Hansen Horno Brick Oven Photos Discuss Hansen Horno in the Good Background Information forums; I guess I'm far enough along in my build to start my own oven thread! I'm building a 42" round ...

[dbhansen]

I guess I'm far enough along in my build to start my own oven thread! I'm building a 42" round Tuscan oven in my back yard in Appleton, Wisconsin, mainly for bread and pizza.

Being in an area with a 48" frost depth, I went with a deep footer and foundation wall (completed in '07). I'm not sure it was the right decision, given all the expense and labor, but it gave me some peace of mind going forward. If I had to do it over again, I think I probably would have gone with a floating slab. Anyway, here are some initial pics of that stage.

The rebar-reinforced concrete footer is 12x16" and the bottom of it sits at 5' below grade. I then built a mortared wall of 5 courses of 8x8x16" block + 1 course of half-hi block (4x8x16"), reaching up to 3.5" below grade.

One picture shows how I stupidly used the wrong type of half-hi block, which would have allowed water under the foundation slab, so I had to dig it out and fill the cores of those blocks and then seal the area around them. (Good thing I didn't put those half-hi blocks at the bottom of the wall!)

[Jed]

DB,

This foundation looks great!

It is a ton of work to get below the frost line, but you won't need to spend any time worrying about the oven moving with the annual winter freeze...

Keep the pictures coming!

JED

[dbhansen]

Then I backfilled the dirt (not nearly as much as I had hoped!), framed it up, and added 6" of gravel and a vapor barrier. On top of that I added a 2" layer of pink insulation board, hoping to raise the frost depth somewhat (I'm not sure if it actually does anything under an unheated space, but someone recommended it). Then came the wire mesh and rebar, and finally the 5.5" of concrete.

[dbhansen]

Next came the block stand, which I decided to mortar in place. The block stand measures about 72x72" (by 32" high) on a slab that measures 80x88".

The hearth slab will be cantilevered out 12" in front of the front of the block stand and will be even with the front edge of the slab, so the blocks are positioned 12" in from the front of the slab.

[dbhansen]

For the lintel, I was going to follow the FB plans but I made the fateful decision to go to a local salvage yard for the angle iron. I could only find 3" angle iron that measured about 3/16" thick, pretty heavy stuff. I bought 2 and decided to embed them into the blocks so they wouldn't show from the front. I was ill-equipped to do it, tool-wise, but I somehow muddled through with some cheap metal and masonry saw blades and an angle grinder.

Because I embedded the iron, my lintel was sitting too low compared to the rest of the blocks. I ended up cutting some leftover iron to make shims to place under the ends of the angle iron, thereby lifting it up. I then mortared everything into place.

[dbhansen]

This weekend I began framing up the hearth slab. A robin decided to nest on top of some 2x4s I had leaning up against my house, so I'll need to get some more lumber before proceeding!

It seems like the tray is pretty sturdy without having to use nails in the legs (I walked around on top, no problem). I may leave it as-is for the hearth pour, unless anyone has a horror story about their tray collapsing!

I have a feeling this is going to be a long journey, but fun so far. With family obligations, travel, etc., I'll mostly be working on select weekends, but I hope to finish before the snow flies.

BTW, thanks Jed!

[gjbingham]

Wow DB, you work fast! Great work so far. Loook forward to more pics.

[Frances]

Yay, a new oven thread! Great!

It looks good, I'm really impressed with that foundation! Does it get pretty cold where you are then?

[PizzaPolice]

The foundation picture looked very familiar. Right down to the wheelbarrow.
A few things I discovered.

Phone wires are not very deep and look ALMOST exactly like the no longer used, low voltage 12V cable running out to the flagpole.

Commercial grade, direct bury phone wire and heat sink supplies are readily are available at nonimal cost.

It's cute how the gas and electric service are nestled together five feet down.

It's silly to report to the Utility Company the oft advertised "Call before you dig".

It's rather neat to see a whole squadron of Gas company trucks arrive and shout to you from a safe distance ("Sir!, You have reported a gas leak and why are you standing in the excavation") because the "call before you dig" monkeys garbled the message. "Hi, gas company? I uncovered a service running right through my foundation and would like to know if it's ok to sheath it it some rather heavy schedule abs before we continue."

Man!... I could write a pamphlet.

[dbhansen]

Originally Posted by gjbingham

Wow DB, you work fast! Great work so far. Loook forward to more pics.

Not fast at all, George! I started late last summer on the foundation and only poured the at-grade slab this spring. I just waited until now to start my own thread. Like I said, it's a weekend project, so it will likely take me a long time from here on out!