The rest of the oven building has been a slow drawn out process of finishing the facade. This is something which will most likely be unique to every oven built. So with the materials which was available to me this is what I came up with:
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| The front arch was constructed the same way the inner arches were. These were made out of half brick in order to tie nicely into the front facade. |
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| You can see the gap for putting insulation. |
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| This was my contraption for bringing the brick up to the top. I did some math to follow ratio, then followed the line so that each brick's corner touches the line as it goes up. |
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| Framed the roof in and am now ready to lay the rest of the chimney. |
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| We made sure to tie the flashing in as we went up. |
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| Decided to frame in the back part of the roof instead of laying brick just in case we needed to get in there. And it is a good thing because after the first day of firing, we needed to open it up. |
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| Poured vermiculite in the sides and over the dome. I also utilized some fiberglass insulation. |
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| The chimney cap is a piece of granite we salvaged out of the dumpster at a counter top manufacturer. |
We probably needed at least 3 more bags of vermiculite to sufficiently insulate, so instead of paying the big bucks for that, we topped it off with fiberglass insulation. After doing some research, fiberglass is actually a better insulator than vermiculite. However some say it is not tolerant of extremely high heat like you would get in this oven because the resin holding it together might melt, but other sources said this was not true and that the melting temperature isn't until it gets into the 2000 degree range (nothing to worry about here). Since there was a layer of vermiculite first, I felt alright about it.
Here is a lesson learned however: I was told that you cannot over-insulate something and that there is no such thing as too much insulation. I think I found the loophole to that statement. If you look at the picture above and below, I stuffed it full full of insulation. But after the first day of firing, I took the top layer off because it was suffocating the oven and it was unable to breathe.
The most peculiar thing started happening after a hot fire. The oven started steaming out of the back, coming out at a steady pace like a really great humidifier. And it did not just do this for an hour or two. It came out constantly for 2 days. This was probably gallons of water escaping from the oven, and consequently, the fiberglass insulation took on this water as well. I am guessing a little rain got in and soaked into the masonry, and the oven, being as hot as it is, is not pushing all this moisture out. By putting insulation all the way to the top of the roof, I made it very hard for the vapor to escape. So we took the insulation along the ridge away and put a vent on the back (sorry, no pictures of this now, but I may update later with some. You just get to see the pictures of what not to do for now).
So... make sure you allow your oven to breathe. Also, I would fire your oven a while before you put insulation on so the moisture in the cladding or anything else can easily escape.
** UPDATE 3/2012: PLEASE READ LATER POST TITLED: "A VERY BIG MISTAKE". DO NOT FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES IN THIS POST FOR INSULATION AND ROOF CONSTRUCTION. VENTILATION IS VERY IMPORTANT, AND WAS LACKING IN THIS ORIGINAL DESIGN!**
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| Tar paper. |
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| Shingles are on and flashing is being tied in. |
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| The first flames! |
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| The finished product! |
