Am I crazy?

[JoeT62]

OK, my wife is at her college reunion, my 9 year old is playing a video game (something new & different ), and the baby is asleep for her am nap. Time to stare at the plans over some coffee and let the mind run crazy...

I am looking at my stand plans - specifically at the height parameter. A "4 block" stand will give me a 41.6" cooking floor height after all is done. I have seen some stand pics with an extra 4" block thrown in, but I was wondering....

Would it be crazy to go with 5 full blocks? (About a 50" high cooking surface). I do plan on adding about 1-2" of height to the patio after the oven is done with mortared flagstones, so that would make the effective height 48" or so.

I'm a touch over 6'1", so I was wondering if that extra height makes sense.

Or am I crazy?

[Archena]

You're going to build an oven in your backyard when you have a perfectly good one in your kitchen - I think crazy is probably a prerequisite for that.


Okay, seriously, the best way to find out would be to make a temporary table the same working height as the oven will be and do some work on it. Chop stuff or whatever but use it to work on for a little while. You'll soon know how comfortable the working height it is for you.

[Dutchoven]

I agree with Archena to see how you would get used to it. I am about the same height and I wish I would have built mine a bit higher...mine was on four full blocks plus about 10 inches to the cooking height...another 6 inches probably would be perfect.
Best
Dutch

[PizzaPolice]

Mine's at elbow height. I didn't want to bend way over and certainly didn't want to stand on my tippy toes. So, I figured... it's my oven and I want it to fit me.

[JoeT62]

Thanks guys. I'm definitely leaning toward the higher stand.

[wlively]

The design is sound enough to easily add 2 or 3 more cinder block courses. And I wish I had.

I made my pad thicker to raise the oven a bit to a good height. Unfortunately, I did not do a thorough job of surveying the backyard and planning the paver patio. Long story. Thanks to the elevated patio height, the oven ended up lower than optimum for me. A Homer Simpson moment, DOOOOHH! My wife, 5'0" likes it though.

[Hendo]

My oven floor is 45" high, which I'm hoping will be just right for me at 6' tall.

Maver had a couple of good points on this (his post of 17 Oct 2006):

Originally Posted by maver

I think you want to pick your oven hearth height based on the level that would be comfortable to slide pizza in and out of the oven - keep in mind that to slide it in you want the peel tilted up at an angle to allow the pizza to slip off. I think this generally gives you a lower oven than what might be comfortable to look into.

You certainly can err on the side of too high - worse case you build a raised platform at the oven entrance to allow easier work in the oven. Hard to correct too low.

I was considering a higher floor before I read this sound advice.

Russell Jeavons, in his book "Your Bread Oven", suggests a height to enable you to see the rear of the oven floor while standing about a yard away from the base - this way you can easily see how the fire's going without bending over, while having a beer with your mates. I think this is excellent advice!

Cheers, Paul.

[JoeT62]

Originally Posted by Hendo

Russell Jeavons, in his book "Your Bread Oven", suggests a height to enable you to see the rear of the oven floor while standing about a yard away from the base - this way you can easily see how the fire's going without bending over, while having a beer with your mates. I think this is excellent advice!

Cheers, Paul.

A beer with your mates is always excellent advice, whether in front of an oven or not!

Seriously though, I think I am going with the 5 block course leading to an effective cooking floor height of about 48" (after the flagstones go on the pad).

[JoeT62]

Originally Posted by Archena

You're going to build an oven in your backyard when you have a perfectly good one in your kitchen - I think crazy is probably a prerequisite for that.

An interesting point, and it brings me to a recent revelation. I didn't really have a handle on the size of a 42" oven until I measured the one in the kitchen. I always thought it was big at 28" wide, 14" tall, and 20" deep - but this thing is gonna be HUGE.

Now to make sure it's ready in time for the Thanksgiving turkey...

[swripley]

Joe,

I thought I had a handle on how big my 42" oven was going to be. I have drawn no fewer the 8 scale drawings both by hand and with a computer drafting program. But I simply wasn't prepared for how huge it looked live and in person after I framed up the hearth and realized at 5'2" there was no way I was going to be to be able to trowl the structural layer by myself. What have we gotten ourselves into? Archena is right, crazy probably is a prerequisite.

S