Building a Pompeii Oven - finally

[Dino_Pizza]

Vent hole 4.5"? That's a half brick width by I'm guessing about about 12" wide. That would be a 54 sq. inch vent opening. However, I've been reading in the posts that the vent pipe should reduce to about 50% of the opening to let the smoke-draw dynamics work right. If you install a 8" vent pipe (50 sq in) then the opening should ideally give you about 100 sq. inches. Is there any problem in making the vent landing (in front of the oven opening) a full brick deep for the vent hole? maybe even 1 and 1/2 bricks so that 4.5" vent hole dimension would be 9" or more? What do you think?
Thanks, Dino.

[efleifel]

The oven is now complete, I still need to do some landscaping and cosmetics to the outside of the oven, but this can wait.
Now it is time for my own first brick oven pizza.
Thank you is in order to all participants in this forum. You have been a great help.
Here is the last page. a presto

My Brick Pizza Oven

[gjbingham]

Geeze,
That went up quick. Nice build! How's she work?

[efleifel]

Thanks,

Actually it took me longer than I planned, I started in June last year, and was supposed to eat my first pizza by end October last year, just working every other weekend, but due to hurricanes,and other weather factors, I could not finish until a couple of weeks ago.

How she works?, I am going to try tomorrow, I will post some pictures. I have an issue with the firewood, a lot of moisture and hard to fire up.

The truth is, I learned a lot, and had a lot of fun building this oven. I will do it again in a heartbeat, but I am sure I will do a better job. My advice to everyone who wants to build such an oven is to have a very good wet saw.
cheers

Eddie

[efleifel]

I tried cooking a pizza today, the fire was lighted according to James Video, that worked really well. But it took 1 hour (one) to cook the pizza. I need to buy me an infrared thermometer, I do not know why. I thought the fire was real good, and it stayed on even after I moved it to the side, and kept adding wood. I suspect the tempreture was not high enough, I even suspect that the floor was not hot enough because the bottom of the pizza was still white, while the cheese an peperoni was cooked.

Any thoughts? anyone/

Thanks

Eddie

[gjbingham]

Eddie,
Did you cure the oven already?? I looked back but did not see any discussion about you curing it, which is completely necessary to dry out the dome and mortar joints in a methodical fashion, and which hopefully will extend the life of your oven.

Your one-hour pizza bake makes me think that your oven is still saturated with water.

George

[dmun]

This is a good looking build:



I like how the chimney arises from the keystone of the arch in a contrasting brick.

I think your heating problem is retained water: That solid cast slab on top of your insulation layer may be sealing in your moisture. Vermiculite concrete holds a LOT of water - that's vermiculite's use in horticulture. Short of installing a brick vent:



You're going to need to build a lot of fires in succession to dry out that big cube of concrete.

[efleifel]

Thank you for your response.
Yes I cured the oven (but maybe not enough), although I did not post it, however, I think you are both absolutely right, because we had a lot of cold weather and rain here, I think the oven still retaining a lot of moisture or water, so I will try few more fires.
I am also glad you like the build and the chimney, because your opinion counts, since I've never touched a brick in my life before, and until this oven had no clue in architecture.

Cheers,

Eddie

[christo]

in lieu of a brick vent, you might try drilling a few slanting holes (so water does not go into the oven) in near the base of the roof slab and see if you find any steam escaping. if Drilled in the mortar between bricks you can likely seal them later and not see much evidence.

I was surprised by the number of firings I had before visible steam stopped escaping. I thought my oven was as good as it was going to be, but it kept heating faster, retaining heat longer, and making better pizzas as time went on.

Christo

[gjbingham]

Good point Christo,
I cured mine without the blanket. I could see the progress of the cures by the very noticeable difference in the bricks and mortar as they drove out the moisture. The first 3 or 4 fires dried out the top third of the dome. It almost seemed that each subsequent fire cured one more course of brick and mortar. Even after I finished the prescribed curing regimine, the exterior of the bottom third of the oven still showed signs of moisture.

As long as you cured the oven Eddie, I'd just keep firing the thing up, or keep a long slow burn going in it for several days. I think you're going to see drastic improvement in its performance soon.

Let us know how it goes.
George