UK Cost

[goberpiles]

Does anyone UK based have a cost for building an oven?

So far I found a 2017 thread he halved the cost of the concrete by buying concrete in base components.... bulk sand, bulk aggregate and bags of cement. Works out MUCH cheaper, essentially half the price. I would need a foundation which he didnt need.

Foundation:
Fortunately I already have a concrete slab as a foundation.

Base:
As per the guide, I’m planning to stack up hollow concrete blocks to make my base and pour concrete down alternate cores.
Hollow concrete block construction. 70x blocks @ £2.40 = £168
Concrete 25kg readymix bags 15x bags @ £9.36 = £150
The concrete seems outrageously expensive- I thought concrete was supposed to be cheap?

Cooking Surface:
A 9cm thick, steel reinforced, concrete slab with a further 9cm thick vermiculite concrete on top.
Sand/cement to lay down underneath firebrick cooking floor.
Concrete block 1.2m x 1.2m x 0.2m. 25kg readymix bags 30x bags @ £9.36 = £300
Vermiculite for insulation in concrete top layer. 100litres= £18
Firebricks x60 @ £1.60 = £96
Rebar for concrete ½” x 9m = £51
Sand 50kg = £5
Portland Cement 50kg = £10
Again the concrete is killing me here….£300!

Dome:
Firebricks x 120 @ £1.60 = £192
Procast 1400 castable (25kg bags) x4 @ £18 = £72

Chimney:
£30 steel stove chimney, with covered top, from eBay.

Insulation:
Ceramic fibre "s" blanket 38mm 128kg x1 = £60.00
Vermiculite 100lites = £18 (don’t know if this is enough?!)

Rendering…. Not priced up yet but dreading it based on the above.
External plaster/render
Wire mesh + rebar

So far the price of the above is £1088

[L555BAT]

Hi, I’m just starting my oven build up in Newcastle, I’ve not done it before but I’ve built my base and acquired the rest of my materials to hopefully complete it.

I had a few things already left over from other building work and got some other stuff free, but I’m looking at a £300 spend. So I thought I could give you some suggestions to reduce your costs.

In my opinion I think you could redesign the base structure to not be so concrete intensive or quite so over engineered! It sounds like you are building way stronger than what you would build a house on!

Concrete must be cheaper if you buy raw materials rather than ready mixed bags? But I’d suggest a redesign to reduce concrete usage. Maybe a combination of block walls and paving slabs to form your base?

I’m using aerated concrete blocks as my insulation layer, a cheap and quick alternative to casting vermiculite?

I’m building a brick dome with mortar (sand/lime/cement/clay) not expensive. Bought some insulation blanket similar to what you suggested. Then chicken wire, vermiculite concrete and a final render top coat (sand/cement/lime) again not expensive.

I think with some careful design and planning, as well as shopping around you should be able to half that cost roughly?

These are only my thoughts as someone also trying to do it properly but on a budget, and importantly in the UK! I’m quite sure more experienced people will comment on design and structure and it’s up to you which way you go.

I’ll hopefully be starting my dome this week and will put a thread of my build on soon so you could watch how it goes.

Hope that is of some use.

L555BAT

[aaronpizza]

Hi,
I’m new here but I think I can drastically reduce your costs…
1^st – Don’t use hollow concrete blocks – use the solid ones.
Hollow Cost
70x hollow blocks @ £2.4 = £168
15x Concrete ready-mix bags (rip off) @ £9.36 = £140.4
Total cost = £308.4

Solid Block cost =
70x solid dense blocks @ £1.65 = £115.5
2x Cement mortar @ £4.65 = £9.30
5x Sand @ £2.47 = £12.35
Total cost = £136.65
£171.75 Saving
Note I guesstimated your needs, you will need slightly more blocks but the price won’t be far off.
Hollow blocks are a money pit.

Never use ready-bags, buy ballast and cement, which is about 50% cheaper.

[david s]

Maybe you can find solid blocks that are cheaper, but they won’t be stronger than hollow blocks once the cores are filled. Usually every second core is filled. Minimum thickness of the blocks should be 6” IMO. The 6” blocks available to me take 2 litres per core as opposed to the 8” blocks which take 3. Personally I wouldn’t go for 4” blocks, solid or hollow.

[brad mole]

I’m from the UK and my build has cost me £2500 so far and im not finished yet, i have done all of the work myself except some of the concrete and i have saved money in a lot of ways. Yes i may be a perfectionist and done things a little overkill but this is to give you an idea of costs. They really do mount up fast, certainly more than i predicted and i overestimated in my initial budget.

check out my build if you want to see what was involved

https://community.fornobravo.com/for...-uk-42-pompeii

[Yokosuka dweller]

This is not for the UK but generally:

I built my foundation out of 4"/10cm thick hollow core CMUs. I was trying to save money, but in hindsight the difference in cost (although locally variable) was really very little. As I said I was trying to save money, but then got second thoughts and filled every core of the CMUs with concrete and rebar. So in the end I paid more for the concrete and rebar than if I had gone for the thicker blocks with less concrete grouting. I'm pretty much done with my build, although it's not really finished. And I lost track of the budget - but I think I spent around 200,000 Japanese yen which is in the same ballpark as Brad Mole mentions above. In this budget I scavenged almost all my firebricks for free, so there's that...

[funyoung]

I am also starting out on this.
I purchased ballast bulk bag (sand and gravel mix for concrete) and cement from the local builder merchants (William Hercocks in the midlands).
NB. all prices are delivered over my hedge from the roadside by the 'crane lorry'
Some example costs:

Slab:
MOT type 1 (hardcore) bulk bag (800 kg-ish) £27.00+VAT
Reinforcing mesh 3.6m x 2.0m 6mm £18.92
Ballast bulk bag (800 kg sort of thing) £34.00+VAT - 2/3 for slab
Cement 25kg £4.22+VAT - 5 or so

Stand:
Hollow Blocks 440 x 215 x 140mm - £1.31+VAT each when buying 60 (rising to £1.41 when I wanted just two more)
Reinforcing bar 12mm x 3m £6.39+VAT each

Hearth:
last 1/3 of ballast bulk bag and some more from elsewhere
rest of mesh from before
rest of rebar
cement as before - about 5
and a heavily over engineered wooden form

Will point pics when I can work out how to resize.

Best of luck and hope this helps someone.

This has really illustrated how much cheaper the builders merchants are compared to the DIY stores.

[Chobbs]

goberpiles where are you getting your firebrick from out of interest?

[hughjamton]

I am also starting out on this.
I purchased ballast bulk bag (sand and gravel mix for concrete) and cement from the local builder merchants (William Hercocks in the midlands).
NB. all prices are delivered over my hedge from the roadside by the 'crane lorry'
Some example costs:

Slab:
MOT type 1 (hardcore) bulk bag (800 kg-ish) £27.00+VAT
Reinforcing mesh 3.6m x 2.0m 6mm £18.92
Ballast bulk bag (800 kg sort of thing) £34.00+VAT - 2/3 for slab
Cement 25kg £4.22+VAT - 5 or so

Stand:
Hollow Blocks 440 x 215 x 140mm - £1.31+VAT each when buying 60 (rising to £1.41 when I wanted just two more)
Reinforcing bar 12mm x 3m £6.39+VAT each

Hearth:
last 1/3 of ballast bulk bag and some more from elsewhere
rest of mesh from before
rest of rebar
cement as before - about 5
and a heavily over engineered wooden form

Will point pics when I can work out how to resize.

Best of luck and hope this helps someone.

This has really illustrated how much cheaper the builders merchants are compared to the DIY stores.

Builders merchants aren't always cheaper than diy stores, down south anyway.
I've got trade accounts with some local builders and a tradepoint card with b&q, whilst odd items were cheaper at one merchant than another and vice versa, overall B&Q was the best value.
26% cheaper than one merchant, and their bulk bags were full to the top, £40 inc. vat, Portland £4.04 inc vat your type one was cheaper though and they don't sell rebar.
You need the tradepoint card though, you'll have to invent a company, otherwise it's £30 delivery.