Hi New here

[Zelix]

I've spent the past couple of days looking over this forum. I really want to make a nice brick oven & BBQ pit work station. I am in the design/planning stages now...and will take any and all tips, hints I can get.

thanks for taking the the time to read this
Zelix

[Marcel]

(M) Hi, Zelix, I hope that you use this Forum. It was invaluable for me to get so much helpful input from the builders here.

(M) Try clicking on http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=294 (A Newbie's photo documentary Page 01)

" A Newbie's photo documentary Page 01"

(M) That is the location of some photos and questions that might help to get you started.

Ciao,

Marcel

[David boston]

hi there,
i just finished and fired my oven took a few weeks to knock out but well worth it, ive laid alot of brick and have done alot of masonry restoration, that being said ive seen alot of messes, depending on your design, planing brick courses is key to a good looking job. nothing is worse than joints of varying widths and split bricks to get your top level where you want it. get a folding masons rule, it has the brick courses on the back, e.g. 5 courses at number 6 will get you 13 1/2 inches, it helps to use this to get all your stuff lined up, on paper! design from the top down, the use the masons rule to find the courses that get closest to you measurments, any thing between a 4 and 6 looks good and professional, with enough mud to correct any little flaws you wont freak if a brick is a little "out". good luck, it was well worth the effort,
Dave

[Les]

Dave, good advice - we need pictures

Zelix, I learned to do brick the hard way - the contractor kept upping the labor rate. The hardest thing that I found was getting the consistency of the mortar correct. Once you have that dialed in it goes pretty smooth. Bricks are not all equal so there is some fudging that has to be done from coarse to coarse. The above may only apply to finished brick work. From what I have seen and read, building the dome is pretty forgiving. No one to my knowledge has had one collapse yet. But when I get to that point you can bet your ass I will be crossing my fingers

There are some awesome people here to help. Welcome to the forum and good luck!

Les...

[CanuckJim]

Zelix, Marcel, David, Les,

I assume we're talking about facade brickwork here, not the dome structure. There are also brick measure tapes out there that help a great deal for facade brick. Another trick is to use four 4x4 corner posts set up outside the perimeter of the brickwork. They can be tied to the blockwork and the foundation with screws or tapcons. Measure out your courses to the finished height you want, mark them, level, on each of the corner posts, all the way round, then use a string line, course to course. It's a time consuming thing to do, but it's the best way to get everything level and the mortar joints consistent. I use the standard three-eighths for facade brick mortar joints. Joe Engineer has posted a pic of the mortar joints I used for the exterior of my oven.

Jim