Hello everyone,
I have been lurking and learning on an off for a few years. I am at the point where I now have time to jump in and start building the Pompeii.
I am going to build the 42" oven with the normal dome (vs. low dome.) I intend to do a lot of bread baking in addition to weekend pizzas. I am looking to maximize heat retention, so I am looking at beefing up the insulation. I found what I think is a good deal on CalSil and FoamGlas at around $5/sq foot picked up. My plan is to go with 2" FoamGlas and 4" of CalSil on top of that. I am also going to incorporate a steam injection setup at some point for the bread. Someone on the forum did this with a pressure cooker and valves that fed into the oven with copper tubing.
So, the questions start. This starts to add up in height on top of the hearth slab. I am wondering if it would be good to inset the foamglas in the concrete and then add the CalSil on top of that? That does raise some concerns with water, but I could put in some weep holes on the concrete under the FoamGlas. The other option is to just build up from the slab and end up around 8" above slab with the oven floor. I guess that really doesn't matter, I just have to drop the height of blocks or slab to get to a comfortable landing height. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. It seems like the 8" height above slab may look a little awkward, but maybe it will all be hidden behind the framing.
If I go down this path, it seems that it would be safe to skip the vermiculite in the hearth slab. Again, thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
These are my main questions right now. I think the hearth buildup will control any moisture issues. I also plan to add some cladding (maybe 1/2 to 1 inch on the dome) then wrap with a ceramic blanket at about 4-inch thickness to help with heat retention.
Any other beginning thoughts or things that I may want to consider from other's lessons learned...before I get too far down the path?
Thanks to everyone that has gone before me for all the great information out here!
Bob
p.s. pics and progress to follow in the coming weeks.
I have been lurking and learning on an off for a few years. I am at the point where I now have time to jump in and start building the Pompeii.
I am going to build the 42" oven with the normal dome (vs. low dome.) I intend to do a lot of bread baking in addition to weekend pizzas. I am looking to maximize heat retention, so I am looking at beefing up the insulation. I found what I think is a good deal on CalSil and FoamGlas at around $5/sq foot picked up. My plan is to go with 2" FoamGlas and 4" of CalSil on top of that. I am also going to incorporate a steam injection setup at some point for the bread. Someone on the forum did this with a pressure cooker and valves that fed into the oven with copper tubing.
So, the questions start. This starts to add up in height on top of the hearth slab. I am wondering if it would be good to inset the foamglas in the concrete and then add the CalSil on top of that? That does raise some concerns with water, but I could put in some weep holes on the concrete under the FoamGlas. The other option is to just build up from the slab and end up around 8" above slab with the oven floor. I guess that really doesn't matter, I just have to drop the height of blocks or slab to get to a comfortable landing height. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. It seems like the 8" height above slab may look a little awkward, but maybe it will all be hidden behind the framing.
If I go down this path, it seems that it would be safe to skip the vermiculite in the hearth slab. Again, thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
These are my main questions right now. I think the hearth buildup will control any moisture issues. I also plan to add some cladding (maybe 1/2 to 1 inch on the dome) then wrap with a ceramic blanket at about 4-inch thickness to help with heat retention.
Any other beginning thoughts or things that I may want to consider from other's lessons learned...before I get too far down the path?
Thanks to everyone that has gone before me for all the great information out here!
Bob
p.s. pics and progress to follow in the coming weeks.
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