Stone Work Photos and Ideas

[CanuckJim]

All,

I work with mortar about three days per week, so I'm quite familiar with what it will do to hands, particularly if the mortar has been dyed, which makes it even more caustic. One partial solution to alligator skin is to take preventative action. There's a product out there called "Gloves in a Bottle." Although it does not prevent caustic burning completely, it really, really slows it down. At the end of the day, I wash my hands then use vinegar.

Jim

[redbricknick]

Thankyou for your kind comments all. Yes, we do use hidden mortar. We dry fit the rocks, then backfilled them to our wall of cinder blocks. We faced the cinderblock wall with bricks so the inside of the wood storage area would look nice, and used the top of the brick wall to rest our hearth slab form on. We're leaving the durock board in, and bonding it to the slab with rubber coated durock screws. Three sides of the hearth stand are cinderblock, with all the cores rebar'd and filled with cement. Shot twenty hours of footage so far. I'm going to burningman now.

[maver]

My cinder blocks are still naked, I hadn't considered wrapping them on the inside but I think I have plenty of brick - I might consider it now. Thank you for the pictures redbrick.

[janprimus]

Originally Posted by redbricknick

Thankyou for your kind comments all. Shot twenty hours of footage so far. I'm going to burningman now.

You should post some of your footage on youtube.com. We would love to see it. That is some fine work there Nick, looks mighty good.

Chad

[fdn1]

I plan to face my typical Pompeii oven design in a Beehive (equilateral Gothic arch) shape similar to what Patrick of Ireland has done.



Unfortunately I do not have access to flat stone and must make due with the 'roundish" type glacial till boulders available to me. A dry construction seems out of the question so I am planning on using a wet mortar construction.



Question 1: I am looking for a material that is waterproof, pliable and can take the temperature reached on the outside of the vermiculite/cement insulating layer over the dome. The intent is to prevent any rain water or snow melt that might eventually find its way through the fieldstone from reaching the vermiculite/cement insulating layer. One possibility suggested is the rubber membrane material that is used on flat roofs. (I have yet to check its heat resistant characteristics)



Question 2: What is the best way to lay the rounded field stone to the correct shape without resting them directly on the vermiculite/cement layer. One suggestion was to first cement cinder blocks in a "staircase fashion" over but not touching the dome. The fieldstone would then be cemented to the cinder blocks.



Any comments on the suitability of the above or suggestions for other approaches would be most appreciated.

[dmun]

Originally Posted by fdn1

Question 2: What is the best way to lay the rounded field stone to the correct shape without resting them directly on the vermiculite/cement layer. One suggestion was to first cement cinder blocks in a "staircase fashion" over but not touching the dome. The fieldstone would then be cemented to the cinder blocks.

I'm going to pass on the waterproof membrane, as I don't know anything about that. I do have a suggestion about the free floating dome: make, or have a welder make, an armature of rebar or similar rod, which you could wrap with chicken wire or expanded metal lath. You could then mortar the stones to the armature. I think you could also apply them directly to the vermiculite concrete without endangering the stability of your oven.

[Unofornaio]

Originally Posted by redbricknick

Stonework by Nick Onassis, Adam Olmsted and Edward Faktorovich. Rock selected and painstakingly transported from river beds in Alta Dena, four beaches, Costa Rica and various rock venues on the East Coast.

Very nice stone work. As a child and young adult I would go to the job sites with my father, a now retired mason. It was results like this that instilled a love for masonry in my soul. Excellent work. How can anyone in their right mind ever compare that with stucco stone....Yet people ask for it all the time. I stopped doing it about a year ago. I wanted to post a picture of one of the last "cultured" stone jobs I did but I clearly do not know how...sorry
J.P

[galaxy51]

Redbricknick, Very nice stonework!

[sarah h]

I thought I'd revive this thread to post a pic or two of some stellar stone artistry by a guy named Lew French. I saw a segment about him and his work last weekend on CBS Sunday morning - his stuff is amazing! You can look up his website or google the CBS piece and see it on-line.

What I wish I had the patience, skills and rocks to be able to do ... not one stone is altered in his work, which as a result can take months to complete. I'd love to see how he'd finish a WFO.

[Caleb]

I wanted to add some photos and thoughts on stonework and finishes. I think it is important that the finish blends well with the local scenery. In Flagstaff, AZ, we are surrounded by ponderosa pine forest, aspen groves, and nearly all the local rocks are volcanic. The San Francisco Peaks are the remnants of a volcanic eruption a couple of hundred of thousands of years ago and cinder cones are all around. Going with these themes, I decided to use the local rocks to complete my stonework. The rock is mostly basalt but has a really great, neon-green lichen.

Check out more photos of the stone work below... let me know what you think. Should the stonework meld with the surroundings or is it nonessential?

My pizza oven photos:
Picasa Web Albums - Caleb - Pizza Oven