insulation? I have seen some ppl have drilled a couple of hole to let water run off, but would a vapour barrier not act the opposite to that and trap water?