The front is finally done...

Starting on the chimney

So, now comes the chimney work... Starting placing some blocks just to see how it would look... A few angle irons (instead of the 2x4's, and I think we are in business... Would like the chimney not to bee too big/wide... but I think 16 inches wide chimney would look nice.

Memorial Weekend...

So, this weekend, was very productive. Got the top structure done pretty much... and... I must say, I was very proud of myself. I've never done a structure like this and it turned out very nice and straight. Now comes the difficult part... the roof... and also... we need to figure out what we're going to do on the 'shelf' infront of the oven itself.

So, the top structure was built with 4x8x16 cinderblocks and type S mortar. Before building it too high, I put 3 bags of concrete mix between the first row of blocks and the fire bricks. This is to make the fire brick floor stay 'put'.

After building 4 rows high, we first put the insulation blanket around the entire oven. Not sure how much we should use, so we put a little extra around the top. Then, we dumped in the rest of the vermiculite. It covered the entire dome, but not to the top of the chimney.



As you can see, I tried to fire the thing up a little, with some small pieces of wood and some paper... but it didn't burn very well. Not enough heat to get the thing going. Some smoke came out the front, which was a big dissapointment. But, talked to Enzo, and he told me that it will burn better when we use better wood etc... He told me not to worry... but I still did.



Ended up building all 5 rows of cinderblocks this weekend and now it looks 'real'. Need to start thinking about how it should look when it comes to the roof. Think we will create a slping roof instead of a flat roof we were thinking of. This will make the 'illusion' that the chimney isn't 'that' tall...




Ordered all the tools we needed from Forno Bravo + Ace (something)... so... now we should be ready for the next weekend when we're going to have the big opening. Also need to buy some wood I guess...

Top structure 1

Top structure 2

Top structure 3

Chimney completed!

On a rainy day, the chimney is complete.

From above

This is a picture taken from Lasses room on the 2nd floor. As you can see, the chimney canal is still open on the top allowing access to put insulation (portland cement and vermiculite) over the entire dome.

This weekend I will first build the tapered support for the chimney plate and stack, and then close off the chimney canal. Once this is done, I will put some more insulation mortar around the entire chimeny canal to complete the insulation step. Unfortunately, I will have to buy another bag of portland cement (94lbs bags only) since I ran out covering the dome itself.

Expecting to try out the oven with some small fires that following week with an grand opening the following weekend.

The Dome is completed...

Productive weekend!!! Saturday, worked 6 hours in 100+ degree heat with Enzo on finishing the dome. Amazing to see this thing come together and close up. Took a while since we were trying to hose down the antire area + the umbrella... the heat slowed us down quite a bit I think. But, once it close up, it looked great from the inside. Nice and round and just perfect.

Once the dome was closed up, we continued on the chimney stack. A channel from the front to the back/center is going to lead the smoke to where the chimney stack is going to be placed. This channel will lead the hot smoke/air over the dome and help retain alot of heat.

Insulation Completed

After insulating the whole thing, the chimney canal looked like it was almost complete. Just need to put stuff on the top and finish the area in the back to prepare for the chimney itself.

Ring 7 1/2 Movie

Dome Ring 7 1/2

The template we have used still fits really nicely. The dome is closing up and I think it will end up really nice when we get to ring 10-12. Total rings expected is 12, but that will not be full bricks, most likely smaller 1/8th bricks cut to fit.


Not using an inside form enables us to clean nicely the grout lines after/during every ring built. Now, building ring 8, it's becomming increasingly hard to be 'inside' the dome as you put bricks in place.


Ring number 8 was only partially finished. Put together with normal cut 1/2 bricks and 1/2 bricks with a little chunck taken out at both corners. That turned out to be a good idea since we didn't end up with very large gaps.

As you can see, the dome rings are not perfectly circular any more. More like an 'egg', with the shart end being at the opening arch. But, now, completing ring 8, we will finally make a complete circle, not just ending at the arch. Hopefully we will be able to adjust the circle a little, making it a little more 'correct'.

Dome Ring 5

Ring 4

We started early on mothers day... yes, I worked on mothers day... But, with Izabelas help, we managed to get 3 rings done. Not bad for one days work?!

In the afternoon, betweem rings 3 and 4, we ended up going to Silverado again, for 50 firebrick and 3 nice pieces of natural stone. Ended up with a silver color with spots of gold/yellow. These will be cut to fit and span the entire front. Can't wait to see it...