42” Corner Build in the Shadow of Mount Nittany

[Giovanni Rossi]

Thanks xvandish. I still have cosmetic finishes to do and build a pavilion plus some landscaping, but I'm going to enjoy using the oven this year.

This is my first go at non-pizza in this beast. It’s going to be fun learning how best to use it for retained heat cooking.

I haven’t yet fabricated an insulated door. I noted the temps every 12 hours after firing for pizza. I waited until the flame died and there were just embers then placed the steel door that evening. The probe end of the thermometer is about 2.75” from the inside face of the dome so it should be a good indicator of heat saturation of the brick. I typically keep my fire on the opposite side of the dome from the thermometer so the increase in temp the next AM is a good indicator of the dome coming to equilibrium via conduction.

All of the starting temperatures were higher than I normally use so everything baked faster than normal. Next time I’m going to try cracking the door to bleed some heat while cooking.

07/02 2100 475^oF (246 ^oC) Closed oven
07/03 0900 525^oF (274 ^oC)

Sourdough bread on parchment on the oven floor

07/03 2100 500^oF (260 ^oC)

Hamburger rolls for the 4^th on sheet pan raised on cooling racks.

07/04 0900 460^oF (238 ^oC)

Cornbread in cast iron skillet

07/04 2100 340^oF (171 ^oC)
07/05 0900 290^oF (143 ^oC)
07/05 2100 260 ^oF (126 ^oC)
07/06 0900 220 ^oF (104 ^oC)
07/06 2100 200 ^oF (93 ^oC)
07/07 0900 180 ^oF (82 ^oC)
07/07 2100 160 ^oF (71 ^oC)

Dehydrated fruit

07/08 0900 140 ^oF (60 ^oC)

It's cool that I can use commercial full-size sheet pans.

Really happy with the heat retention. Not sure if I even need to fabricate an insulated door. It seems as though the front of the oven is a little cooler, so an insulated door may help with that?? Still a lot to learn.

4 photos total

[UtahBeehiver]

Nice looking bread, my bread skills are pretty caveman. Never thought of drying fruit, good idea,

[Giovanni Rossi]

Thanks Russell. My wife's 2nd love (I think) is hiking, backpacking and camping. She's excited to be able to make her own healthy, nutritious and lightweight snacks!

Slow but steady progress between rainy days. Final coat on the landing support.

[SableSprings]

Great looking loaves & other baked items! It's really nice to see you taking full advantage of a firing through the cool down days. Now comes the clamor from friends & relatives to be on the recipient list for the next bake... I went to mostly baguettes for my giveaways because I could bake a batch of 8-10 at a time & each batch was done in 15 minutes at 575F. You'll also both appreciate not having to fire up the inside oven during the hot days of summer! Don't forget to try making your own granola as the oven drops into the lower temp bake zone. I also highly recommend trying the corn in the husk technique that Gulf posted a ways back...Possum Korn in the Roasting & Grilling section.

[xvandish]

Thanks xvandish. I still have cosmetic finishes to do and build a pavilion plus some landscaping, but I'm going to enjoy using the oven this year.

Great looking bread! Now I want some....

Ah, I'm going to be (or at least planning on) doing the same thing (pavilion/gazebo)! What style do you have in mind for yours?

I was initially going to do a pergola with concrete roman columns, and actually bought forms to do so and made a few columns and a base, but I don't think it's going to look great (was planning on experimenting with limewashes), and it'd also be so much weight, each individual piece of the column is ~100lbs, and each column is ~9 pieces. Last I stopped working on them, I was trying to hollow them out enough to make them lightweight.

Here's a picture for the general idea - I was planning on planting grape vines at each column as well. If you're interested in the forms, they're made by a company called History Stones. I attached a few pictures as idea-reference.

Think I'm going to maybe go the easy route instead and buy a metal gazebo.

[Giovanni Rossi]

Thanks Mike (SableSprings ), high praise from a neighborhood bread sage! Yeah, she had just made a batch of granola the week before. We also missed a couple days when we could have roasted some meats and veggies. It was a busy 4th weekend and I didn't plan well. I had to prep my sourdough early so it had to have 2 days of cold ferment. I hadn't done that before, but it turned out okay. I'm going to need to set up a separate Google calendar for the oven until I get the hang of it . I had forgot reading about Joe's Possum Korn. Thanks for the reminder.

xvandish you have much more elegant plans than I do. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I'm going pretty straightforward as my site has some awkward topography. I just need something to keep the rain from running down the back of my neck as I cook . Fortunate to have an architect daughter to plan it.

[Giovanni Rossi]

Time to put this baby to bed!

Sonotubes were placed at the rear of the site early on while the locations were more accessible. They were filled with the excess concrete from the slab-on-grade delivery. The remaining three post footings were dug and filled in preparation for the rest of the support posts.

The pavilion roof is supported by 5 ground-contact treated posts, 3 – 6”x6” on the “back” corners and 2 – 4”x4” on either side of the oven opening. The ridge beam, side beams, rafters and rafter ties are 4”x 6“ treated.

The hardware is the Simpson Strong Tie system.

[Giovanni Rossi]

The roof covering is 1”x 6” T&G knotty pine (SPAR Urethane), ½” plywood, Tyvek, drip edge and asphalt shingles.

[Giovanni Rossi]

Next, a little cosmetic work.

Had a large slab of flagstone salvaged from a landscaping project done about 20 yrs ago. Used the angle grinder to cut and fit some pieces to extend the patio to the edge of the slab. I had planned for about an inch curb to keep the storage area dry.
Tapped the daughter’s artistic eye to epoxy the seams in the granite landing then polished it with the slower-speed angle grinder.

[Giovanni Rossi]

Ran into a challenge with the vent. The kit has a pre-cast refractory flue gallery with a stainless steel insert. The insert is ringed with ceramic fiber rope to allow for expansion. The insert is designed to accept the male end of the supplied 36” single wall stainless pipe. I needed to transition to a double wall pipe to penetrate the roof. The transition collar for the double-wall system I was using needs to mate to the male end of the single-wall pipe. I tried for a couple hours to crimp, cut and bend the insert to make it fit into the transition collar. I had minimal success and it looked terrible. I was about ready to go to the sheet metal shop and have a new insert made. Then, I realized I had no use for the kit’s single wall pipe so I cut the male end off and fabricated a new insert. The insert has fins that are bent once it is inserted to secure it to the underside of the flue gallery. That pipe was tough stuff to cut even with my trusty angle grinder, but I was happy with the result.

You can also see in the closeup that the final dome coating has been applied. It is a brush-on waterproof acrylic render. You may recall from an earlier post that I placed ceramic fiber rope around the flue gallery to act as a curb for the last layer of concrete render and to isolate them from each other. I did this because the kit supplied 2” of blanket and when I doubled that the dome encroached further onto the flue gallery and some fine cracks appeared in the second layer of pericrete radiating from the flue gallery the next time I fired the oven. There are now two layers of the acrylic render encapsulating the rope and I’m happy to report there weren’t any cracks after a full firing.

[Giovanni Rossi]

Next, a few more finishing details.

Daughter fabricated caps for the exposed ends of the beams from rolled aluminum flashing.
There was a remnant just long enough to make a trim plate for the stack.

[MarkJerling]

That looks very tidy!

[Giovanni Rossi]

Thanks Mark!

The last tasks were cosmetic. Applied brick veneer to the concrete block base and lintel. That was my first experience installing brick veneer, using concrete pigment and handling a grout bag.

Finished with a dry laid stone wall (yet another reminder that I’m no longer 25) to keep the bank at bay and some stone to dress up the perimeter of the stand. My wife used the space behind the oven to add more native plants for our pollinators. Interesting note, the more uniform stone to the left of the stand are reclaimed curb stones from when streets were modernized on the south side of Pittsburgh.

Daughter gave me a plaque to ID the location of the time capsule for an early birthday present.

[Giovanni Rossi]

What’s left to do?

I’m getting days of retained heat cooking so I’m debating the necessity of making an insulated door. If I do, it will probably be some sort of FOAMGAS and wood sandwich.
I will post that if I do.

Until then, I’ll wrap up this build with the following…

The questions I get most are:

1. Are you glad you built it? [Absolutely]
2. Would you do it again? [Absolutely not]
3. Does the fire go in the open space on the bottom?

Some random final thoughts:

Project duration: April 5, 2022 - September 18, 2023

Manhours consumed: 595 (Though I admit to not being a fast worker and I usually over-research and overthink things – especially those tasks new to me.)

Current cost per pizza / loaf of bread baked : $127

As with most home improvement projects, the final cost was about double the original estimate. However, I didn’t plan to build a structure and that contributed a significant portion of the additional cost.

Weight of the project:

Oven above the support slab – 3,100 lb
Stand – 14,900 lb
Pavilion – 5,375 lb
Landscaping stone – A lot

Favorite parts:

• My wife helping me to place the keystone from above while I was lying in the oven.
• Working with family when I needed help.
• The first full firing.

Least favorites:

• Laying concrete block for the footings (I’m going to need more practice with this).
• Fitting ceramic fiber blanket on the dome wearing full protective garb in 90 degree weather.
• Supporting each dome brick above course #4.

New favorite tool – angle grinder

Most of my prior skill set was woodworking and construction framing. I had to research a lot and learn as I went for everything else. So many of the parts of this build were new skills that I improved along the way such that another build would be much easier…if I were so inclined.

Most significant lesson learned: Getting the consistency of any concrete product correct takes practice and will make or break the application.

I had to cut only about 2 dozen brick along the way because I used a kit with per-cut bricks. It was certainly more challenging using an angle grinder than a wet saw, but I still wouldn’t want to cut for an entire oven. Hats off to those of you who did. Again, I am so impressed by those of you who figured out the arch layouts.

It’s important to determine final floor height early in the design process.

As you can expect, this Forum was invaluable to me.
I noted when I used advice from others.
Those I didn’t recognize who who provided insight and knowledge: JRPizza, gastagg and fhausback. Apologies to those I missed.
Thanks to those who chimed in along the way with additional content and clarifications.

As I learned more from research and experience, I’ve tried to comment on new threads to pay it forward.
My research on the Forum helped me customize the kit in ways I believe will help me take greater advantage of the heat generated from a single firing.
I researched my build for nearly two years (part of that was during COVID lock-downs). While that is an excessive amount of time, I recommend new builders take enough time to do so. I see many new builders just diving in.

Fino alla prossima volta!

[MarkJerling]

Great write-up. I must say, I love the inclusion of the "cost per pizza" calculation! LOL Sounds like my "cost per coffee" figure after purchase of the ECM machine.
Oh, and did you put the time capsule plaque on the wrong brick just for fun?