Hello fellow Aussies, My 1st build

[Paul W]

Hi Paul


Are you laying your dome bricks on the hearth?

I am laying the dome bricks onto the top of my firebrick floor, I was just going through your 1st build looking at the arch as I'm about to make my template, I see a lot of builds with opening having 3 or 4 bricks up sides before arch and some that start arch from floor and I still don't understand the droop, I looked at your plastic template showing the dome arch and how you were going to cut the bricks to suit, I thought that should work fine, then reading further into your post I read that it didn't work and you got droop... atm I'm just wondering how far back to set my 1st arch brick intersecting with 1st course, fair bit involved with a wood fired oven but at least I'm enjoying it, most the house and garden tasks have been boring like retaining walls, plastering and painting.

[oasiscdm]

Hi Paul

No you have to be in the right place at the right time, I go too Melbourne Firebricks and Refractory in Sunshine West, Mark often gets one offs. The tiles I had shipped down from Sydney care of Mark on one of his shipments from A refractory store in Sydney he also organised a much better price and i'm talking 60% cheaper.

Are you laying your dome bricks on the hearth?

[Paul W]

Hi Paul gee i thought i was using a lot of insulation layers, but you've used 1 more than i intend to. although my table top is hebel so a little insulation, not concrete, so i guess i am using 3 layers. i managed to source 600x300x75 heath firebrick tiles and also 600x300x75 insulation tiles. the bloody Firebrick tiles way 26kg each.

Hi Colin,
I didn't plan on using that many layers, just getting it up to a better working height after advice on here and from my concreter. I did a bit of searching for my firebricks and never found ones that big, 26kg is crazy, makes my back sore thinking about them .

[oasiscdm]

Hi Paul gee i thought i was using a lot of insulation layers, but you've used 1 more than i intend to. although my table top is hebel so a little insulation, not concrete, so i guess i am using 3 layers too. i managed to source 600x300x75 heath firebrick tiles and also 600x300x75 insulation tiles. the bloody Firebrick tiles way 26kg each.

[Paul W]

I took on the advice from you guys, so today I went to bunnings for work supplies and thought I would get some tiles whilst I was there, lifted my floor bricks and cal sil board, drilled 4 weep holes, then used my grinder to make grooves to direct any water toward weep holes, put on tiles, then board, finished floor bricks and used a belt sander to take off a couple of edges, they were small and I could have probably left them but thought why not get rid of them.

[Paul W]

Hi Paul

I have sourced water proof calsil for my new build. Have tested Calsil from my first build and it just soaks up water like a sponge, this new stuff does not absorb moisture or water at all.

Also if you check my first build i sealed around the outer shell to the edge never had an issue with water getting into oven. I also made a door for the outer arch so rain could not get in.

You could also put a thin screeded layer of fine sand the bricks will bed in like pavers and should then be level.

Hi Colin,
I didn't know you could get waterproof board, too late now, I will check out how your build and expect I will end up doing the same.

[oasiscdm]

Hi Paul

I have sourced water proof calsil for my new build. Have tested Calsil from my first build and it just soaks up water like a sponge, this new stuff does not absorb moisture or water at all.

Also if you check my first build i sealed around the outer shell to the edge of base and never had an issue with water getting into oven. I also made a door for the outer arch so rain could not get in.

You could also put a thin screeded layer of fine sand the bricks will bed in like pavers and should then be level.

[Paul W]

Thanks for the replies guys, appreciate it, having people to help along the way is great.

I don't have any tiles and being in lockdown I can't get any, stuck at home for another month I would like to keep going, I will look at drilling some weep holes, I will do a search to see if I drill through everything (insulation board, hebel and 6inch slab?) and what size masonary drill bit to use and how many holes.

[SableSprings]

Paul, no matter how hard you try, water will likely find its way into your insulation board. Several WFO owners in tropical/high humidity situations have reported the board and insulation absorbing quite a bit of moisture from the air. I've even seen where a "helpful" friend washed (& rinsed!) the cooking floor bricks. Drilling or getting some weep holes in your hearth is a smart move IMHO. I also think it's a good idea to get some scrap, porcelain mosaic tile sheets and lay them down (mesh side up) between your concrete hearth and your insulation board. Align the gaps between tiles over the weep holes (which you cover with screen to keep the bugs out). I'm putting in two links to builds that illustrate this layering very well. Another highly suggested addition is putting a breather vent at the top of your dome (in the render/insulation...not the oven mass). This helps any absorbed moisture escape more easily when you fire up the oven.

https://community.fornobravo.com/for...522#post411522
https://community.fornobravo.com/for...andpoint-idaho

Here's another trick that tile setters use to check floor "smoothness". Get a large, rigid plastic lid off some container...look for something about 4" (10-11 cm) in diameter. Put the top side down on your surface and run it around in light circles. If you hear a loud click or feel the bump, you've got an uneven edge. It's a pretty useful technique and equally easy.

Also, you don't need to mortar down the tiles or insulation board, nor the cooking floor bricks or the bottoms of the first layer of dome bricks. When the oven is fired, the dome needs to "move/expand" a little with the firing & cooling...so any mortaring of first row bricks to the cooking floor is a waste of time. Assuming your kit puts the first chain on the cooking floor...

Hope that helps.

[Mongo]

You can also float individual bricks with a dry mix of fine sand and fire clay.
use a metal spatula or drywall knife and slide it over your floor from front to back to test your floor.

[JRPizza]

I was lucky enough to notice I had bricks of slightly varying thickness so I was able to sort enough for a flat floor. Now is a good time, especially if you are going to taper your arch bricks, to sort enough bricks with right angle edges for the arch. Many of my bricks, even though the thickness was same, had the 2.5" side not at exactly 90 degrees to the 4.5" side, and the way I had to taper the bricks from two sides was giving me some odd cuts before I figured out the angularity problem. Sorting with a square took care of my mismatched cuts.

[UtahBeehiver]

You can easily knock the edges off with a grinder some builders have used belt sanders too, this prevents the peel from catching the edges.

[Paul W]

[Paul W]

So I managed to get what I needed before stage 4 lockdown, I am doing my best and hoping it's right, on top of my concrete slab I put 2 layers of hebel 175mm total, on top of that I put 50mm of calcium silicate board and I am now laying my floor bricks out, I didn't realize that the bricks aren't all the exact same thickness, I have moved them around but have a couple of really small edge lips, will this be a problem sliding pizzas? should I lightly grind or heavy duty sand the edge?? and I was going to mortar them down but after reading a few posts I am now thinking of laying them straight onto the calcium silicate board???? and I also read to not mortar my first circle down onto floor?.......... this is the plan now, if anyone sees a problem speak now or forever hold your peace The supplier said not to get the silicate board wet, I haven't, but I was wondering what happens, I have only now started seeing people talking about weep holes, I was hoping to make mine completely water tight, I put builders plastic under my 150mm concrete slab and have put layers of hebel on and plan to put a watertight flashing around base before I cover the whole dome and make that water tight, am I dreaming or making an error? Not sure how long this is going to take, I'm at home in lockdown with the only thing slowing me down is the rain and a 3yr old, anyway I will attach my latest photo

[Paul W]

G’day
watching with interest..... plenty of pics are good..... a pics worth a thousand words they say
regards Dave

I will attach a few photos, so far I have bought some sheet steel cut to size, welded it up to make a fire wood storage box, painted it, then cut a hole into my retaining wall and recessed it in, removed dirt, removed garden tap and plants, boxed it out, put in some plastic and mesh, I bought the concrete and just got a local concreter to do it, thats it so far...... it turns out the concreter has built a heap of ovens and also has a mobile pizza oven business and gave me some tips which was great, 1st one being that I should reconsider my finished floor height as he thought it was too low, my finished height will now be 1100mm off the deck.