36" Pompeii in St Louis

[plastered]

Leveled the floor, laid out the first course of half soldiers and mortared them into place, I also mortared a little bit of the front landing to keep those in place. Next up I will build an arch form, get my IT going and start the journey upward.

[UtahBeehiver]

You can to protect the CaSi from abrasion while you work. I just used the leftover homebrew as I was laying courses.

[plastered]

Summary:
I'm 31 yrs old, have never done masonry in my life. I completed this entire build with an 8" angle grinder and a 12" diamond blade on a cheap Ryobi sliding chop saw, which seemed more than sufficient. This thing turned out a million times better and cooler than I could have ever possibly imagined.

Build time: 13 Jun 2020 - 10 Oct 2020

Spent most weekends from June through July building (alone). Took several days off work too, to build. By mid August I was able to use the oven (perfect timing for fall), and the rest of the time was spent on finishing materials. Finishing took me 2 months due to figuring out what to get and laziness, but overall it only took about 2-3 additional "light" weekends of work to finish.

Build cost: ~$4000

I have a spreadsheet where I tracked everything that I may post here someday (PM me if you want to see it). About $400 was spent on tools I didn't have. In summary though the costs were:

-Foundation and block stand: 700
-Hearth: 540
-Floor, Dome, Chimney: 1360
-Finishing (brick façade, counter): 815
-Door: 112

Other fun facts: Bricks were 1.75/brick (used a little less than 180 fire bricks), Refractory mortar 95/bag (4 bags), CaSi blanket and board ~540

Timelapse of my build




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Finally posting the progress of my build. Drilled some weep holes, put down some old tile i found in my basement from previous owners (and some screen I found to keep the bugs out), cut the two layers of CaSi board, and started cutting the keyhole shape for the floor an landing.

Tomorrow I plan to mix up the sand mixture for under the floor.

The only question I have this second, is should I coat the outside of my CaSi with some mortar? Should it be the high temp mortar? I'm mainly looking to 'protect' it I guess since it seems exposed right now, and will be until the dome is done. I remember seeing people coat a ring around it as they start mortaring their first course in place.

Critiques are welcome, and any other advice as always!