Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...Corner Build with a Black Oven in the Pompeii (Dome) Style

I really wanted to build an oven like I’d seen in a little bakery in Victoria, British Columbia named Fol Epi. The custom oven was built by the current owner and head baker Cliff Leir and shop opened in 2009. Fol Epi’s “heart” is a large, white oven (designed with the firebox outside the cooking chamber) and their breads were the best I’d ever tasted. Victoria also has the Wildfire bakery (originally opened by Leir using another oven he built). Wildfire is also a bakery experience not to be missed–the remarkable white oven there is just what you’d expect to see in Europe in the late 1800's.

The main advantage of a white oven over a black oven design is better temperature control over long periods of time. Unfortunately, the price you pay for that long controlled bake is a  significantly higher build cost and a much more complex design (read difficult). Again, facing my obvious lack of brick & mortar skills (K.I.S.S. – keep it simple stupid) and recent retirement (read lower income), a black oven made more sense for us. If you are interested in white ovens, take a look at those two bakery web sites (below) and if you get a chance, visit Victoria and try baked goods from both Fol Epi  http://folepi.ca/about/  and Wildfire  http://wildfirebakery.ca/

Note: Do a Google search on Wood Fired Oven Bakeries and you’ll find there are many active WFOs in the artisan bread world....and all seem to be doing quite well. It is a special niche and compared to the mainstream commercial bakeries, they are really in the minority...but every one of these WFO establishments is run by people who love what they do and who are making phenomenal breads every day. Seek them out and sample their wares...you will always leave with a smile on your face!

Since I had no brick & mortar skills, I decided that a black, Roman style (Pompeii) oven would be more realistic for us/me to build. The Preliminary plans for a corner build oven on a large patio slab were agreed upon by Susan & I over a couple of our favorite microbrews. Based on the available space and my initial research, it appeared that the best size oven for us would be about a meter in diameter. The foundation slab would join our garage driveway aiming to present a seamless look to the addition and provide a clear path between the kitchen and the future outside den. Final excavation by a local contractor was completed for an 18'x18' foundation slab on 6/19/2009. The corner triangle (10' on the outside edges) was fitted with extra rebar to have a 6" layer of concrete. The remaining slab are would be 4" thick (with normal rebar). A layer of crushed rock was leveled & compacted into the bottom of the excavation, forms were set, and the concrete was poured & finished on the 24th of June. Instead of being level, the foundation slab was finished with a slight downward slope for drainage...common (and very handy) for rainy Oregon's patios.

Note: At the time I didn’t think about having people/parties in the now “dedicated” space–it seemed huge at the time. Once we'd built an enclosure around the oven and brought a table & chairs in for dining...and a cooling rack for bread...I now wish we would have built a bigger structure.

Laid some bricks out to designate corners of the foundation. Note that
Locator services had marked there were no utility lines in the area.

Excavation complete, crushed rock was compacted as a base. Far corner is
deeper to accommodate a 6" layer of concrete for better oven support. 

Foundation slab was poured and finished with a slight angle so water will
drain off to the right. Forms have been removed and concrete is ready for the build.