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Hello pizza fanatics, I have 2 questions for you.
Here's a picture of my backyard 42" pizza oven -- a work in progress. The inner dome is complete, I took great care with it and made all of the mortar lines (high temp thermoplastic) super tight and clean. The oven works very well, and produces some delicious pizza. Stage 1 complete -- and everybody's pleased.
Next: What you see in this picture was a secondary layer of cement and vermiculite that I wanted as an insulating layer. I'm wondering if I mixed in too much vermiculaite. I believe I followed a mortar recipe from the forno bravo handbook. But it didn't survive the winter (yes it was covered with plastic). So either it absorbed humidity and then froze and cracked, or had already weakened from thermal expansion. Should I try again?? Or just layer on my thermal blankets??
My other question is about the outer dome. I was planning to build another BRICK igloo dome over the insulation, about 6 inches out from this inner dome. But I live in Chicago. We have a proper winter, of course. Are brick and mortar joints weatherproof? (masonry is not my forte!) Obviously brick WALLS can survive getting wet, but it would be a different story when there are numerous places that water can seep VERTICALLY between the joints. So, yeah.... are all these brick domes that I see on the internet built in warmer climates? Should I abandon that plan and build a flat roof of some sort?? Or coat the brick dome with a waterproofing layer of something??
Thanks for any input.
Here's a picture of my backyard 42" pizza oven -- a work in progress. The inner dome is complete, I took great care with it and made all of the mortar lines (high temp thermoplastic) super tight and clean. The oven works very well, and produces some delicious pizza. Stage 1 complete -- and everybody's pleased.
Next: What you see in this picture was a secondary layer of cement and vermiculite that I wanted as an insulating layer. I'm wondering if I mixed in too much vermiculaite. I believe I followed a mortar recipe from the forno bravo handbook. But it didn't survive the winter (yes it was covered with plastic). So either it absorbed humidity and then froze and cracked, or had already weakened from thermal expansion. Should I try again?? Or just layer on my thermal blankets??
My other question is about the outer dome. I was planning to build another BRICK igloo dome over the insulation, about 6 inches out from this inner dome. But I live in Chicago. We have a proper winter, of course. Are brick and mortar joints weatherproof? (masonry is not my forte!) Obviously brick WALLS can survive getting wet, but it would be a different story when there are numerous places that water can seep VERTICALLY between the joints. So, yeah.... are all these brick domes that I see on the internet built in warmer climates? Should I abandon that plan and build a flat roof of some sort?? Or coat the brick dome with a waterproofing layer of something??
Thanks for any input.
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