Greg's Pompeii 42" - San Diego Pompeii Oven Construction Discuss Greg's Pompeii 42" - San Diego in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; Originally Posted by geisen ....So while most of these threads start with a foundation, mine will start with the stand. ...

[james]

Originally Posted by geisen

....So while most of these threads start with a foundation, mine will start with the stand.

Good planning. We should all plan ahead this well!

Keep us up to date -- spring is coming, and in SoCal, it might be here already.
James

[gjbingham]

Nice start on the oven. I think it was a great idea to have the contractor do the stand for you. It immediately commits you to the project. It should look really cool with the arches behind it when all is said and done. Look forward to progress pics!

[geisen]

Some thing's in life you just have to take on blind faith. Dry Mix 5 parts soil addative (vermiculite) with one part Portland cement, add water until it feels like oatmeal and pour???? This is going to support 1K lbs of brick??? OK here I go.

Really not sure about this. Poured it to form on Sunday. Gonna let it dry for a week before I pull off the 2x4s.

[exceloven]

Greg,
No worries, It looks just like it supposed to. Now the patience to leave the forms on for a week. Keep up the great work.

Mark

[egalecki]

Yep, it will hold it up. Looks good. You might want to put a piece of plastic on top to slow down the drying...

[gjbingham]

I think I took my forms off after 3 or 4 days to hasten the drying process. I don't think it helped. It was easily 4-6 weeks later that I cut back into the stuff in the area of the entryway. It was still very moist in the middle of the layer.

[geisen]

I am going with a layer of Insulation board on top of the Vermiculite/Portland mix. I know, overkill. But I am trying to prove the point that you CAN use too much insulation

I plan on waiting two weeks before adding the Insulation Board (not because i am disciplined, just don't have time).
Is that long enough?
Do I need to wait after that before laying the WFO floor?
Greg

[geisen]

Exceloven: Thanks for the reassuance. Still doesn't look right but if it worked for all of you....

egalecki: I have a temp awning over it to keep the direct sun off, but plastic might be a good call too. slower drying is always better with concrete, so probably good for this goup too.

gjbingham: Did it dry hard eventually? Or can you still cut into it? This would explain why folks can't get a hot floor until after the curing fires dry it out.

[dmun]

The one constant in the years I've been coming to the FB forum is people saying how weird insulating concrete is to work with. I said it myself (dmun's 36" geodesic oven):

Insulating concrete is wierd stuff. It has a really crumbly texture, and doesn't seem to hold together at all. It doesn't begin to "float" like regular concrete: By patting it down with the trowel after I leveled it to the forms I got somewhat dense, uniform surface. I'm going to take it on faith that this stuff will harden up to a rigid substance.

It does dry out and harden up to a cork like consistency.

[egalecki]

I let mine sit for about a week under plastic, I think. It was still damp when I took it off. I used insulating board on top of mine too. The vermiculite does eventually dry, and as Dmun says, it's sort of like cork then. If you pick at the edges, it will come off. If you press in the middle, nothing. Just don't pick at it.

I left my form on to protect my vermicrete while I built, but I used cove base for my form, so it wasn't in the way at all. You should be fine- I was just extra cautious. (and worried about the pickers in the family)

I took what seemed like forever to get my dome finished- off and on most of the summer. By that time it was pretty dry underneath, but the shell took a while to dry out when I was curing. You just have to be patient. (easier said than done, I know)

And no, you don't have to wait to lay the floor after you put the board down. You ought to be just fine with your time frame. Just make sure the board's level. I didn't even use anything on top of the board to set my floor- it was so flat it didn't need it.