Sarah's Progress Photos

[christo]

Wow! The biggest 3 courses in one day!!!

So, if once begun is half done, and add 3 courses on to that, You're 75% there!

Looking really nice!!

Christo

[sarah h]

Thanks Dave, Frances, Julian, RT & Christo for your input and encouragement – it feels great to have made it to this point and even better to know how much support exists on this forum – amazing!

No work today – after a stellar day yesterday of sun and 75 degrees we got rain and cold (48F) today (RT, I’d trade if I could – hope you at least get the rain to protect from fires) but the sun returns tomorrow so we’ll see what happens …

As you can probably tell from the pics, we’ve decided to go with a flat entry (like Frances) and add a cosmetic arch later, as suggested by Julian. Dave, I’ll keep your advice in mind to try and keep things round but I’ll be happy just to see the finished product standing. I started out Sunday morning frustrated by a number of things (like my floor’s not as flat as everyone else’s) but somewhere along the way I decided that unless I really screw up somewhere, my oven will likely work fine and really, the little imperfections will all contribute to the character my oven (kind of like raw silk).

The vent, though, that is the question … and I may have the answer. My neighbour Tom came over the other day to see what we’re up to and the vent came up in the conversation. Tom has some kind of engineering job and said he had a sheet metal guy who could put a transition piece together for me in a day or two – all I need to do is provide the specs. It sounds great - if I can just figure out what the dimensions! I can’t remember who said that the key to it all is a funnel effect but how big & how high? I have an 8” clay tile flue, which is round so that I can brick around it later in a spiral pattern. If I brick my flat entry around all four sides the vent opening will be approximately 20” X 9” – can I leave it that big (most vents seem to be much narrower but it seems to me that that’s mainly due to arch construction) and funnel it up to the 8” round in, say, a 10 –inch rise? And how would a metal transition get attached to the masonry? Still lots to figure out! If I go with Tom’s offer, he’s owed some pizza & beer!!

Thanks again everyone – hope to post more pics soon,

Sarah

[Frances]

Ha, the vent's got me stumped at the moment, too :-) I'll be reading any answers you get with interest. Would you drill holes through the metal into the masonry and hold it down with screws maybe?

I'm going to do it this way: I've got the chimney pieces, I'll build the entry, I've got a bag of refactory cement casting stuff... and, uh, it'll work out somehow...

Frances

[Gentcpa]

I was originally going to build something for the chimney and vent out of firebricks and 8" round clay flue. I prefer the clay look. However, after reading reports of cracked flues, trying to figure out the whole slip joint vs. mortaring the flue, weight on the arch, I took the easy way out and just ordered the Dura-tec system from this site. There is an anchor plate which just makes things easy. More than I really wanted to spend and not the look I wanted. As far as the look, I was originally going for a Provencial stucco gabled look, my wife suggested a mosaic of half the globe which changes things a bit....

I hear you on the weather, I can only build on the weekends Saturday isn;t looking good right now.

[sarah h]

Arrrgghhh!!! I finish work early enough to be able to work on the oven on weekdays but life seems to have a knack for getting in the way - rain, appointments that can't be re-scheduled, kids who need rides and food ... the list goes on and on. I had hoped to post more progress photos by now but pics of cut bricks are not a big thrill and that's as far as we got tonight .

I guess a different form of progress though is that we've sorted out the vent - we decided to go with our neighbour Tom's kind offer to have a metal vent made for us (free of charge!) so he came over earlier this evening and left with all the necessary measurements - we'll have a vent to install in a few days ... just need an oven to put it on ...

Tom has taken a keen interest in the oven and can't wait to try it out. He used to be a Navy cook on board a ship, where he did a lot of bread-baking. He tells a tale of an enormous batch of dough he made one time - it didn't rise right and the easiest solution for disposal, being dark and late, was straight into Halifax harbour. Next morning, he observed as the Coast Guard subjected a very strange floating mass (now well-developed and much-expanded) to careful and cautious scrutiny ...

Time to go - more of life's intrusions to deal with - fingers crossed that I'll get time to complete another round or two tomorrow.

Sarah

[Les]

Sarah,

Cutting brick is progress.. In regard to kids and food. I have heard that they only need water for three days to survive.

Les...

[RTflorida]

Sarah, in hauling the kids around just use the story most of our cold weather parents did - "when I was a kid, we had to walk 10 miles each way through a foot of snow...uphill!!!"
Seems my parents lived 10 miles from everthing as children, and to hear them tell it, snowed everyday of the year.

Wait a minute....you have to feed them too? UH OH! that may explain...........gotta go!!!

RT

[james]

Originally Posted by Gentcpa

... I just ordered the Dura-tec system from this site. There is an anchor plate which just makes things easy. More than I really wanted to spend and not the look I wanted. As far as the look, I was originally going for a Provencial stucco gabled look, my wife suggested a mosaic of half the globe which changes things a bit....

You can always hide the "modern" steel chimney inside an old world trim system. I am pretty sure that Drake, and a number of other builders, have done that. You can build a stucco or stone enclosure around the stainless pipe and spark arrestor.

I like the Provence stucco and roof tile look (we're doing that to our house), and I think you can match the modern chimney with the traditional finish.

James

[Gentcpa]

On the chimney, I figured that the double wall chimney would give me the flexibility to finish it any way I wanted, also it should be much more proportional than running an eight inch flue surrounded by brick work with a two inch gap. Also that is why I held up on ordering the rain cap, figured maybe I would do something else for the visible piece. We will see.

Obviously not a clearly planned project. I think if it had been clearly planned it would have never been started, right up there with anything else I have done to the house. Usually my spouse goes from yeah that will be ok, to being pissed off to wow this is really nice. The pissed off part is usually due to mess, time and money.

I think half my neighbours think I'm nuts for building this thing. I also have all manner of people who want to come over and teach me how to use it, from a co-worker who probably worked at Pizza-Hut in college to a multi millionaire (whom I have never met) that founded a brick oven restaurant chain.

PS. James I didn't mean to disparage the chimney, my change of plans seemed negative towards the chimney but it is the best option for me. It will be much easier and by the time you factor in bricks and other supplies it really doesn't cost much more (obviously I have reached the pissed off stage with my wife). Great site by the way it has really made the difference between success and failure for me.

Julian

[sarah h]

Row 4 started, but only two-thirds done - still, it's better than nothing. Baby steps are all I can seem to manage midweek. Looks like rain for Saturday so it's GIANT steps planned for Sunday. Do things speed up as the rings get smaller or slow down because the angle gets steeper?

James, I like your suggestion about outer trim. I'll see how Tom's vent works out and take it from there ...

Julian, we women tend to be like that with mess, time and money issues but if you've got to the 'Wow!' stage, you've won the war! I know what you mean about people who think you're nuts too - not so much the neighbours on my street (they're all looking forward to that first pizza party) but some friends and colleagues at work seem sceptical. I think they'll get it though once they're eating the fruits of my labour.

There is one neighbour, however, on the street behind me ... I fully expect her to call the city officials the first time she becomes aware of smoke from the chimney (she's just that way). I've already been through this with the city people though, so I know I'm OK, but the lower-level staff all told me "You can't do that!". When I said I thought I could, they referred me to the next level who said "No open burning allowed". When I said I didn't think it came under the category of open burning they said I'd need to clarify that with the Fire Safety people responsible for such things. The first line of resistance there said "You can't do that - it's open burning!" When I finally got to the Assistant Chief Fire Marshall, he said "Same category as a BBQ or a smoker - no restrictions - enjoy!!" So the city will likely send someone out to see what's going on and tell me "You can't do that" and I will serve them pizza and refer them to the Fire Marshall ... and pray that the city never manages to pass some over-restrictive new by-law that would kill my oven - I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to ensure that I would get wind of such a thing if it ever came up, in time to rally defences.

Sarah