Your Basic Dome to Barrel Shape Conversion.

I read about and looked at hundreds of completed wood fired ovens (old and new) before I started this project. I was extremely satisfied with the oven design I’d used but somewhere deep inside me, I thought it would look better with a half-barrel exterior facade. Seemed simple enough in my mind–after a beer or two–to create such a facade for our oven (note to self...check alcohol % of adult beverages when things look to be pretty simple).

So with beer and trowel nearby, I laid out some bricks I’d cut in half lengthwise parallel to the side of the oven and about ½ brick away. I stood a piece of cement board up in the gap and thought this would work well to create the side of the barrel facade. Mortared in place vertically, the board kept my half bricks aligned perfectly (at least to my eye). I used some fiberglass insulation at the top of the board to keep it from pressing inward as I added bricks.

Once I got to the curving top, I laid fiberglass insulation over the perlcrete to create the “top of the barrel”. I then wedged in pieces of aluminum lath between the cement board sides to give me a mortar substrate for the top of the barrel brickwork. I cut one series of bricks (for each side) with an angle to start the run over the top and then simply continued to brick up from each side to meet at the top/mid-line.




I had added several L-screws halfway up the vertical wall so I could lay my peel or blowpipe along the oven side when not in use. I also put at couple “tall” mortar joint lumps along the top third of the oven so I could lay a tool or two on the curved surface without having it fall down. The little stair shelves built into the sides of the chimney structure have proved useful for keeping my IR-Gun and other little baking items nearby...but out of the way.

The curve over the top went pretty well, although since I was laying a row of bricks on alternating sides, the top several rows had a lot of bounce to them. If I'd made the lath a tighter fit, it probably would not have "pouched" up at the top. But, as with all my projects, if something out of the ordinary or not expected didn't happen...I'd be very concerned. And if you wondered about how difficult it was to work on the top of the facade with the minimal space to the roof trusses...it was definitely "a head thumping and clear out your pores with gallons of sweat" experience!

Another one of my “wish I would have thought about that” moments, was when I began putting finishing sheets of plywood on the back corner wall. Before the facade was in place, I could get behind the oven to work...now it was no longer possible (and it wasn’t because I’d been eating too many corn chips). Funny how just a few inches can make a whole lot of difference in construction...good thing I was never involved in any public construction projects like a dam or bridge. So, although I did get plywood around the back walls...it isn’t all securely attached to the framing. I had to simply wedge sections of 2x4s between the base of the oven stand and the plywood sheets to hold them in place. Couple screws along the top and I know they aren’t going to move, but wow, what a bonehead situation I created.

I’d like to think I learned something from this little exercise, but I’m not really sure I did... (Incidentally, there are only pictures here before the inside plywood sheets had been installed. I was pretty sure that during the traumatic install process I might have “accidentally” used the camera to pound in the friction fit 2x4s into place...therefore, I wisely left the camera in the house.)