Why I Oughta...

Busy week with the pizza oven.  First, the bottom trays and supports were put in-place .   Then, I cut, bent and placed some rebar into the top of the stand - via the bond beam blocks .  I also cut most of the grid of rebar.   That meant that I could move-on to creating the hearth forms.  I used 1/2" trays and I'd like the hearth to be 4" or so thick, so that means I need 4.5" of height on-top of the stand.  Because of the Bond Beam blocks and their openings, I also need the forms to cover 1.5" of the stand.  That's 6" of form - which means I can't use a 2x6, but had to upgrade to 2x8's. I cut the 2x8's to length, then affixed a 2x4 to the face of them to stiffen them - and prevent bowing.  I used various pieces of lumber to create legs that were just a tiny bit short.  I put the forms together, stood-it-up on the legs and then shimmed in one side for the final height.   Moving around the stand, I leveled up each side using shims to get the

Earlier this week, I updated my wood-fired pizza oven build progress with some photos showing the bottom trays and their supports/bracing cut to size .  I have a couple of things that I need to do (I lifted eight steps - bracing for trays shimmed, rebar to bond beam blocks, fill gaps, cut rebar for grid, set up 2x8 forms, wire them, add drainage pipes and fill remaining cores with sand ) and most of those can go in any order.    Once I had the trays in place, I decided to see if I had enough rebar on hand to complete the job.  That started with bending some of the 1/2" steel rebar for around the bond beam blocks.  Then, I cut the rest for across the top in a grid pattern. Below is a photo showing the rebar bent and laid into the bond-beam blocks.  I'm doing curved rebar at every corner and doubling-it-up with 90-degree corners on top of those curves.   On top of this will be a 4.5" thick hearth, so the rebar you see running across the top of the stand will be stood-up wit

The next step after filling every-other-core in my DIY wood-fired oven build is to create the support that goes *under* the hearth that can support the concrete pour.  I've made three areas for storage in the stand, so each of those need a cover (or lid) and some support bracing to keep the concrete from sagging through the openings.  I opted to use 1/2" DensShield board and various 2x4's and 2x6's to create the supports under the openings.  Below are a few photos showing how I cut the board (1/2" thick) and then used the legs to support/span the openings. Below is a peek at the INSIDE of one of the storage bins and you can see the legs/supports laying this-way-and-that.  Why?  Because...I cut them just a little bit short of the length needed.  My plan is to use a bunch of wood shims under these so once the pour is complete, I can pull the shims out and the supports will fall away.   Without the shims, the supports might not come out so easily.   Also, I'm us

Last week, my pizza oven build update included how I had purchased a 10" wetsaw and mortared in the first course of the cinder block stand .  On top of that first course of block sits the rest of the stand, but I opted to simply dry-stack them in place.  The height of the oven floor is one of the biggest build considerations and I'm aiming for between 44 and 46 inches in height.  Based on some tests, that's where I'm comfortable and want to aim to hit when I build the stand, add the insulation and place the floor.   The floor is made of medium-duty firebricks that are 2.5" thick.  Set on a thin base of high heat mortar and/or sand.  Call it 1/4".  4" of insulation below that puts me at 6.75" of height.  The hearth has a little bit of flexibility in it - thickness-wise.  But, call it about 4 to 5 inches thick.  That means, I needed to do a little math to figure out how many courses I needed to build.   46 inches minus 6.75 inches = 39.25".  Sub