Help Please - about to start work!!

[mmmhumous]

Isn't too bad at the moment .... just raining as per usual in sunny Manchester! Is English your first or second language (saw you mentioned it taking ages for you to translate product names).

[Frances]

English is my first language, but I was born and brought up in Swirterland, so my German is probably actually better than my English by now.

[mmmhumous]

More Photos (and another corse of bricks)!

[mmmhumous]

Gave up on waiting for B&Q and picked up some scotch commons from Jewsons. Oven walls and lintel for the front of the oven are now done. (I gave up on the sloping walls idea).

Arches should be done tomorrow!

[christo]

Looks like you are really picking up speed on this project!!!

Not sure if the picture makes it look closer than it is, but how much distance between the back wall of your oven and the wall it faces?

I would want to make sure you have plenty of clearance between the oven wall and any comubstibles...

Unless that's your neighbors fence

Christo

[mmmhumous]

Yeah hoping to give it its first firing sometime next week.

Hoping to get it operational in the next few weeks!

wrt the frence, it's the perspective -there's about 15cm between the enclosure and the fence and about 10cm between the oven wall and enclosure wall.

[mmmhumous]

Finished arches and Lintel...yey!!

Any thoughts on how long I should leave it to cure before I burn out the wooden form??

[mmmhumous]

Burnt out the form last night - and the arches are still standing! Took advantage and baked a cheeky flatbread.

Added an inch of vermiculacrete and some chicken wire across the arch and supporting walls.

Chimney and front arch is hs weekend's job.

Photos coming soon

[Frances]

Wow, your oven is going up fast!! Look forward to the pics...

Any thoughts yet on how you are going to finish the outside?

[mmmhumous]

I think I'll leave finishing/decorating it till next year. I haven't decided if I'm going to paint the outside or not - I guess that depends on how good the brickwork ends up looking. I'm also toying with the idea of installing some lights too. If I do decide to paint it - going to paint the bottom half red, and render the top half in white (to match our house).

I'm going for the sloping roof design (my neighbour was kind enough to donate a load of rosmary roof tiles) as in the image.

I've picked up two concrete lintels (one reinforced) which I'm going to use to support the chimney... only thing left to buy is some wood for the batons and joist to support the roof.