New build in Sunny Canberra

[timechanter]

After a few years reading and watching, it has finally come time to break ground on my own respectable oven. The surrounding deck should be completed this weekend, and hopefully so will the stand bricks. I'm planning on the largest castable I can fit on the 1200 - 1300 square heath (Can I canterlever the ouside shell?). Access will be from the raised deck level, so a bit of concrete reinforcing is also in my future (we will be 8 courses high). I was going to go with a corner oven, but now Ive been standing in the area, Im thinking straight-on towards the main deck.

[UtahBeehiver]

David S of Queensland is our resident expert on cast ovens so use him as a resource as well as his knowledge of material sources in Aussie land. You don't say how much you want to cantilever so hard to comment.but with the right reinforcement anything is possible. Welcome to the Forum, been seeing a number of So. Hemi builds this year.

[timechanter]

Thank you kindly. I've got most stuff from just south of Newport Sydney so I'm good till rendering for bits. Due to my eagerness to get my deck started I didn't really pay attention to the base concrete slab size and how that plays out with available block sizes, so the base is only 1200mm square which I'm thinking is a little small for the finished oven size. In the photo you may see re-enforcing rods on the wrong side of the brick work.. I shed a tear when I cut them off last weekend.

My inspiration is mostly from David S's posts, so hopefully I do them justice.

[david s]

You could drill into the foundation slab so a reo bar can be hammered in, but if it were mine I wouldn't bother. Those cement blocks appear to be upside down. Normally the thicker edge is at the top so it provides a wider platform for the mortar course. It appears that you intend using masonary adhesive so that won't matter. Sometimes the little dags on the blocks and slight size inconsistency can affect the level when using masonary adhesive instead of mortar. I use some 8mm washers which can be used to adjust the height inconsistency as you require. Cantilevering will work well, but it requires more form work. When building beside a deck I like to fix some checker plate on the deck under and in front of the oven mouth to prevent hot coals from burning the nice timber boards.

[timechanter]

Well there you go. It was my first usage brick laying attempt ever and I didn't even realise they had a right way up. I'm intending to dry stack them and core fill every second hole with concrete. How much of an issue is upside down do you think?

[david s]

Not an issue if you are not mortaring them, but I think you should use masonary adhesive eg Selleys liquid nails landscape.

[timechanter]

David S, whilst I wait for my landscape liquid nailed 4th course to bond (I'll be 8 courses high at deck finished height). I was wonder where in Australia I can get Stainless Melt Extract fibers for reinforcing my dome? I was hoping to do a 6cm thick wall, but that might be pushing it without reinforcement. Thoughts?

[david s]

I get mine from Antec Engineering. 8 courses of stand is fairly tall. Put some steel rebar in the cores as well as the concrete.

[Steady]

Looking forward to following your build timechanter

[timechanter]

I've been delayed doing that last 5% of the deck, and in-fact have borrowed a bunch of blocks for a new set of stairs at the end of the deck. Hopefully this weekend I'll finish the blocking and a good start on the heath framing.

[david s]

Nice work. It looks cold down there.

[Steady]

The deck boards look nice - are they natural or a manufactured product?

[timechanter]

They are composite Modwood boards on a steel frame. Its a little shy of 55m2 and was my first deck build. I laid the foundations and then broke a rib mountain biking in Thredbo, soooo Oven is a little behind.

[Steady]

Thanks timechanter - I trust you are now mostly mended?

[timechanter]

Well after a long winter skiing, a wet spring, and away for most of summer I'm finally back to the task at hand. The cool weather in past couple of days let me get the base suspended slab poured.