sophias new restaurant

[smallholder123]

picked up the keys this week and bricks are on the way any thought on the base support slab 4 inchs vermiculite insulating slab 2 inches thermo floor 4 1/2 inches cooking floor 4 1/2 inches over kill or well spent money??? buy the way its a 54 inch oven

[SCChris]

Hey smallholder, I did some answering of the above in the other "how many bricks" thread. Keep asking and we'll help were we can.

Chris

[smallholder123]

should i put everything on this thread ?? also i was thinking about adding a coil of copper pipe in between fire brick and insulating brick to supply hot water what do you think??

[smallholder123]

i think we are going to end up with a 54 inch cooking floor made from fire bricks 9x4.1/2 x 2 1/2 on there side under a insulatig brick 9x4 1/2x3/4 and then a vermiculite slab 4 inches over a 4 inch slab support hows that add up we will be using overnight thermal mass to cook slow roast and such sorry my first figs are a bit out but the bricks are ordered the dome is 4 1/2 x4 1/2 x3 with a further 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3 is this enough dome mass ??

[SCChris]

If you haven't taken a good read of the commercial oven done by windage, here it is.
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f37/...ost-11354.html (81 Inch First Build (and first post))
I remember that his oven was built with water heating, this said, I don't know to what degree he is using it and how this heating affects the oven's heat.

As for thermal mass I think you're fine with the understanding that I don't know how much heat the water is going to steal from the oven. One thing to remember is that one unit of water volume is 1000 units of steam, so care in design is critical. You are really creating a boiler when you add water into the mix.

Regarding the substructure of the oven, the foundation and substructure are critical. Are you going to create a wood storage under the oven? If so you might want to consider limiting the depth of this area and break it into two, side by side, wood storage areas. Also even though a 4 inch slab may be fine for a 36 or 42 inch oven, I opted to pour a 5 inch slab and put half inch steel every 8 inches in a grid pattern. I also ran larger reinforcing steel over my wood storage. Remember that concrete and steel don't cost much so over engineering by a bit is better than under.

Chris

[smallholder123]

well all the bricks are here now and i think i over order but better to have too many than too few how this for a list 144 concret blocks for the base
460 9 x 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 fire bricks, 300 9 x 4 1/2 x 1/2 floor fire bricks, 400 9 x 4 1/2 x 1/2 insulating bricks, 20 x 15 kilos of cement, 100 kilos of fire clay, 10 x 25 kilos tubs of fire cement 200 litres of pearl light 1 ton of sand and 2 tons of gravel .. if i cant build a kick ass oven and indoor BBQ with that ???? any one in the UK gl14 area that wants to lend a hand is more than welcome

[smallholder123]

base built ,slab poured and monday i start cutting bricks cant wait i have mounted a 9 inch dewalt grinder in a box with a fish pump to keep it all wet hope this pic works

[smallholder123]

hope i havent messed up i mixed my vermiculite with a ratio of 4 vermic 1 sand 1 gravel and 1 cement what your views ??

[windage]

My only question is why the sand and ag in the pearlcrete? These conduct heat and the gravel may pop if too hot.
I read where you have 2 inches of insul under...I have 4 and wish I had more.

[smallholder123]

the mix is because i couldn't find a answer and just ploughed ahead so i have a 4 inch slab and a 4 inch pearlcreat /concreat slab and 2 inches of refractory fire brick insulation the kind for a kiln hope that's enough ?