Hello fellow Aussies, My 1st build

[Paul W]

Hi Guys,
I'm currently locked down in Vic thanks to Covid and wan't to build my own brick pizza oven, I found this website after researching ovens online, I have decided that I will build the 36" pompeii as there are plans for it and I need plans , not sure if there are metric ones anywhere though, I'm in Carrum Downs Victoria and haven't bought anything for it yet, I have made a start though, I have bought some plate steel and welded a fire wood box together and cut a hole in my retaining wall for it to be recessed into, then in the next week or two a slab will be getting put down above it.
Just thought I would say hi and say thanks for all the information that everyone has made available which will help me a great deal.
Cheers,
Paul

[UtahBeehiver]

I take it when you say "plans for it" you mean the eplans (free) from Forno Bravo. These are a dated but a good baseline. There have been several 1 meter ovens built but I do not know of any specific metric plans, you probably just need to use a Google standard to metric converter. Oasiscm is currently building his second oven and he is located in Werribee and he would be a good source for materials in your area. Also David S is our cast expert if you want to go this direction, he is from Townsville in Queensland, and Karangi Dude did a huge barrel oven and he is from Victoria or maybe it is NSW.

[Paul W]

Hi Russell,
They are the eplans from Forno Bravo, I will be using them as a guide and will no doubt have my own modifications, I have looked at the Werribee post and will keep browsing through forums.

[Steady]

Hi Paul, I am Tassie based and don't know all of the refractory suppliers in Vic.
I purchased through Melbourne Firebrick Co. I received good service and happily recommend them as an option if your getting pricing comparisons.

[Paul W]

Hi Paul, I am Tassie based and don't know all of the refractory suppliers in Vic.
I purchased through Melbourne Firebrick Co. I received good service and happily recommend them as an option if your getting pricing comparisons.

Hi Steady,
I have been on the Melbourne Firebrick website and they are my favourite looking ovens, They are quite pricey too, did you buy an oven kit or just the bricks?

[cobblerdave]

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

[Steady]

Hi Steady,
I have been on the Melbourne Firebrick website and they are my favourite looking ovens, They are quite pricey too, did you buy an oven kit or just the bricks?

I looked at buying a brick saw and following the free plans but couldn't find a second hand one on my area and decided I'm time poor anyway so went with the pre-cut kit.

My build can be found here

PS - I also love photo's

[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.

[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]

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.