Oven Finish: Gabled House

Overview
The gabled house is the most traditional way to finish a brick oven. There are examples of these ovens throughout the Italian countryside.

The basic process for finishing your oven as a gabled house is very straight forward. Construct walls around your oven using metal studs to a height of at least 6" higher than the top of your insulated oven dome. Face the metal studs with concrete board, and finish the exterior of the oven with stucco, brick or rock. The roof design is up to the builder, and can be finished with stone, clay tile or modern composite tile.

The gap between the oven and the house walls is filled with loose vermiculite insulation.

Building the Metal Stud Walls
Using traditional partition wall building techniques, build a wall using a single metal stud lying flat as a bottom plate, and two metal studs lying flat as the top plates for each wall. Attach the bottom plate to the concrete hearth slab using concrete screws. Set metal studs every 16" in the body of the wall to support the concrete board.

Interlock the top two metal studs top plates at each corner to give the structure more strength. Set two vertical studs at each corner for a larger face to attach the concrete board, and to give the structure more strength.

The Oven Opening
Set the location of the front wall of the oven enclosure so that the brick arch at the oven opening projects forward by a couple of inches. Set one horizontal stud at the top of the arch, and set two additional studs at a 45 degree on the side of the arch to provide support for the concrete board.

Finish
Attach your concrete board using screws designed for metal studs. You can finish you oven with stucco, brick or stone.

You are now ready to cure your oven.

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