Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven Pompeii Oven Construction Discuss Kemo's South Austin Pizza Oven in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; All, I have been lurking here for a while and finally jumped in and started on my oven! So far ...

[Kemo]

All,

I have been lurking here for a while and finally jumped in and started on my oven!

So far so good with only a few problems. I borrowed a shovel and a dirty hoe from a buddy of mine, he also lent me a wheel barrow (sp?).

BTW, I'm a computer nerd and have never done anything like this before, so wish me luck.

Below are some pics:

DAY ONE - The Hole...and justification for wearing gloves.

[Kemo]

and here is Day Two after getting my brother-in-law in the action. He owns a masonry supply company in Houston, so hes a good guy to know I built the form, he put the 4ft level to it, and directed the rebar placement. We then mixed up 35bags of 80lb quickcrete by hand. Not fun. Apparently, I dug out too much and created more work. We tried to locate the 1/2" rebar where the drystack would be, so that it would tie into the slab.

[asudavew]

Congrats!

Off and running!

Can you taste that pizza yet?

[Kemo]

Day three, Sunday, October 1st.

This is what the slab looked like the next morning. not too bad and the level still said level. I banged off the form with a BFH and then went up to Lowes to pickup some cement blocks. Those things are cheap! I got mine for $1.29 a block. The angle iron for the front...not so cheap. Almost $25 for a 4 foot section.

I had to make a modification to the layout of the bricks. i had originally planned to have a 60" inch frontal area based on a 36" oven + 9" for the firebrick and 5 inches of insulation on each side: 36+9+10 = 55. So I figured I would have a few inches of play room on the side. I totally forgot to do the calculations in 8" increments. Fortunately, I screwed up and ended up with the front of my slab right at 62.5". If you notice in the dry stack, I am just over the edge of the slab about 1/2". So, after all this, I think I will be able to actually make a bigger oven, which is a good thing.

[Kemo]

Dave,

I can taste it!

[Unofornaio]

Looking good.. and welcome to the group.

If the pipes in the wall are for drainage from somewhere you might want to consider making a dry well for the water to go down and under the oven slab, caping them off or diverting them.

Several tons of weight, stone wall corner, slab above surrounding grade add water from drains and you have...well, trouble.

[Unofornaio]

woops too late now..you did all that while I was typing...wow

[Kemo]

About that wall there. I'm in a townhome and thats actually a retaining wall there. Behind it is a lot of clay and I high sloping hill. I havent seen anything come out of that hole except a frog! I think its probably clogged with clay. Its as dry as a bone in there.

We had so much rain here this summer and none of the drains ever produced anything. There should be very little, if any water comming out of that hole. Even in the hardest rain.

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by Unofornaio

woops too late now..you did all that while I was typing...wow

Yeah!

It was quick!

[Kemo]

so my next step is to pour the concrete down in the holes. I probably wont get to it for a few days...