foundation to first pizza in 4 1/2 hours Brick Oven Photos Discuss foundation to first pizza in 4 1/2 hours in the Good Background Information forums; I acually built this oven about 2 years ago. that thread has been revived in introductions but I thought that ...

[TimmyNY]

I acually built this oven about 2 years ago. that thread has been revived in introductions but I thought that this would be a better place for it.

2 years ago I was looking to build a brick oven but didnt have the time or the funds to build a mortared oven. Then I saw a post about an oven built with loose bricks and a chimney flue so I started coming up with a plan for a staced brick oven. I came up with a plan and built the oven and it workd fine. see my thread

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f3/m...cess-2532.html (My first oven is a success)

well after 2 NY winters the oven base had a bit of a lean to it so I decided to rebuild it.

After we took it down we leveled the crush stone base. Then we set the bottom concrete blocks in 3 rows of 3 making sure that they were level and square. Additional blocks were then added until it was 4 layers high.after rechecking level and square again we placed 4 2 ft x 2 ft pavers on top to complete the base.





Then we added a layer of fire brick to add to the thermal mass of the floor and to make a nice surface for baking. Solid clay bricks were then stacked around the base on the 2 sides and back. each side ran a bit long and we let them run wild so we wouldnt have to cut as many bricks. we continued until we had 7 layers. then 1inch x 1 inch angle iron 36 inches ling were placed on top and filled in with bricks




a second layer of bricks was added to the top . 3 stacks of bricks 4 high were placed on each side of the door 18 inches apart. 2 more angles were added and 3 rows of brick were added across the top of the door.




I had some old bricks that we placed around the outside of the sides and back to add to the thermal mass. All done. took about 2 hours



I wish I could have exsplained it better but It takes too many pictures to post here. If you would like to see pictures of the full build and the first firing you can see them at:


brick oven pictures by timmyny_2009 - Photobucket

If you have any questions let me know

Tim

[TimmyNY]

here are some pictures of the first fire and pizzas














enjoy

[Jed]

Hey TimmyNY,

It sure looks like this oven cooks pizza! And I'd say that is a good thing. Nice job!

With the three layers of brick you sure ended up with a big bunch of thermal mass. That will keep things hot...

On your stand, did you include any structure to keep the oven from tipping over left to right? Here in earthquake country, I would be inclined to add a stack of block in-between the legs of the stand, just to add some additional resistance to the (very small) potential for tipping...

Another detail, I don't know if it is an issue for your build or not, is the part where Portland cement begins to loose strength when it gets hot.. Without insulation under the cooking floor, the heat transferred from the fire through the cooking floor bricks to the 2 x 2 paver's (and I think these are made with Portland cement) could be enough to affect the strength of the paver's. I'm not really sure how to suggest you research the details on this question, but put it out there just to confirm you know there might be a problem there...

Really admire the one day build (or less!), and the part where you are cooking good looking food as a reward for a 'part of a' hard day's work! Well done.

JED

[TimmyNY]

I did not take into account and side movement. Quakes are not really a problem here. I dont think I would worry about i too much as if it got nocked over I would just restack it. being that its not mortared I cant imagine losing mre than a couple bricks or maybe the pavers. As for heat damage I was concerned about it when I first built i. But after 2 years of use I only had 3 bricks that were cracked when I took it apart. I did have one of the pavers that had cracked but I think it had more to do with frost heaving the base more than anything.





asyou can see the base moved quite a bit over the winter.

so while the pavers do get very warm you can still touch them (underneath) bare handed without it being uncomfortable so I dont think that they are getting overly hot

Tim

[Frances]

I'd say the beauty of this oven is that if something does crack after a while, you just replace it and restack...

[PerryPizza]

I just love the diversity of it all!
It's nice to see something unique, knocked up with minimum fuss whilst I'm sitting here worrying about the insulating properties of vermiculite vs rockwool vs god-knows-what-else... I could sit here & pontificate about how much better it would be with 4" of insulated cladding all around but that would be missing the point... the point is you have a wood-fired brick oven, and I don't!! I salute you

[bjg]

I don't post as I don't have anything to add (yet). But I wanted to thank you for posting detailed pics as I was able to stack one of these together this past weekend. It really does work great. Heat transfers a little quickly, but was really impressed with the results. Sorry, no pics.