I am finishing a home-made brick oven that was built following plans
in Allan Scott's book "The Bread Builders." His company is called
Ovencrafters. The book is great but does not have a whole lot of
detail on enclosing the oven (weatherproofing it, insulating it,
proving some kind of outer shell). I found a picture of an oven at
www.fitzpatrickwinery.com. This is basically how I want my oven to
look: especially the curved roof. The question is: How do I build the
free form concrete roof??? I am fine with the block walls, but I want
to add a curved, concrete roof. I am not sure how the roof is
supported from underneath while it is drying. I am not sure how thick
it should be. I am not sure how it connects with the block walls. I
need some basic instructions on how to build it. I need them ASAP.
Thanks.....

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Clarification of Question by raisingmyhand-ga on 16 Sep 2002 20:51 PDT

the exact email for the pictures and partial description of the oven I
like is this: http://www.fitzpatrickwinery.com/woodoven.html

thanks

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Request for Question Clarification by nellie_bly-ga on 16 Sep 2002 22:01 PDT

Hi Raisingmyhand --

I have not found the precise answers that you want/need, but I have
found the man who built the oven at fitzpatrick winery.

 
J Patrick Manley
15 Nelson Ridge South
Washington Maine
04574
207 845 2440

"Manley builds masonry heaters of all kinds, many of them based on
Finnish and Swedish designs. He is a true craftsman in stone, and is
totally immersed in his profession.  He has been to Finland a number
of times, studying at a vocational institute where he has built a
couple of their traditional stoves under the tutelage of a stone
teacher. He also went to a quarry where block was cut for soapstone
stoves and built a half-dozen of that particular model. On a trip to
Sweden, he spent a week with a man who collects traditional tiled
stoves. The stoves are removed from houses and apartments slated for
demolition or remodeling. The collector dismantles the stoves, labels
each piece, crates them up and stores them in a warehouse. Manley got
to go through the process of cleaning and rebuilding some of these
stoves."

He is a leading member of Masonry Heaters Association of North
America.
According to their web site (which lists other members)
http://mha-net.org/html/members.htm
 

 Manley has taken an active role in testing and designing all types of
masonry heaters. At the association's annual meeting, held at a
mountaintop retreat near Ashville, North Carolina, the group has built
brick ovens and stoves in a barn on the retreat's property. After on
bake-oven-building workshop, they fired the oven up and made more than
a dozen pizzas, which they shared with the retreat staff."

http://mha-net.org/html/members.htm
 
He's also active in Masons on a Mission... a Habitat-like organization
working in Guatamala.

All this leads me to believe he may just be the kind of fellow you
could telephone and ask for help with your project.


I hope this helps.  I'm intriqued by your project and would like to
bake some bread in it when it's finished.

Good luck.

Nellie Bly

Web reinforced concrete on a skeleton (usually steel- rebar) is very
versatile. You could try Alan Sindler of Camden, SC- he's an
engineer/sculptor in this technology.