Oven Door....or NOT?

Well I just realised I must be stupid ! I've come all this way thinking that the only reason i need an oven door is to keep pests out when its not being used. Seriously.... thats what i was told by an oven builder.

His explaination was that you need oxygen for the fire to FIRE thus a door would go out if you suffocated it, sounded logical at the time.

But I never considered a door could be used once you no longer need a flame and the radiant heat from the bricks can cook soo many more things as they slowly cool down.

Theres millions of things you can do after the hot pizza and bread, as the oven cools you can then do roasts, chickens, pies, cakes, glaze a xmas ham and even a low heat Pavlova !!!

SOOO, basically now I'm going to have to redesign the front of my oven because my current design doesn't allow for this to happen as the door was positioned after the vent thus being useless in retaining heat effectively.

What i now need to do is create a "opening tunnel" that allows me to position a door before and after the vent position.

Back to the drawing board ! but better to find this out now the later.

like i said i must be stupid, i've researched sooooo much but missed this.

Level 8

Well up at level 8 now (the distortion is the camera lens !)

Now i have some height i can imagine where the oven openign will be as opposed to my drawings and I have decided to go up another level of bricks.

My design is different to others I have seen, it now willbe 9 levels of bricks then a layer which will hold the top slab of concrete, then another brick level which will have "Hebel" block inside for insulation and then covered with a small amount of sand to make the whole thing level.

getting there !!



You can see in the forground the first layer of bricks for the buffet bar/herb garden and the hole in the middle for water to flow away, i will be lining this with thick plastic inside to stop moisture seeping through the bricks.

YES, i dislike the GREEN poles, working on getting that repainted but haven't decide on a colour.

brick mortar mix

My brick mortar mix AS I am doing it all in a wheel barrow is just:

I use a 10 litre water bucket,

into the barrow i put 3 x buckets of sand (30kg ish)

half a bucket of cement mix (5 kg ish) and a 1/4 of Lime (2.5kg ish)

I mix it all together and then add 5-6 litres of water

REMEBER, you can always add water you can't take it out !!!

What you want is somethign that sticks to your trowl but doesn't slide off your bricks, i mixed a REALLY wet mix once and it just was a wate as sooooo much disappeared into the brick holes, YES you want that but not toooooo much.

Bricklaying, doing corners

Here you see i am now up to layer 6 but i have done the next 3 layer "corners", you can see the "stair case" bricks at the back.

What i have done is spend time on getting the corners level and as you can see i am no longer using the string as the wall space at the back (mentioned earilier) is to tight.

What this allows me to do is spend time getting them all straight and level and then simply fill in the gaps next week.

You can see my design has an L shape hole for wood storage and an "ash drop" this is a good design but creates probs with keeping it all level, its also now very clear my placement of the "odd" bricks and the facade will be those nice whiteish bricks (once cleaned of mortar scraps).

Leveling from as many different angles as possible is always a good thing.

Another angle, teh forground of this shot is the small buffet bar/herb garden at bench height area, as it was rainging i laid the first layer and got it all level and then covered it so rain didn't get into the mortar as it dried.

I've started it now so that as i progress with the oven i can use left over mortar to do some layers in that section, this way i never end up with leftover mortar or half finsihed layers as i go each sunday.

Forget about the dodgy pavers falling over, that will all be fixed up onces the main structures are completed, the reason is THEN I will have solid sides to work against so the pavers don't move in the future

And then there was rain !!

And then the rain came down ! , luckily i have a roof over the project but it was good to see the rain come as I now see that the front of the future oven is not going to be covered by the roof as i have extended forward of the old structure.

The oven doesn't get wet but anyone standing in front of it will be !!

I'll have to ponder the solution but i thought it was worth pointing out this for your consideration in your project.

You can see the back area is a real mess, I think you just have to have a VISION and know it will all be cleaned up asap.

Stringline level

Sorry i have been slack but now i am doing this every sunday time seems to FLY.



Here you see i'm 3 layers up and have got a post on the corner, well all 4 corners but not in this image.

I tied the post with some string (remeber this jobs on the CHEAP) and then that allowed me to run the pink string for the next layer and then move that up the post for each layer, thus get the string level and to the next levels height and its all level.

To be honest this didn't work for me but i DO beleive it is a good system, my prob was at the back I had no room to really maintain the poles and they slipped so i ended up not trusting them.

but i would advise trying this out as it could work for you.

You can also see in this image how I am using the "odd" bricks on the inside where they won't be seen. at th efar back you can see some brown and red bricks, there is the neighbours brick garage wall behind the oven so nobody will ever see the back of the oven.

FREE insulating

Once i have created the dome/tunnel i will need insulation. my research shows that thermal wool insulation VERY expensive.

The other day I found a home water heater on the side of the road and took it home, once i opened it up i found some GREAT foil covered "wool" insulation and large enough to do most of the pizza tunnel

I then stripped it of the foil/wool and it ended up being around 1.8metres high by 1.5 metres wide.

First bricks laid

So i started laying bricks, the next post will be clearer as i go up a few levels but heres the basics, once again "get the first layer level and square" it REALLY is important.

Here you see the mortar mixed, then behind it is where i gather the mortar and use it, the bricks laid are behind

either side o fthe site you see the bricks ready for laying, i'm using a mix of bricks, ones that we will see and ones that won't, this way i can get a good exterior and use my "lesser" quality bricks at the back and inside.

Important things here are having the mortar you are currently using at a good height EVEN if you are laying the first layer place your mortar at EITHER on the ground or @ 80cm off the ground, the reason is by the end of the day your back will be KILLING you if you are always at a half bent level, better to go up and down then be half way.

you can see here i'm up 2.5 levels now, 78 bricks and my back is killing me, if you look closely you will see different coloured bricks, i'll do better shot next week, as his is a sunday only project.

Concrete Slab completed

SORRY, missed a step.





So i set up to lay the concrete





then extended and put the roof back on.







then laid the concrete

now you can really see the pizza oven position on the left, the top level bbq area and the concrete with a hole in it is where i will be putting the herb garden/buffet area

brick layout

here are some images showing my layout







here is the pizza oven layout, you see i have created a gap at the front and the side, my plan is to have an "ash dump" at the front and the wood stored at the side. I purposely left the back area to be sealed so we can easily clean the area, if i was to leave that large area open it would be deep and hard to clean.

here is the layout with the bbq and smoker oven area, the next image shows you how the oven would fit inside the brick casing.

Of course the oven is going to be placed higher and i'll show you that once i get to it.

The area to the left of the oven is where the bbq will go, the space under that is for bits and pieces, the gas bottle which supplies the bbq and the smoker.

brick laying hints

Well i laid my first bricks and although i viewed MANY youtube vids but still i don't think it was enough as when i got to it many things i forgot. So here are some hints.

View as many vids as possible to pick up the correct way to do things, look for vids on these subjects:

getting the first layer LEVEL.
applying the mortar to the brick
mortar thickness
mixing mortar (especially how much water to use !!)
keeping it square
keeping it straight as you go up levels
using the spirit level
using a string line

These are all good subjects to review. my personal view is find someone who has done it before it will save you alot of time, i've laid 2 levels so far and i think i will be able to do the next 7 in the same amount of time !