40" Pompeii Style completed in England

[Wickolad]

It is well known that granite doesn’t like heat, but I couldn’t say how well it’ll work. I guess it depends on just how much heat it receives.

Hi david s, thank you for the heads up on that fact. I wasn't aware of that. Truth be told, I never even researched it, I just assumed it would be fine, likening it to what you call soap stone over in the US. Seems I may have completely misunderstood what soapstone is. I can only hope that installing the two heat breaks on the landing area does the job. There was certainly a huge difference in temperature between the floor bricks either side of the dome entry heat break. The granite which only sits approximately 100mm into the landing of the outer arch remained cool. Fingers crossed.
Thanks again, I really appreciate your input and advice within this forum.

Best wishes,
Lance.

[david s]

It is well known that granite doesn’t like heat, but I couldn’t say how well it’ll work. I guess it depends on just how much heat it receives.

[PizzaTheHutt]

Yes, I was asking about the granite right in front of the opening -- if it's a cold day and it has the heat of a fully-cranked fire coming from the oven, will the differential between the hot side and the cold side cause thermal shock? Just put something similar in my build and am wondering how careful I need to be with it...

[Wickolad]

Looks awesome. Quick question -- have you had any issues with cracking on that landing when fully fired up?

Hi PizzaTheHut,
no cracks anywhere as far as I can see, just have have last 3 days of curing fires to do. Was doing well initial 4 days starting small and building up, 4th day had the oven to 200°C, then foul weather rain and high winds put a halt to things. Then got Covid-19 which knocked the wind out of me for a spell and just getting back to full strength.
Just to make sure we're on the same page, do you mean the bricks, mortar or as I assume you're asking about the granite?
No cracks anywhere, but I should also point out I fitted a heat break in the Chimney stack and landing floor at the point of the dome opening and a second heat break between the landing floor bricks and the granite. The floor breaks were done with 40mm Stainless steel box section, with 10mm vermicrete underneath to equal the height of the firebricks.
The Chimney stack heat break was approx ¼" gap with 15mm x 3mm glass tape all round. Bridging chimney stack onto dome was done with insulating firebricks then capped with Soft red handmade clay bricks as finishing brick.
I hope this clarifies everything, please get back to me if I have misunderstood your question. I can provide pictures of the above stages if you require, or you can see them on my build album.
Best wishes,
Lance.

[PizzaTheHutt]

Looks awesome. Quick question -- have you had any issues with cracking on that landing when fully fired up?

[MarkJerling]

Thank you Mark, that means an awful lot me.

I just hope I don't disappoint myself, as to be honest my arc welding skills ( or more so, lack of them), may hinder or compromise the finished product as I see it in my mind.

Time will tell hahaha.

Best wishes,
Lance.

Having been recently given a welding machine I'm having to admit that I have not yet experimented with the thing. Thus far, my metal work skills have been restricted to bending, cutting and riveting! I'm sure you'll tackle this task with the same professionalism as the rest of the endeavour.

[Wickolad]

Can't wait to see your door Lance. Your oven looks like a million bucks!

Thank you Mark, that means an awful lot me.

I just hope I don't disappoint myself, as to be honest my arc welding skills ( or more so, lack of them), may hinder or compromise the finished product as I see it in my mind.

Time will tell hahaha.

Best wishes,
Lance.

[MarkJerling]

Can't wait to see your door Lance. Your oven looks like a million bucks!

[Wickolad]

Phenomenal build, Lance!
The granite dome and landing are quality touches - oven looks great too!!
Should be amazing to see the food you make posted here!
Congratulations - it's challenging enough to build one of these things - another to take it to a whole new level like you did!

All the best
Barry

Hi Barry,
thank you so much for your kind comments. It is really appreciated that you took the time to pass them on.
I'm sure that had I not found this wonderful forum, things would have been very different as I drew much inspiration from the many outstanding builds and wealth of information available within this forum and its many amazing contributors.

Best Wishes,

Lance.

[Wickolad]

I had taken notice of your build a week or so back on your thread. Now that you have your photo album up I just went through it.... Really nice oven!

Thank you so much CapePizza, I've actually been following your own build with some serious envy of your CAD drawing skills.

I've just taken delivery of some plate steel so busy planning my doors at the moment. I'm going with a twin walled insulating door for the inner arch for extended cooking times and a single 5mm single skin outer door for weatherproofing purposes when the oven is not in use.
I'll take pictures of the progress and eventually add them to the album.

Regards,
Lance.

[Wickolad]

That's very pretty Lance. Well done!

Thank you Mark, it's nice of you to say.

[CapePizza]

I had taken notice of your build a week or so back on your thread. Now that you have your photo album up I just went through it.... Really nice oven!

[MarkJerling]

Here are a couple of extra pictures of the near finished build. I actually have a full album of pictures from start to finish of the project at every stage.

That's very pretty Lance. Well done!

[Baza]

Phenomenal build, Lance!
The granite dome and landing are quality touches - oven looks great too!!
Should be amazing to see the food you make posted here!
Congratulations - it's challenging enough to build one of these things - another to take it to a whole new level like you did!

All the best
Barry

[Wickolad]

That link worked fine. Thank you. You built a red brick dome over the firebrick dome. Is that for extra heat capacity?

Brilliant.
The red bricks used to build over the initial firebrick dome are insulating fire bricks, cut in half and installed pretty much the same as the dome, but I didnt go to the trouble of cutting each trapezoid with the insulation and instead mortared up the V joints with a vermicrete / pearlcrete mix to maintain the full integrity of the 4½" insulation jacket.
These same Insulating fire bricks were used under the cooking floor/ dome walls and landing.
I made use of any left over vermiculite / pearlcrete as I did the pointing by buttering this onto the top third of the dome. After a good few weeks drying out, I then put the insulation blanket with foil barrier over the dome, chicken wired that to maintain shape before 3 coats of screed were applied of total depth around 30mm. I then left that to air dry over a few weeks whilst I built the adjacent patio wall and constructed the wrought iron fence & gate.
Finally, I tiled the dome with 10mm granite / onyx tiles which I broke into smaller pieces to maintain the curvature of the dome. This was finished a couple weeks later when I grouted up the tiles with Mapei Ultracolor plus grout. Job done.

I hope this explains some of the stages shown in the pictures.

Best wishes,
Lance.