Continuation of papavino's oven thread Brick Oven Photos Discuss Continuation of papavino's oven thread in the Good Background Information forums; Good advice, Dino. I'll build another small fire today to try to slowly drive out the extra moisture it took ...

[papavino]

Good advice, Dino. I'll build another small fire today to try to slowly drive out the extra moisture it took on. I don't want to ruin it now that I'm so close!

[papavino]

I've got my insulation covering my oven, and I'm trying to get the metal studs attached (thanks, John). I need a hammer drill. My rotary drill was good enough to get two tapcons piloted and attached, but the bit or the drill aren't up to the task of doing any more.

Getting married in 10 days, so the work on the oven has been spotty as of late. At least I've got a can of San Marzanos in my pantry awaiting my first cooking fire. That's keeping my motivation alive. I need to get it covered before the fall really sets in and the rain soaks my oven.

[papavino]

I went out and picked up some used chimney bricks for the opening arch. I have to cover up that fine work that we did earlier so I can fit some metal studs in front of the chimney. A little bit of a shame, but the used bricks look pretty nice. I am hoping to place a stone from the Foss river as the keystone. It's diamond shaped and I think it would look fantastic. I have about half a bag of heatstop left over, so I'm probably just going to use that. Any issues with using it on stone? I wouldn't think so.

[papavino]

I've got my brush and peel and I'm picking up an infrared thermometer from Schuck's today. Pizza photos to come in the next couple of days. My fingers are crossed.

[jrparks]

...and a nice week of weather ahead to enjoy the fruits of you labor! Make a lot of dough. Leftovers are great...if there are any!

[papavino]

Oh, one more question to the forum: I went to get some cement board for enclosing my dome this past weekend and the guy at the store showed me how easily the hardibacker breaks (1/4" thick). I'm thinking if I get 1/2" thick it won't be that much of an issue. And I can just score the stuff with a razor blade, right? I'll make sure to have a box of blades nearby since it'll dull them quickly.

*Edit:
Yeah, John. This weather is fantastic! I'm loving it. I'm making some dough and a friend of mine is making some, too. It's a battle royale... I'm tossing your three entries into the ring, too.

[jrparks]

1/2" cuts nicely with a scoring tool. 1/4" is designed for flooring applications.

[papavino]

We fired it up last night to see how well it cooks pizzas. 10 or 11 pizzas (not sure of the exact count) and 3 bottles of wine were consumed between 6 people over the course of 2 1/2 hours. I'd say we did pretty well. I'll be posting pictures in the What You Cooked Last Night folder later today.

[papavino]

One note about last night's firing: A crack developed in the front arch that you can see light through. It doesn't look too bad and I doubt I have anything to worry about. I'm going to be putting some decorative red brick on the front of it, so I'll squeeze some mortar in there at that time. I had a good time watching all of the soot burn off the bricks as the dome slowly transitioned from black to white.
Without a door, the oven still registered 335 F this morning. Can't wait to build a door.

[papavino]

I continued work on the surrounding gabled house over the weekend. I filled in some of the joints with fiberglass tape and mortar. I still need to close it off on a couple of sides, but the score-and-snap method is pretty tough. I also need to fix the gap between the chimney and the roof. I picked up some aluminum flashing that I'm going to try to bend around it, but I don't know if that will work very well.

In terms of roofing material, I looked at metal roofing and am thinking of going the route that Ken did for his roof. I think it looks nice. I just need to get something a little better than aviation snips to cut through it. I am thinking reciprocating saw. I'm a little worried about the exposed edges. Do they sell stuff that you can put around the edge of the roof that will leave a nice, clean edge?

I also finished up the front arch on the oven Sunday. I had hoped to incorporate a river rock into the keystone, but it didn't work out. I still think it looks nice. I have a slightly offset brick in the front to give it some depth. I'll post a picture once I take one.

I contacted a foundry to see how much it would be to have an iron door made for my opening. Needless to say, my fears of this plan were valid. It would cost waaaaaaaay too much to get a custom door made. Sheet metal seems to be the best option.