canadian foundation question

[englishbob]

hello all
thanks for letting me join, heres my first post...
I am planning to build my second oven in eastern Ontario Canada, my first oven was built in southern France some years ago, my question is as we get very cold winters and deep ground frost, what type of foundation should i use to keep everything stable? I have been told that like any other foundation I should dig down 4 feet, this seems excessive, how have other cold climate oven builders made their foundations please
Thanks
Bob

[Michael Thomas]

Hi,

Did you find an answer to your question anywhere else? I'm living in Newfoundland and have dug a 3.5 ft deep hole. At the bottom of that hole will rest a 18 inch high foundation, which is 76x64 inches. My foundation is so large because the soil is a bit soft (lots of organic matter surprisingly, in Newfoundland haha).

The interesting thing about setting your foundation so low is what to do with your stand enclosure. Do you fill it or waterproof the exterior/interior and then create a false floor or just have a massive below ground storage area...

How is your build going and what did you do with the below level foundation?

Michael

[Michael Thomas]

Although I'm noticing that this post was originally put in the "ask me anything" part of the forum. Happy to continue here if its ok with the forum but also through messages too if youd' like.

[englishbob]

Thanks for the message
so I think we’re going to go down as close as we can to four feet just to be sure that our oven will be on a stable base. I intend to pour a concrete base of about 6 inches and then use hollow block with concrete and rebar set into the base
we began the dig yesterday and have made about 18inches down before the heat meant time to have a beer!
looks like a very hot week here so probably won’t be digging for a few days.
we intend to fill the centre with gravel and then concrete a decent surface
we built our first oven about 15 years ago and have really missed not having one here!
cheers
bob

[Roger705]

Hi, I'm in southern Ontario and am in the midst of finishing my first pizza oven. I put 4 8in sauno tubes 4ft deep with a 6in pad, gravel base and rebar. I also tied into an existing floating pad with rebar which is an outdoor kitchen I built years ago without any issues. Hope this helps. Thanks Roger

[RandyJ]

I'm in minneapolis Mn and on my oven i did not build a foundation. The ground was all sand so i was not to concerned about shifting i cuped the bottom of the slab by making it 12" thick around the edges and 6 in the middle. I put lots of rebar in to it and it never moved or cracked. But you need to do what you feels is necessary for your environment.

Randy

[Chach]

I'm in minneapolis Mn and on my oven i did not build a foundation. The ground was all sand so i was not to concerned about shifting i cuped the bottom of the slab by making it 12" thick around the edges and 6 in the middle. I put lots of rebar in to it and it never moved or cracked. But you need to do what you feels is necessary for your environment.

Randy

I agree with Randy...I live in Chicago so winters can be bad. I ended up putting down around 10" of grade 7 stone compacted in 2" lifts. and then rebar and about 7.5" of concrete. It's been 2 years and nothing seemed to move so far.


Ricky