the weather, ARGH! Design Styles, Chimneys and Finish Discuss the weather, ARGH! in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; Thanks Mark, hopefully weather won't hamper the finish to much. Today is already shot, torrential rains and wind forcast for ...

[JAG]

Thanks Mark, hopefully weather won't hamper the finish to much. Today is already shot, torrential rains and wind forcast for today

Neil2, That coating sounds very interesting, something I will definately check out. I haven't done much shopping in the way of protective coatings, but I will definately start by looking at enrich and seal. I love deep colors that come out with that type of coating "glossy" coating

Splat, You are correct, it is a behemoth. Since I don't have much room for work space on my patio area my plan was to use some of the counter space as a holding/finish prep area. We'll see how that goes, as I can envision it working, but I can also see in my mind a serious log jam happening at the oven opening.

John

[nissanneill]

John,
great job so far. Don't worry about the log jam at the oven, my outdoor kitchen pizza preparation area is adjacent to the oven (see my avatar) and I end up with a queue waiting to get their 'creation' into the oven.
I used to get the first pizza through but now everyone knows what to do and i am not at the front of the queue any longer. When there are 5 pizzas on the hearth, the others have to wait like waiting for a carpark at the local shopping centre. However, it all works out and clears itself in due course.

Neill

[JAG]

Thanks Neill for the insight. I figure when the dust settles and everyone has had a chance to eat their wood fired food/pizza they will forget about any logistics issues.

John

[nissanneill]

They will sort it out so don't worry.
When they are ready for their second or third pizzas, (as I only make my balls around 125g which only makes a 10" pizza base), they will have all down pat.
It is amazing how orderly they become.
I only have one pizza as that is all I can eat, but I do make up extras when everyone else has finished as there are usually spare bases remaining.

Neill

[splatgirl]

So we are back in the friendly weather here in MN, enjoying a freakishly warm and lovely March and getting rolling again on finishing out my enclosure. You may recall my 40 degree countertop pour from last Fall...the one that I never got to fully finish because of the weather? Yikes. I finally got back to it yesterday...the the longest I have ever let anything go before getting hitting it with the polishing pads.
I've said before that IME any countertop-size job can be finished beautifully with hand pads alone, but the four month cure time on this project meant they did just about nothing. I had to bust out the power tools, and thus the racket of having to run the compressor for my pneumatic wet grinder detracted from the music of the birds in Spring, but I did manage to get it whipped into shape. Photos soon...I have to give it a few days as I had a few boo boo spots that needed to be filled, but in the mean time I'm hoping to finish up the last bits of siding and trim.
Happy Spring, y'all! Looking forward to a full couple of seasons' worth of WFO cookery that don't start with snowblowing a path across the patio. We did end up firing five or six times in the dead of winter and while the pizza was every bit as good, the pizz-eskimo-iolo experience left a bit to be desired.

[Archena]

Cool! Congratulations!

Ahh, there's nothing quite like the roar of power tools in the morning...

[Neil2]

"I've said before that IME any countertop-size job can be finished beautifully with hand pads alone, "

Only if you have lots and lots of time (and no angle grinder).

[splatgirl]

An angle grinder...? For what? I've never spent more than an hour or so to fully finish a molded slab by hand. That said, I do favor and have much more experience with molded objects vs. cast in place, so any detail that would require an angle grinder after the fact is more easily included as part of the formwork.
I have a couple of wet/dry diamond cup heads for my wet grinder but other than this overly aged (and cast in place) slab, I've never needed to use them.
Anyway, my point is that a little elbow grease and $50 bucks for a set of hand pads is plenty good for the average diy'er wanting to play with concrete countertop making.

[Neil2]

"An angle grinder...? For what? "

I like the look you get when you cut down thru the cement finish layer and exposes some of the aggregate in the concrete. I cut down about 1/16 to 1/8 inch with a diamond cup on a 5 inch angle grider, then start the polishing process. By the way, the three month curing process your slab had is not all bad. I usually do the initial cutting after one week but wait at least 6 weeks before final polishing so that the slab is hard enough to take a 3000 grit polish.

[splatgirl]

you would like this slab...exposed aggregate is definitely one of its features.
My personal preference is for little to no exposed aggregate but lots of filled voids, but I have not ever had the opportunity to really control the aggregate to the point that it wouldn't just be random rock colors.

Curious about the 3000 grit polish, as I have only ever bothered going down to about 1200 or 1500. What kind of sealer do you use on that and how does it hold up? Functionally, it seems like everything I've done ends up at about 600-800 with regular use anyway, but I have not investigated the sealer market for a few years and I know the options are much more abundant now.

This slab got a big splash of penetrating sealer, aka pork fat, by accident last winter. Thoughts on how I can mitigate that stain pre-sealer, or do I just have to live with it?