I just had a patio slab poured and I wanted to begin the building of my Mattone Barile in the coming weeks. I wanted to see if anyone has any tips/tricks they learned during their builds that may be helpful for someone beginning their build like myself. Love seeing all the pictures of folks builds and I am excited to get started. I am aiming to have it completed by the end of October, is that a reasonable timeline just building on weekends?
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Hi Jeff, and welcome to the BrickWood forum!
If your goal is to build in about 10 weeks from today, my tip would be to read through the entire set of instructions and figure out how you can group different sets of tasks to work in 2-day clusters. For example, the forms for a base slab and hearth slabs can be prepared in one day, with the concrete mixed and poured at the end of the day.
The other thing I’d do is look through the instructions and identify the places where you have to stop and wait for a newly-fabricated structure to cure. Because you’re doing weekends, you have built-in curing periods (a.k.a. weekdays).
The most important tip I can offer is a restatement: read the instructions all the way through before you start, and make sure you understand why you’re being asked to do something before you dive in on that step. If you don’t understand the step, just ask—there’s a lot of us here who can help!
It’s great that you’re excited about the project, and I guarantee you’ll be even more excited when you start using your finished oven!
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Thanks, I have been reading and processing the directions and have sourced all of my materials. I will be sure to post my process as I work through the stages and look for guidance and inspiration from folks posts here!
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Having friends help is a life saver (or back saver) everything is heavy lol But its a super fun project. As BIkerbudmatt said, read through everything a few times and have a good plan and have all of your materials ready. It makes the project go much smoother.
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The first step in the instructions should be three months of strength and flexibility training maybe with the caveat that the step could be skipped by those under 50.
My other tip is, when building the forms, use screws, not nails.
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Haha I’m sure I will be getting quite the workout over the next few months. I have also seen where some folks build the concrete oven base with two forms vs three like the instructions. Any reasoning other than less pieces? I assume they are a bit heavier but could save on form materials?
I’d either do a monocast (build a form on top of the concrete base and then cast in place) or do the three form method. Each slab already weighs over 400 pounds. You’d have two 600+ pound slabs to hoist in place.
This in particular is where you should heed @kgondoly Ken’s advice and use screws to assemble the forms. Get construction screws.
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Thanks, do you happen to know of any threads showing where folks have done a monocast slab? Are they using a hardi-baker for the base on top of the cinderblocks and forming around that?
The pictures of mine don’t really show the forming but I formed the interior area of the base separate from the exterior so the rebar coming up through the CMU walls could be bent in to the hearth slab. I then formed a separate perimeter section and front overhang portion. All was done with 3/4" plywood.
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Here’s a link to Big Mike’s single-pour slab. Lot’s of great pics!
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