Outdoor kitchen center piece - Build Thread

[shanek]

thought since i was taking pictures to see the progress might as well document it here and bring you guys along for the ride . we purchased a new home 2 years ago and didn't know the least bit about building or landscaping. However after the first bid for our backyard came in, i figured i would do a lot of research on youtube and do it myself. I love to BBQ and smoke meat and so i knew i wanted a covered kitchen of some sort so i could cook comfortably year round (i live in Utah and get a lot of snow in the winter and heat in the summer). my buddy built a pizza oven in his back yard and after eating and seeing the pizza i knew i had to have one and make it my "centerpiece". So without further adieu, ill start the build thread off with the forms for the foundation of the kitchen and awning.

[shanek]

The foundation has some weird shapes but they are meant to hold up the support legs of the awning. i am going to fill in all the surrounding areas with pavers and i didnt want the legs sitting on the pavers as i needed something to bolt them down too, hence the little popouts of the foundation. I dont have them installed yet in the first picture, but you'll see in in the other there are center beams to help support the middle. i purchased this at Costco and had it delivered. it was a pain in the neck to install as there are so many little allen screws but i think it turned out great. i am just temporarily holding the awning down with buckets filled with sand. i at first didnt think we needed this as i thought it was heavy enough and wouldnt move but my dad insisted. im glad we did as we had a crazy wind storm and it moved 6 inches even with it tied down. the PVC pipes are just for running electrical, Cat6 (for internet) and speaker wire. im close enough to the kitchen inside that if i need water or something i can just do it there. i put 4 speakers in the 4 corners of the awning and ran the wires back into the house. The speakers are played through a Sonos connect. i thought of having that outside but we freeze in the winter and was worried about have a $500 piece fo equipment just sitting outside, so i opted for running the wires inside the house and keeping all the electrical equipment inside.

[shanek]

heres a couple of more pictures of the awning, firepit and pavers after i sealed them. the lights for the awning are just LED's from costco. i made the landscaping lights in the firepit from scratch. i priced out manufactured ones and they were going to be $15-$20 a piece. i have 4 around the firepit and all around my retaining walls (~20 around the back yard, so i wasnt going to spend $400 just on accent lights). I ended up making my own for less than $1 a light. happy to show how i did it if anyone is ever interested.

[shanek]

i was finally able to start the oven 1-2 months ago. i started with the block foundation. im 6'2'' and found that my buddies oven was a little low for me. I have been following the instructions on this site for the foundation and they recommended 3 blocks high and then put on the angle iron bridge. i found this to be a bit short and went for 4 blocks high and then the angle iron. Before i put the blocks down i also dry fitted everything so i knew where to put the rebar in. I drilled 4 inches deep into my conrete pad to fit the rebar stakes down and then epoxied them into place.

[shanek]

I put the form on and bent the rebar into place. because i have pavers surrounding the oven foundation i had to come up with a different way to support the sides of the concrete hearth from bulging under the weight of the concrete when i poured it (rather than just staking 2x4s into the ground at an angle and bracing it). Ive seen a few similar type things on the site and made my own rendition of it. Rather than explaining it all in detail i think you can look at the picture and figure it out if you are in a similar boat as me. i did do an 8 inch square over hang. i thought of doing round but everything in my back yard/kitchen area is square (i.e. countertop, firepit, etc.) and square was way less math so i went with it .

[shanek]

i dry fitted the first 2 rows of bricks. i cut out a 36'' template out of some crap wood so that i had a perfect circle to cut my bricks. i also used the template to center my brick jig and to make for easy cleanup. i cut the circle into 3 pieces and then screwed them back together again with a few pieces of wood, so when the dome is completed i can get the circle of wood out. my first brick lay sits flush with my floor. i did this so that its not resting on top of my floor and i can remove out any bricks that get damaged or whatever. i used the FB board on this site (not cheap but makes for an easy layout). instead of cutting it all out in the shape of the dome first i left all the overhang on it. ill come back when im finished and use an oscillating saw to remove the excess and get a tight trim.

[shanek]

Started and "completed" the arch last night. i went with a straight side wall style as i figured it would be less cutting and easier. however now im concerned that my sides are going to push out with the weight of the arch/oven. ive come up with 2 solutions i think. ill add another row to the side of the arch to help shore it up. if i feel thats not strong enought ill drill a 1/2 in hole down the middle of the side supports and stick a piece of rebar down it. but for now well see what happens when i put the extra bricks on the side. ill have to grind down some of the dome curve so that i can fit a "full" half brick next to the arch. ill offset the seems to to try and make it stronger. ill take more pictures of what i do in the coming days.

[shanek]

this is what i had in mind for the support. please excuse the crude paint skills but i think you get the point. ill put the bottom row in a soldier pattern so that the seems are all offset though. ill have to grind out the cement and a little of the dome brick to get the "full" half brick in there though.

[UtahBeehiver]

The inner arch is already partially supported by the dome. Assuming you do a similar arch out front and the vent chamber is the same config, the front arch is where you can start the bolstering and work back to the dome staggering bond would be ideal. I would shy away from grinding on the dome to fit the brick and you should cut the brick to match the dome.

[shanek]

i already went for it (before i saw your post). i carved out the small section, was mostly mortar anyway. i also drilled a few holes in some of the bricks to test if it would work with the hammer drill and it worked great. now debating if i should use the rebar with the holes in the bricks or just use whole bricks. i understand metal and firebrick will expand differently but it is on the "outside" of the dome and in theory wont get as hot, thoughts?

[JRPizza]

Nice start! I have a question about your arch - the bricks at the top look to be the same depth as the bricks at the bottom, which may make it a little harder to tie the dome into the arch. Are your arch bricks flat in the rear or did you taper them? If you place a brick in your IT how does it mate with the arch at top?

[shanek]

they dont taper on the arch currently. well see what happens when i start tieing them together finally. i might grind the arch or just cut the dome bricks to tie into it.

[shanek]

worked on the dome for several hours today. also added the bricks and rebar to the side arch to support it. i didnt need to do soldier bricks on the bottom to offset the seems, it just worked out naturally. im happy with how it all turned out and think it will be very strong.

i consulted with my brother who is an engineer and he wasn't concerned with the expansion of the rebar. it will have very minimal expansion in circumference with most of the expansion coming in the length. i drilled 3/4 inch holes with a hammer drill and went very slowly so i didnt have the back blow out of the bricks. we calculated potential rebar expansion and it was less than 1/8 of an inch at 400 degrees. with it being on the outside of the arch i think 400 was probably generous and am not to concerned (but well see ) . i currently only have it 4 bricks high but will make it 6 high more than likely. ill also do it on the opposite side as well. I just ran out of time, we had a BBQ to prep for .

[shanek]

added a few more layers on top and finished up the 2 side reinforcements. i also decided to pull the arch form as it was done 7 days ago. i was curious how strong it was so i decided to sit on it :P. held all 210+ pounds of me without skipping a beat so i think she should be good

[SableSprings]

Looking good Shanek! Just to give you a little more "comfort" on your use of rebar in the arch buttressing...I did basically the same thing. No problems since I built the oven in 2009 (and I've put through almost 6,000 lbs of dough - pizza, bread, cookies, etc.). My rebar was not as thick as yours, but I suspect it will never be an issue for you.

I attached some pictures of my rebar arch/buttressing just for visual comparison. You can just see the tops of the rebar pieces I slipped down the brick holes. I did try to fill the holes down as far as I could with mortar. Frankly, I never even thought about the possible rebar expansion problem ... glad I was oblivious at the time as I certainly had enough worries about my crappy brickwork.

Not too long until you close and start thinking about "what to cook next..."