Pizza Oven Hearth Concrete Pour - Wood-Fired Oven - June 2024

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Yesterday, I showed how I built a platform for the Mudmixer in order to pour the raised hearth in our backyard wood-fired oven stand construction project.  Today, we show the details of the actual pour.  Using the Mudmixer and 35-or-so 60# bags of 4K PSI concrete mix, I was able to complete the job in just about an hour of run-time.  I spent quite a bit of time trying to make sure the forms were level and square and using a mix of sand (to fill cores), caulk and backer rod, I filled as many of the gaps in the forms as I could to keep the slab from leaking too much.

The good news - the forms held.  They didn't bow.  And...they didn't leak that much.  Same with the supports under the Densshield boards.  Below are a few photos showing the raised, reinforced hearth pour.  The first one shows the platform and the poured hearth:

Forno Bravo Hearth Pour - With Raised Platform for Concrete Mixer

Forno Bravo Hearth Pour - Concrete Drain Holes

Below, you can see the drain pipes that were able to sit right at the surface of the hearth:

Forno Bravo Hearth Pour - Concrete Drain Holes

Below are a couple of shots showing how snug the Mudmixer was to the forms on the platform:

Mudmixer on raised platform

Mudmixer attached Hose

Once I remove the forms - I'll be done with the stand construction and can move on to the actual oven build.   It has been quite a journey.


That means, we're five months into this project.  Excavation started in January.  We're about to hit July.  Wow.  Next up - stripping the hearth forms to see how this pour went.
Location: Downers Grove, IL, USA

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