Hi all. I have used my pizza oven for a year now and love it. I would now like to add a front to the oven and veneer brick over the stucco. Is there any special steps to take? I tried to do this last year towards the of October. My arch and mortar did not hold. I believe this is because I forgot to clean the creosote off the face of the brick.
Please see attached photos and let me know if I should add anymore structure? I made an arch frame out of plywood to rest the bricks on and waited a week to remove the frame. When I did the bricks came down together not having attached to the oven. I used the homemade fire mortar which worked great on the rest of the oven. This go around I was debating on switching to types s. And thoughts or ideas would be welcomed as I would like to get this wrapped up before the snow flies!
Well, first off, congratulations on a a year of use. That first photo of your happy diners says a lot about your decision to build the oven in the first place!
As I look at your first closure attempt, I feel uncertain. It looks like something that should work, but would end up being unstable.
If you go back and look at the general design of the barrel, you’ll see that it’s not a pure arch—it has at least two courses that serve as a foundation before it starts to curve, and the curve itself is just a bit logarithmic, increasing in severity near the cap of the arch. (In my mind it mimics what would happen if you built a column of bricks that started to get wobbly near the top and fell in on each other, pulling some of the lower bricks with them. They collide at the cap and then magically hold each other up.)
You could go with this same design, even using the homemade fire mortar. (That mortar didn’t really get a chance to work because the closure didn’t last long enough to fire-cure the mortar.) But I’d do these things:
If you can, modify your form so that the second course rests squarely on the first. Then start your slope.
Definitely do clean off the creosote. You’ll find a number of threads here with details on how to do it.
[Optional, and just a brainstorm idea] You could try sinking ⅜" x 6" stainless steel rods into the face of your main barrel, using a ⅜" masonry bit to drill 4 inches into your firebrick barrel arch (squarely in the center of one firebrick) and 2 inches into the facing brick on the side facing in toward the oven. I’d do 7 of them, 3 on each side at “courses” 3, 5, and 7 of the facing brick and one at the cap. Construction adhesive in the holes, mortar and place. This would work better with threaded rods, which I’ve seen in the metal stock aisle at the big box store.
The other alternative is to follow the plan that is included with the Mattone Barile instructions. The advantage is that it is tried and true, and is a very stable design that will look more like a traditional pizza oven. You may have your reasons for not wanting to go that route, which of course I respect.
I do hope this works out for you, and if you have any further questions along the way, just let us know. Good luck!
I put brick veneer on my oven (including the front of the oven) and followed the instructions for the Mattone Barile oven. The recommend mortar mix has held well.
I took a different route to reduce the the size of the opening. A local welding shop made an arch for the oven opening, this reduced the opening radius by 3 inches. This was much simpler (for me) than building a brick arch.
Thank you for your input. I do really like the arch design and think I will try it one more time. I used the following calculator and found it handy and thought i would share.
I think I am going to try the 3/8" stainless rods. I had originally thought about doing that and I am kicking myself a little for not. Oh well you live and your learn.
I’m also not going to remove the form until I have the external veneer done and tied to the arch. My thought was to tie in some additional rod in the top third of the arch brick where it sticks past the barrel of the oven and mortar and veneer over the rod as well.
I will keep you posted on progress and the final methodology.
That’s a really cool calculator page and thanks for sharing it.
An additional thought on the holes: be careful about cleaning them out (shop-vac if you can) before you put your rods in place, and also be careful not to wiggle or manipulate the rods excessively. Firebrick is just fragile enough to crack if you put undue pressure in the right spot. It won’t destroy your oven by any means, but it will make your anchor points weaker.
Finally, more is not always better, so take care not to add any rods too closely spaced.
Thanks again for sharing that link, and yes, we’d love to follow your progress.
