Brick Oven: It's finally finished!

We are delighted to finally have this oven finished and Done!

Alan got the last of the tiles laid and grouting finished in early April; cleaned and sealed the tiles over the next couple of weeks. I put the remaining coats of paint on and did some touch-ups here and there.

Here's a fire about to be lit, inside the dome.

We test fired it last Sunday and it all worked very nicely, we enjoyed some hot delicious breads and pizza. Yay!

And here it is again - doesn't it look pretty? - all stocked up with wood and ready to cook :-)

Onwards!

Brick Oven: Glass and Tile

I made some glass tiles for the corners of the oven.

Alan chose some beautiful Mexican terra-cotta tile to go onto the floor of the wood store and around the base. He cut them all up on the tile saw and managed to get some of them attached before the weather window closed again for the winter.

Somewhere in here we got the base painted, too, in a dark orange color. And the wooden surround of the shelf was stained in a dark brown wood preserver coating.

Brick Oven: Stucco and Paint

Well, it only took two years to get a suitable weather window, but we finally got the stucco onto the dome. Yay, no more tarp!

First up was the base coat of regular stucco.

Then Alan finished it with a coat of fine stucco.

I used our 3D printer to make a set of stamps, and printed stamp shapes into the dome :-)

Next up was some paint. We chose colors to match the house, so we have a light straw beige for the dome itself.

Brick oven: Modifications

Just when you thought the brick oven was a mere myth and legend...

It's been a few months since the last update, and the reason is because Alan had some repairs to make. Earlier this year, he noticed the keystone bricks in the front of the chimney were sitting low. He reasoned that lifting them with an exercise ball and cementing them back into place was a suitable approach. However it turns out that pneumatics are stronger than cemented joins... the entire front lifted up. Alan ended up having to dismantle the entire arch and rebuild it.

Which brings us to more recent times. Alan rebuilt the tunnel with a squared-off roof this time. It might not be quite as traditional but it sure is easier to construct. He's got steel beams in there for rigidity (and to hold the bricks up) and now the chimney sits flatter on top, too. So it's all good.

Below is a picture of the first fire to be lit in here, in a while.

Now, we have to light some more fires inside, to dry out the new cement. When the weather gets a little cooler, it will be stucco time. Watch this space...

Brick oven: Rebar

It's been a while since Alan has had the time and the weather to work on the oven, but we finally got a chance this weekend. We had a bit of a setback; all the insulation blew off during a storm a couple of months ago. So the first job was to reinstall the fibreglass panels.

Then Alan set about bending lengths of rebar, to make a cage for the outside. Here's the first hoops in place.

Now we have a bottom hoop.

Now we have two more horizontal hoops, and the beginnings of the stucco mesh layer. Alan stopped at this point; more mesh will be added next time. When it's covered, we can think about the stucco layer.

At least now, if we have any more storms, it will be harder for the insulation to escape...

Pizza!

It's official; the Brick Oven is up and running! We hosted our first pizza party on Sunday, after Alan's race. Tamzin, Allan and their crew came, and so did Mark and Jessica. We put out many bowls of toppings, had a pan of pizza sauce ready to go, and a stack of proto-pizza dough discs.

Alan (and later, Tamzin) got the dough discs stretched and placed onto wooden peels coated in semolina flour. These were then given to each person in turn, to coat as they wanted. Here's Tamzin getting her pizza together:

L-R: Mark, Allan and Alan hoisting a few beers at the oven, while Alan cooks.

A pizza lies ready to be cooked, while Alan turns one inside that is in progress.

The finished result!

I think the evening went pretty well; folks seemed to enjoy their pizzas and certainly mine was tasty. The oven was cooking them in 3-4 minutes I think; a bit longer if you had more toppings. It was a lot of fun.

The Shelf

We made a test pizza last Friday night. Partly to try cooking one at all, and partly to test a gluten-free pizza dough since we were going to need one presently. So here we are; the first pizza cooked in the oven! It came out pretty nice.

Here's the shelf Alan made for his oven. It is an extension of the brick surface which allows him a pausing point for pizzas, without them (or him) getting burnt.
Alan is not entirely happy with this shelf though so it will probably get redone at some point, with nicer hardwood that doesn't warp, for instance. But it will do for now.

More Flames

Here's the third fire to be lit. You can see Alan used the traditional pyramid fire stacking method here. We were having a devil of a job trying to get the fire to go properly. We think the wood we were using was too wet - even though it felt dry. Alan resorted to the internet and watched some videos about how to stack fires inside brick ovens.

Our feline helper, who likes to hang around and see what we're doing, from a safe distance :-)

Alan is making a shelf that will protrude from the front and give him some extra area on which to load pizzas. This is still in progress, what you see here is a test fitting of the frame.

Here's last night's fire; day 5 or 6 I think. Notice how the fire is arranged differently; we have big logs on the bottom and it is stacked with smaller wood as you go up. The kindling burns through into the bottom and gets the big logs going. This works so much better (and we're also using wood from a different supplier which we suspect is drier) that the temperature went off the charts last night; our thermometer only goes to 999F and the temperature in the top of the dome surpassed that. So we should be good for cooking now :-)

Here's a wider shot showing the whole oven. We're going to try making pizza this weekend. This will involve getting the fire going, and then pushing it to the back of the oven to make room. Then you need to sweep/mop clean the cooking surface, before adding pizza. Watch this space!

First Flame!

If you scroll to the bottom of this post, there is a link labelled 'brickoven'. Click on this, scroll waaaaaay down, and the first post is something well over two years ago, when we dug the foundation for this oven. We expected it to take maybe six months, but weather, obligations, temperatures and other obstacles came between Alan and building.

However, we are delighted to report that we have commenced seasoning the oven. First Flame! We can season and use the oven before finishing the coating; it's all cosmetic from here on, although we do still need to keep the rain off it so we hope to be applying the stucco very soon.

So here it is, the first fire to be laid in the oven. We took it to 200F this first time, then we have to take it 100F higher every day, to gradually drive moisture out of the brickwork, until we reach 700F, at which point it will be ready for cooking.

Second Flame! The second fire to be lit. This photo was taken with flash which explains the nasty white balance, but you can also see how much soot has accumulated on the inside of the dome even with just these two small fires. It won't be long before the dome is completely black with soot, but that's just how it goes.

We can report that the chimney draws the heat very nicely, you can see the smoke rising from the top. So far the heat does not penetrate the thermal insulation either. The chimney is very slightly warm to the touch, maybe a couple of degrees above body heat. I suspect things will get warmer with hotter (and longer) fires but so far, so good.

Thermal blanket

Here's a shot of the inside of the oven dome; we removed the ball this morning and it all stayed in place :-)

Next up is the thermal blanket layer. This is made of fibreglass and is thoroughly nasty. You need a breathing mask to work with this stuff. We had two rolls of it, to layer on top of the dome. We cut slits in so that it would lie flat.

Here's the dome completely covered in the fibreglass sheeting. We took some wire and tied it down, using turnbuckles to tension it. You can also see here that Alan has cut away some of the heat stop layer on the bottom, just tidying up the corners.

And here's a view from the front. Alan has also cleaned up the bricks at the front of the tunnel, using Hydrochloric (muriatic) acid to take the cement off them. He's also using the old former as a temporary door; he drilled holes and installed tie wraps into the holes as handles - it should be enough to keep the worst of the crap out. We are, however, covering the whole lot in a tarpaulin until the stucco layer is in place, since we must not allow the fibreglass to get wet.

We have a dome!

Alan did it; he finished the dome!
Here, look at the hole at the top.... Going....

Going....

Gone!
Alan had to do a lot of brick cutting to complete the hole, he ended up needing lots of wedge shapes to get them in there.

All Alan's work. :-)

And another view, from the front. Yes, we still have tools and detritus scattered about, but here you can see the size of it.

Now Alan needs to finish covering the dome in cement, and then the thermal insulation blanket will go on, followed by some reinforcement, and finally a stucco coating for the outside. As always, watch this space...

Almost there

Alan finally got a Sunday that was warm and dry enough to do some brick cutting, so Bricks he did Cut. There's only two or three more rows of bricks to go before the dome is complete. First, he finished a half-row that was ready to be completed.

Then it was time for The Ball. This is a large inflatable exercise ball, that will support the last few bricks. The hole is small enough now that the ball sits in there just nicely.

Progress moved on swiftly, until Alan ran out of fire cement - dammit! So we now have to wait until the fire cement shop opens tomorrow before Alan can finish this row... still, the end is in sight.

Here's the whole thing so far. Almost done!

Brick Oven update

Alan has been busy with his oven this last week or so. It is slow progress, but it's coming. He has to wait for the cement to set for each row of bricks before he can build another row on top.

Here you can see the hole is getting smaller as he nears the end. It is also taking a while to cut the bricks; they are strange angular shapes, especially near the chimney.

The dome taking shape. The holes are left by the angled pegs Alan is using to tilt the bricks.

Side view. Almost done! But thunderstorms prevent further progress this weekend.

Brick Oven progress - Chimney

Alan has been hard at work on the front of the oven. He finished the arch, and today fitted the chimney. Look, visible progress! Here is the base plate.

The base plate gets bolted on, then the chimney pillar fits by twisting it into place, and the cap attaches to the top in the same way.

Looks cool, doesn't it?

A bit of heat sealant caulking and we are done.

Next up, to finish the dome. Onwards!