Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

[maburton]

this picture shows the layers of blankets before the vermiculite concrete applied. this oven is insulated to the hilt. I installed two blankets on this stove, I can have a roaring fire for over 3 hours at over 1000 degrees and the outside bricks surface temps are less than 90 degrees which is what the air temp is during the day outside.

[maburton]

this is my loyal assistant, "sparky"

[SpringJim]

Those stars are a very nice touch too!

[egalecki]

I'm really impressed with your oven. Your bricks are lovely, and I really like the way you were able to incorporate things with real meaning to your family in it. Not having a homeplace like that of my own, I am looking to incorporate some family meaning in my decoration when I get there. Hope mine turns out half as well!

Is yours a 42 or a 36? I've been trying to figure out how far one FB blanket will go on my 36.

[maburton]

mine is a 42 incher. I know that two blankets were over kill but I figured since I was ordering the bottom boards I might as well do it right and order an extra blanket. My order was around $500 for 5 boards and 2 blankets so I figured what was another $60 for an extra blanket to do it right. Since all my materials were free from my father-in-laws scrap pile, that was my only cost.

My outside bricks do not move up in temp one degree after I build a roaring fire.
I also have enough of the board left over that I am going to build me a very sturdy iron door. but I am going to make it more like a plug. with two layers of board and one layer of blanket. So I will be very interested in seeing how long it will hold temp after I get that inserted. The way my doorway angles out, it will be easy to make a plug that closes off the doorway. I think it will be easy. but then I thought this project was going to be easy. It is a good thing I did not know better. I never would have started this project if someone had told me how many hours I would end up in it. Most fun I have ever had! And I have been married twice.

[maburton]

I insulated it with a few other items. all the beer bottles I used during construction.

[PizzaJNKY]

maburton, your oven is rediculously beautiful! Congrats.

I do have a question for you...

Although there is a huge difference in quality, my oven is also covered with brick instead of stucco. I am wondering if you did anything to waterproof or seal the bricks on the roof. I am worried that water will seep through my roof bricks, since they are porous.

[maburton]

how does the pizza taste? there is no difference in quality there?

I have been out of town since I finished the oven so I have not had tie to put the finishing touches. I understand that there is a non-flamable product that we can use to cover the bricks. all ofther products are meant for waterproofing basements and it soes not matter that they are highly flamable. someone told me that the product was availabe from Garenteed supply here in Greensboro, NC. I will look on their web site and see if I can find what they were talking about.

[PizzaJNKY]

I purchased a waterproofer from Home-Depot, but have not applied it yet. I dont want to use the wrong stuff. The product I have is made by Behr, its called Concrete & Masonry waterproofer exterior/interior. Its silicone enhanced, not sure if that is a good thing or not. Please let me know what you decide on.

[maburton]

check this out

Brick Water Repellents

what do you think?