New Vault Style oven start

[thamnophis]

I'm definitely in the category of "needing all the help I can get", and thick skinned, so fire away!

I'm new to this building thing and I know it shows :-)

I should mention, this will be a "commercial" oven - we're baking bread for sale. So appearances are not our most important consideration.

I would like to build the largest oven that will fit on this 5 foot x 6 foot base.

And I'm getting nervous as I get to the actual brick work!

Here is the base forms built...

[thamnophis]

I should clarify, the block base is 5 x6 feet, not the slab.

I did wonder if i could have used mortar on the first row of block, then dry stacked the rest. I filled about 80% of the block holes with rebar and cement and would have happily filled the remainder if it would have saved me the trouble of trying (largely unsuccessfully) to learn how to mortar those blocks.

Of course, the layer with the angle iron would have to be mortared too I guess, in order to compensate for the thickness of it.

I ended up with way too thin layers of mortar anyway. I'm hoping the strength will be compensated with the holes filled.

[thamnophis]

My lack of mortaring skills are pretty evident here :-)

But overall, I'm OK with how things are turning out. Having extremely low expectations has its rewards.

[thamnophis]

The 3/4 inch plywood is on and fairly level. I bent the rebar with a couple 8 foot lengths of 1/2 inch galvanized pipe propped up between the twin trunks of a walnut tree. It worked well for getting sharp angles in the short pieces needed for the front row of blocks.

[thamnophis]

Here the rebar is more or less in place. I straightened it up while adding the cement. It seemed to stick up higher than I thought it would, but I planned to pour a 5 inch slab anyway, so I didn't mess with it too much.

[dbhansen]

Looks like a great start!

[thamnophis]

This is how the rebar worked for me.

I have the forms on in the second photo, rifle just happened to be there but it works to provide scale.

[thamnophis]

I hope this isn't a duplicate post -

Here is a shot of the block holes filled. I filled each of the 3 holes on each corner, all the holes across the front and at least every other hole along the back and sides.

I didn't stuff the holes with used cement bags, so they are solid to the ground and with a rebar. I hope that provides enough support.

I screed the slab with a too short 2x4 so its a bit rough too, but I'm not concerned about that. I just hope it doesn't collapse ;-)