Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

[efleifel]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Great,

I bought the 4 cubic ft vermiculite from Lucas at $21.00 per bag, but it is the same that I used in my previous build in Jacksonville, and it was a good grade, I mixed it with portland cement with a ratio of 7:1. It works, I cooked my pizza in 90 seconds @ 750 degrees. the bricks at Cemex are 4.5X9X2.25 for $1.30 while the bricks at Harwood in Longwood are 4X8X2.25 for 1.25, it is more or less the same, your choice. bouna fortuna
I am planning to close the dome this weekend, wish me luck.

Cheers

Eddie

My Web site

[glowthb]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Eddie,

Good luck on the dome. Yeah...had I known Cemex had the fire brick I would have gone there since it is a few miles closer. They should answer there phone once in awhile.

My fire brick does have some flaking on the outer layer. Should I be concerned about this? I am considering trying to use a vibrating sander to smooth and take the top layer off the brick on the floor.

I plan on getting the floor down and hopefully a few courses of brick this weekend. We will see how it goes.

[glowthb]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Dropped by Cemex today. They happened to be in the office doing inventory and were kind enough to let me compare their fire brick to what I had from Harwood. Cemex's bricks were far better showing no sign of surface crust or flakes like the ones I already had. I bought enough to use for the cooking floor and got it laid in today.

Tomorrow I will begin getting the first couple of courses of the dome in....cannot wait!

[efleifel]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Great , I was going to suggest that you invest in better bricks for the floor, glad you did already. When you have a chance post some photos so that we can see.
I was planning to close the dome today, but could not, there was a lot of brick cutting due to the smaller and smaller circle, but I am determined to finish tomorrow.
Cheers
Eddie

My Web site

[glowthb]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Yeah...I was very appreciative to the guys at Cemex for letting me interupt their inventory to sell be some bricks. As much as it pained me I would have waited until next week to lay the floor had they not.

Attached are some photos. As you can see I went a little unorthodox by using some metal framing track to edge the insulation. As I stated earlier I was not thrilled with the vermicrete mixture I poured over the K-23. It appears to be completely firm but I was concerned that the edges might crumble eventually under weight. I figured the framing couldn't hurt...a little peace of mind.

Cannot wait to get up in the morning and begin working the dome.

[efleifel]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Nice work; how did you cut the rounded bricks?, that floor looks fantastic. I can easily see you are meticulas, and can predict it is going to be a very nice build. looking forward to the rest of your build.
Cheers.

Eddie
My Web site

[glowthb]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Thank you...this is certainly getting to the nerve racking point as far as using brick goes. I have worked a lot with wood and some tile work but the brick is new so I am just trying to work slow and deliberately.

To make the floor I used my template and then shaped the bricks using both a Ryobi Wet Tile/Brick overhead saw and grinder.

Two weeks a go I happened upon the Ryobi tile/brick saw on sale from $199 to $99 at HD. It claimed to cut pavers so I grabbed it and per other customer reviews replaced the factory blade with a Husky. Not the fastest saw or smoothest gliding table, but for what I am doing it has been flawless. Cuts nice as long as you control the speed and it sure beats the rental price, particularly considering the patio is going in after the oven.

[glowthb]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Today's progress. I already realized an error....no reveal for the door to seal against. Nothing a grinder and some re-work will not fix.

[efleifel]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

You can still shift the vent area a little bit aoutwards; about an inch from each side to accomplish the reveal. The other alternative instead of the grinding you can choose to create the reveal in the door instead.
Good luck

Eddie,

My Web site

[glowthb]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Knocked out a few bricks and made room for the reveal in the opening. This is actually the second set of vent area walls. The first set I used three individual bricks in each course without any overlapping seems. I was not happy with thinking it might eventually give way. I tore it down and cut the reveal edge out of full brick and made sure the courses were staggered. Seems much better now.

[ThermoJax]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Hey, really nice work on your build. This will be over all too soon. I tore down quite a few layers on my build as well. You certainly will have sweat equity in your oven. Is that an ash dump at the back of the oven? does it extend thru the insulation and thru the block stand?

Tom

[glowthb]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Thanks Tom.

Yes it is an ash dump but also hopefully serve as a source of heat for indirect cooking.

I designed my oven to accomodate a second "firebox" in the back of the stand lined with firebrick safe for catching ash or lighting a fire. The opening for the ash dump is through the insulation and stand and into the firebox. Eventually the rear firebox will have a cast iron door with adjustable vent. I will also have an adjustable vent on the oven door. My thought is by controlling the draft I can control temperature for lower temp cooking much like the Big Green Egg.

The ash dump opening is formed with carved fire brick fabricated to lock in place. There is also a specially cut brick that fits in the opening if I want to close it off. I can remove brick through the back oven..a little crude but it works.

I know many folks have posted photos of meat cooked in the oven, but in most pics the meat looks beyond a nice char and outright burnt. So hopefully this design will make it a true low heat smoker as well as pizza oven. Probably not what the pizza oven purists like to see but this is what happens when a guy from the south raised on BBQ spends eight years in Europe enjoying bread and pizza. Is it a BBQ, is it a pizza oven? We will find out.

[mklingles]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

I respect the need to engineer a better mouse trap. I suspect the BBQ enthusiasts will find your "contraption" weirder then the people here.

[glowthb]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

Man...received my 8 inch Duratech parts today. Much larger than i expected.

[Neil2]

Re: Building in Central Florida, Question about insulation beneath cooking floor

You door is 23 inches wide !?

Between that and an inside-the-oven ash drop, I fear you are going to need a wack of wood to get it up to temperature for pizza.