A new Folly at Full Moon Farm-- build thread

[7caesers]

That is really sharp! Beautiful work!

[rwiegand]

It's almost complete, I'm going to replace the little metal chimney cap with a piece of granite I've had cut to give the top of the chimney a more finished look. I just need to free up my truck to go get a lift from the rental place to get the 100 lb piece up 15 ft. Other than that it is done. We use it at least once a week. Works like a champ.

[7caesers]

My build is quite similar to yours. I would really like to see your finished product. Please post a picture when you have time.

[7caesers]

The peel and stick flashing is an option. I will have to give that some consideration.

[rwiegand]

Yes, that's a concern. I overhung the roof so that for the most part the structure stays dry-- there will be some wind-driven snow and rain of course. I sloped the small slate shelf a bit to carry water away. Water can wick up through the base as well, though it has to get 3 ft. The studs are pretty well galvanized, the scraps sitting out in the weather for a year haven't rusted at all. In retrospect I would have put a waterproof flashing between the concrete and steel (the peel-and-stick stuff you use for window flashing.

I think the oven will outlive me by a lot; whether it will last 2500 years like the ones in Pompeii I can't say.

[Chach]

Really like your build Rwiegand. I plan to have build very much like yours. I do have one question. Do you think that over time the steel sole plate on the concrete will rust? That's why I'm considering using narrow cinder blocks for the walls.

I was thinking of doing 4" block walls for the top of the enclosure as well but after adding up the weight that would add over 3000 lbs more to my structure. Thats when I decided to go with exterior grade 18g structural steel studs. if you go with this they are made to support weight and are made to sit outside as well. I worked in a new construction Building that was built using only this type of stud with a heavier gauge for the walls and no wood. You will be fine as long as you purchase the correct product and not the studs on the shelf at home depot. Menards special orders them in packs of 10 any size width and length or local supply houses have them readily available. Hope this helps with your question.

[7caesers]

Really like your build Rwiegand. I plan to have build very much like yours. I do have one question. Do you think that over time the steel sole plate on the concrete will rust? That's why I'm considering using narrow cinder blocks for the walls.

[rwiegand]

Finally back to working on it this week. Various travels and other projects got in the way of starting earlier, though (in my defense) it is well into May before the "4 days with lows above 40 degrees" recommended for the mortar setting the veneer stone is met. Now its raining 3-4 days a week!

Anyway, all the trim is now in place, buttoning up the eves-- another thing I had to wait for was for the wrens who nested in the rafters to fledge, and painting the trim is done. I've applied the mortar scratch coat to the top, and am ready to start applying stone again.

I messed myself up with order of operations, I'd decided to get the roof on ASAP last summer, now I'm stressing about how to get to the back side of the chimney to apply the stone without standing on my slate and breaking it. I've rigged up a support for a ladder that spreads the weight out using a block of dense foam. I hope that's enough! You'll hear the cursing from here if I break a slate. Erecting scaffolding for 20 minutes of work didn't seem like a great choice, but we'll see.

[Chach]

I was curious if you finished the top portion of your oven...I haven't seen a pic but it sure was looking good

[Chach]

Slowly climbing up the learning curve. This side is looking a lot less "rustic" (though the intent was for it to look rustic, there are limits!). Lessons for today are 1) lay out a lot more stone to choose from, and 2) be more aggressive about trimming off odd bits that throw the courses way out of line or leave big gaps that can't be matched.

I too did a dry stack on my stone and it was very time consuming to find the right piece. I realized that I can get close and trim and that's when i started to go much faster. I did make a 4x8 temporary table using all the pallets I had from my project as the legs and a double sheet of osb for the top and put all my stone on there so I can see all the pieces instead of leaving them in the big bin they come in...i also kind of separated them by size so I knew where to look when I was looking for a piece....nice work just remember your doing something most people would never dream of trying and your succeeding at it.

Ricky

[rwiegand]

All that's left is to finish the stone veneer on the upper half and build a more permanent door. The veneer instructions call for five days over 40 deg (F) so that won't happen here until probably May. For now I'm just making pizza as the occasion arises. Going to Naples next month and hope to get some tutoring from a real pizzaiolo.

[cbailey]

Any progress on your build? I'm sure your under snow, but hoping to see some updates.

[david s]

Thanks-- didn't quite get it done before winter set in, the final bits of stone veneer will have to wait for warmer weather. The oven is performing very well, even in the cold. I haven't noticed that it takes significantly longer to heat up in sub-freezing weather.

The higher the temperature, the greater the heat loss. For an oven temp of 400 C the variation of ambient temp on a cold day of 0C as opposed to a hot day of 25C is not that significant.

[rwiegand]

Thanks-- didn't quite get it done before winter set in, the final bits of stone veneer will have to wait for warmer weather. The oven is performing very well, even in the cold. I haven't noticed that it takes significantly longer to heat up in sub-freezing weather.

[purplehaze]

Wow great job!