Monday, December 31, 2007

The Second Pour

So the day after christmas, bright and early, my body working on a good head cold, the Concrete Man came again.
He rolled up the driveway looked at the sight and then decided to head back down the driveway and back up. This is harrowing, if you know the driveway and the general size of a cement truck.
He unfolded the spout and pulled a few levers and lumpy wet concrete began to plop grotesquely into the pit like so much elephant dung. My dad and I hoed it into place and The Man helped out with a shovel. Eventually it was full, overfull really, and The Man and I screeded it into place, that is we took a 2x4 and layed it atop the edges of the frame and sawed it back and forth while pulling it from one end to the other. This pushed the larger aggregate (gravel) down and pulled the more liquidy components to the top leaving a smooth surface. The man pulled up onto the driveway where he cleaned out the truck (leaving us a nice patch of concrete) while I used a small float (a hand tool that is basically a 5"x12" piece of sheet metal with a handle) to make the edges, that is, the only part that will not be under more block and brick, even smoother. As we cleaned off the tools it began to drizzle so we put a piece of heavy duty plastic over the fresh slab. This had the unfortunate effect of leaving a strange lined finish on the slab from the creases in the plastic. Oh well. I will include pictures when I am home next.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

The first pour



For some reason when the people came to pour the concrete for the foundation they brought not quite enough. i think this is because the trenches (the part of the excavation that extends down 24") ended up being deeper and wider than anticipated. So right now we have a below grade slab but they will come back and pour more until it is just above grade.
You can also see in the above picture what a mess has been made of the lawn already. It is beginning to feel like a construction zone.


Today My dad and I built the frame for pouring the remainder of the concrete out of old 2"x6"s and set up the 6x6 reinforcing mesh on top of bits of broken brick. I think this slab will be ridiculously strong since the frost walls are 6" deeper than they have to be and the slab itslef is going to be something like 10" thick. Which is good because there is going to be a whole lot of brick on top of it.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Foundation Plans

My father is an architect or, more specifically, a Preservation Consultant and Architectural Historian. He is doing a little side work for someone who has a backhoe and they have worked out a trade. My dad will do this work for him and he will excavate the remainder of the trenches for the foundation slabs. I should also make it clear that my dad is building a shed concurrently with this oven project so this guy is going to take care of the excavation of both sites which are approximately 20 feet apart.

Perhaps you are thinking "but Mark, you already dug up the sod" Yes but while the general thickness of the slab will be about 6" of steel reinforced concrete, the perimeter must extend down below the frost line to prevent the thing from heaving. In this neck of the woods that means 24" which isn't too bad. (in colder climates it can be 4 feet or more.) I tried to do it by hand but after about 14" the clay soil was so tightly packed (and still relatively dry from the summer and fall drought) that it was too difficult.

So this guy is going to come in, dig out the trenches and then we're going to get the concrete folks to come by and pour in the concrete and this same guy is going to finish the concrete (make it smooth). What a bargain!

All that is scheduled to happen on the 10th.

I also contacted Alan Scott today to procure plans for building the oven. Once I get paid, he gets paid and I get some plans.
Check out his website if you want to see what these things look like.
Also see Bohemian Bread's site, a baker in Vermont who publishes a lot of very useful information including pictures of the construction of his own oven.

The building will progress in stages. The Schedule looks more or less like this:
December: Pour Foundation Slab
January: Build foundation walls
February: Pour Hearth Slab
March: Lay bricks for Hearth floor and walls
April: Build vault of oven ceiling.
May: Build exterior walls and pour cladding (the thick layer of refactory concrete that retains the heat)
June: Fill with insulation and cap
July: Finish work (exterior decorative brick etc..)
August: I should have me a bread oven!