Premio Oven Build

[fred.collins]

I've uploaded some pictures of a Premio 100 build. This is the older version which is no longer sold as far as I can tell. Someone had this and it had sat around a few years. I picked it up and it too sat for more than a year. We finally got a design, found a mason, and began the build this Fall.

The overall construction is concrete block with flagstone strip exterior. Lots of rebar and angle iron. Likely a complete overkill. We have a prep area on one side and a stone farm sink on the other. The island will have stainless inserts from Costco. These are manufactured by Bull and seem quite durable and are reasonably priced.

We went with 2" thick flagstone for the counter tops and 1" thick for the roof. The strip stone is about 3" to 4" thick and varies in height.

We have a 6" base for the oven and FB insulated board on top of that where the oven based was placed.

The base for the oven has two wood storage areas. We have one in front and one in back which will have a door made from reclaimed lumber (from an old barn). Each section is about 24" deep.

The foundation is about 12" deep. We plan on having a flagstone patio around the whole oven island, so we didn't extend it much beyond the base. There's water from the garage to the island. We used a french drain for the sink into a small cistern.

I will post more pictures as it nears completion. The templates for the countertop are at the flagstone supplier and we'll likely finish next week.

[mrchipster]

Re: Premio Oven Build

Very nice looking setup. are you going to finish as igloo or put a house over the oven?

Chip

[fred.collins]

Re: Premio Oven Build

We're going to build a house style with a flagstone roof and stacked stone chimney. That work starts on Monday. I will post pictures as we progress.

[fred.collins]

Re: Premio Oven Build

More pictures of the build. You can see the 18"x30" stone sink, the house style structure over the dome, and the 2" thick flagstone countertop. Also we added the bow front landing of stone. The roof will be thinner (about 1") flagstone pieces.

[mrchipster]

Re: Premio Oven Build

Wow, that is going to be gorgeous...

Chip

[moderator]

Re: Premio Oven Build

Hi Fred,

Thank you for posting these pictures and sharing a bit of the construction on your oven. It looks like it is going to be a great outdoor area. We look forward to seeing the finished product.

Happy Building,
Forno Bravo

[fred.collins]

Re: Premio Oven Build

Additional pictures of the build. You can see the detail on the arch which follows the same contour of the Premio door arch. I'm sure people are looking at our cinder blocks and other pieces we used (very low tech) but hey it works. We also got the custom-cut piece of stone for the side with farm sink. I'm still thinking about what to do about the edges near the sink. I could round them or add a little triangle piece to fill in ... still thinking.

So far I like what I'm seeing. I had to run and get another ton of stone today. Thank goodness I'm only 15 minutes from a quarry that supplies the stuff.

[fred.collins]

Re: Premio Oven Build

So, here's more progress on what I'm now calling the pizza temple. Because it's gone from an oven into a massive stone structure. I even had to shoo away a couple of druids.

Anyway ... I really like the way the entry and the arch turned out. We did both an internal and external arch. Door opens up a full 90 degrees. Perhaps we should have made it go a tad more, but that's how it is.

The next step is the roof. I'm going to measure and get some pieces of 1 to 1.5 inch flagstone cut. As issue is the weight. It's going to be like lifting a pool table onto the roof. I may break it into 2 for each side with a seam running vertical.

This had been quite the journey ... I should be curing the oven next week. Pizza to follow.

[REE REE B]

Re: Premio Oven Build

Looks very nice! keep up the good work and keep us posted! =)

[mrchipster]

Re: Premio Oven Build

You are making amazing progress on the outside details.

Chip

[fred.collins]

Re: Premio Oven Build

thanks for all the encouragement. I've had to make one update. I've decided to run a 120v line to the island so I can have a point source water header under the sink. I'm going to use a 2.5gal one from EEMAX that seems to have good reviews. I figured after all this work it would be a shame to not have both hot and cold water at the sink. Unfortunately Winters are cold here so we'll have to keep it dry from mid October to mid April. These heaters are about $160 in price (from Amazon) and plug into a regular outlet.

[fred.collins]

Re: Premio Oven Build

more progress this weekend. Installed cabinets. Cabinets still need the handles attached. Ran the water line to the island, set the sink, drilled the hole for the faucet using a 1.5" core drill bit, ran 110v to the island on a dedicated 20 amp circuit for the point source EEMax water heater. All that remains is the roof and chimney cap piece. Those will be cut at the quarry today.

[fred.collins]

Re: Premio Oven Build

Oven completed, roof on, just the patio remains. This was a bit more effort than we originally intended, but overall I'm pleased with the results. I especially like how the stone roof turned out.

[fred.collins]

Re: Premio Oven Build

out of curiosity, what would a professional contractor charge for such a build?

[fred.collins]

Re: Premio Oven Build

With the oven cured we had a party this weekend and made 24 medium sized pizzas. Some lessons learned. It does take from 60 to 90 minutes to gently bring the heat up to 900F. We started cooking when the floor was 700F and that seemed to be good for us. At some point the floor was close to 800F and it took very close pie management to keep things from burning. We had one person on dough, one person on toppings, and one person at the oven. We managed to do 24 pies in about an hour. Less is more with the toppings. Buffalo mozzarella is just amazing. Olives add a nice touch. Items like bell peppers just didn't seem to cook in the 90 seconds to 2 minutes required to cook a pizza. I'm going to guess more heavily loaded pies would work better at a lower temp, but I'm sure there's a technique I have got yet. The Forno Bravo oven is well designed. It does exactly what it's designed to do. I really does work as advertized. So few things in this world do that. We had small bits of hardwood at the ready to toss in the fire during the process. At piece or two every 15 minutes seemed to work best for us.