Treehouse Pizza

[UtahBeehiver]

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[Toiletman]

Hi UtahBeehiver what's the reason for removing hyperlinks? It's not like we are posting commercial links or anything, just trying to help each other out with info?

[Toiletman]

Hey guys the side wings will be ballpark 36" deep by 45" wide. The plan is that nothing will be a free or open span. I have 18 gage track that will form the top and bottom along with 18 gage studs that will form the vertical parts. I plan to rush a few additional cross members front to back to help support the counter tops. Sorry I am not very good at drawing out my visions I hope my description helps. The main reason I went with the heavier gage studs is to help give the slab more support.
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If everything is supported I wouldn't worry too much about making it much thicker. If you google a little bit you find stuff going below 1" even. You might find a lot of info here: concrete countertop institute

[RandyJ]

Hey guys the side wings will be ballpark 36" deep by 45" wide. The plan is that nothing will be a free or open span. I have 18 gage track that will form the top and bottom along with 18 gage studs that will form the vertical parts. I plan to rush a few additional cross members front to back to help support the counter tops. Sorry I am not very good at drawing out my visions I hope my description helps. The main reason I went with the heavier gage studs is to help give the slab more support.

This is the mix I was looking - menards

I will hope this link works

I guess if everyone thinks 2.5" would make a difference I could probably make that work. I am just trying to figure this out so that I can keep rolling along.

Randy

[RandyJ]

On a slightly different note we went out for our 20th anniversary tonight to Bricks pizza in Hudson Wi. We got their Hot Honey and their Chimichurri pizza. Both were very good and made me even more excited to get the oven operational.

Randy

[Toiletman]

2" thick is on the thin side. The strength of a concrete slab is proportional to the square of its thickness. This equates to a 3” slab being more than double the strength of a 2” on and a 4” slab 4 X stronger. Other factors to consider: What are you planning regards to reinforcing and what span between piers? You mighy be better off getting a truck mix delivered.

With regards to thickness that is true for a uniform material, but since concrete is typically reinforced you have to calculate as if the concrete is cracked. (ie. tensile loads are carried by the steel). Compared to normal stiffness&strength calculations it's a whole different ballpark. But I do agree with you that 2" seems on the thin side. RandyJ Could you provide a sketch of the spans you are planning to cover? If i understand you correctly you will support it with a frame made from steel studs?

If it helps anything: In my oven I've included a 'tool' space, which is provided by an almost 3" slab supported on three sides, with a 'free' span of 1300x750mm (see picture). I have no experience with the counter top mix, so not sure what advantages it offers to 'normal' concrete, although I would assume you do need it to get your nice and smooth/dense surface layer.
Pouring a 'normal' base layer and the proper stuff on top probably also makes no sense, especially if you only have 2" of height to go with anyway.

Btw david s: nice outdoor kitchen! Now I might also have to consider a concrete finish...

[Toiletman]

Hey Toiletman , I am a Commercial / Industrial Electrician by trade. I like to try to stay on the industrial side of things doing rigid pipe installation and control work. I want nothing to do with residential work and try to stay away from most commercial stuff too if I can. As far as routing I do not like to draw things our I can just see where I want to goand usually can tell if it will work just by looking. I hate when we get preplanned cad drawings as it almost never fits where they say.

I will have to go find your build and take a look. part of why i even started this project is because i am working close to home currently. I am only like 2 miles from home and normally I am 20 to 65 miles from home. So i have some extre time so i am just trying to hammer this out quickly before I have to go to a different job site or wind up doing overtime. I also tend to get a bit obsessed with projects and have a one track mind on these things. I also have to admit the kit makes this super easy combine that with having built one before and it is a recipe for flying through the build. I only started digging like 3ish weeks ago. And got the kit just over a week ago.

This is some of the pipes I ran. This is 3 x 3.5" rigid conduits and 2 x 3" this was a fun project and this was just the prep work and we went in on Thanksgiving to finish the run and pull the wire in.

Randy

Cool to know, and nice work! I'm always amazed that you can just do it on site and just plan it by looking. I typically plan everything out in CAD and then probably spend too much time thinking about all the little details. Also interesting to see metal pipes for electrical lines. I'm not sure our code here would even allow that, typically things are PCV and/or open metal trays. Funny how 'gospel' can be so different in different countries.

I can also fully second the joy of living close to work: lots of extra time at home instead of spending it in traffic. In my case I can even go on bike, so I get the free exercise as well. Ofcourse the netherlands is a small country, so if I'd draw a 65 mile radius around my house I'd have covered half the country and a significant amount of the circle would lie in Belgium and Germany .

Btw I work on the waterlines of these machines. So also lots of work in water piping, but also miles and miles of electrical wiring.

The above post has now been followed up by a lot of buildpics and you have been speeding ahead like crazy. Great job man, you even managed to close the dome already! I'll see if I can add my two cents on the counter concrete discussion in a separate post.

[david s]

If it's any use I went down a similar road and my solution was as follows:
Span 1m (39")
Slab dimensions 60mm (2 1/2") x 870mm (34" x 2050mm (81")
Steel reinforcing 6mm weldmesh plus AR glass fibres
Cantilevering

[RandyJ]

Thanks for chiming in david s the counter top mix has fiberglass reinforcement strands built into the mix and is made for pouring into a form then moving onto the final location later. I had thought of adding some rebar but 2"is kind of thin for that. I don't want to get to thick as it just keeps moving the work surface up and up. I plan to build a cabinet more or less out of steel studs covered by cement board all will be securely fastened to the stand and slab with quick bolts. I have some left over from a project at work that are stainless. I will put a few cross peices to help support the cement board that will hold the counter tops.

I used Dump trailer ready mix for everything thing else so for. This is not as much volume so i was not as sure about that. Also they don't do the fiber reinforced that way. Also I would have to stain after installation versus added to the mix.

On a separate note. I just ordered I believe everything I need to change the chimney to a insulated one. So hopefully it doesn't take as long for it to come in as they stated as it is listed as the middle of June. And that will start being kind of tight on my deadline.

Randy

[david s]

2" thick is on the thin side. The strength of a concrete slab is proportional to the square of its thickness. This equates to a 3” slab being more than double the strength of a 2” one and a 4” slab 4 X stronger. Other factors to consider: What are you planning regards to reinforcing and what span between piers? You mighy be better off getting a truck mix delivered.

[RandyJ]

So here is a question for everyone. I am going to pour concrete counter tops in place. I am planning to go about 2" thick. I plan to build the side counter top to the same height as the base so everything is the same height. The side counter will be bade of 18 gage steel studs and covered with cement board. Is there going to be any advantage to using the counter tops mix for the counters versus going with either sand mix or just standard bag mix. It looks like I would need 20+ bags of counter mix and they cost 20$ each. I realize that is only 400$ but just seems like a lot, but if it makes a difference then that's what I will do. I will not be moving them after poured as it will be poured in place.

Randy

[RandyJ]

Well I managed to wait until this morning to pull the inside form out of the oven. I was very paranoid that there was going to be some leakage and I was not going to be able to clean it off. Fortunately there was none and it turned out well.

[RandyJ]

Well I managed to meet my goal for today. I managed to get the dome all closed in and poured the keystone. I used the fiberglass form to quickly lay the 2 remaining rings of bricks. That went very fast and was super easy. Once the mortar seti removed the form and everything held very nicely. I then scrubbed the bricks clean so that I didn't need to do that once I had poured the keystone. This worked well and was pretty easy to do from the top side of the dome. I was afraid if I didn't clean before I poured the castable the mortar would have set to hard to be cleaned. Now I will just hope the castable doesn't leak and make a mess.

I now will need to start cleaning my work area up so I can insulate and get ready to pour the concrete counters.

Randy

[RandyJ]

Ok I think I am in good shape here to hopefully meet my goal of finishing the dome tomorrow. I finished row 9 this afternoon removed the props and cleaned the brick faces up. I also got the fiberglass dome form installed. That was a bit awkward to try to get the jack lifted high enough and still work it and hold the form in place too. I managed to get it done but it was not the easiest thing to do. Maybe if I had someone hold the form in place it would have been easier.

Tomorrow I will have 2 more rows of bricks to lay and then once they are set up enough to support themselves i will probably pull the form quickly and clean the brick and the reinstall the form and pour the refractory castable. That will finish the dome part of the build. I will have to build the vent arch and install the vent casting. It almost surprises me that I managed to hopefully meet my goal.

Randy

[RandyJ]

Well i am back at it again this afternoon. Just finished up my 1st bucket of mortar for this afternoon. I decided that I was going to go one row farther than the instructions dictate but it is going well. Took about 25 minutes to lay half the layer with proping the bricks in place with some sticks I had sitting around. I plan to finish this row like this then set the form and finish it up.

Randy