I would like to place the base cinder blocks out to the sides of the hearth slab and not have the overhang. Will this make any difference in supporting the overall oven weight?
When we designed our ovens and oven bases, we designed them so majority of the oven weight is placed on the cinder block walls. And since the cinder block walls are full of rebar and concrete - you could place a large mid-80’s Ford Crown Victoria station wagon with 9 passengers on there w/out any issues.
But when you position the oven (all 1000+ lbs of it) on a slab that doesn’t have the cinder block / base walls directly under either side of the oven arch - well, I wouldn’t recommend it. Or allow my kids to play under it.
Even with all that rebar and High-Strength concrete, I’m sure it would hold - but since it is not designed for it, I just can’t recommend it.
.
If you don’t want the overhang, simply reduce the size of the EDGE BRICK by XX" of inches - you will also need to reduce the size of the slab by XX" too. You will need to do a little math to figure out the exact size hearth slab you want to make, but as long as you don’t mess w/ the firebrick hearth size, you are good to go.
Make sure you give yourself enough room for 2" of blanket, 1" of stucco and about 1" of brick veneer (if you go w/ a veneer). Also - If you are getting the door - you will need 4" of edge in the front of the oven so the door can sit on that edge.
Good Advise, I am sticking with the original plans and do not want any issues , plus my granddaughter may want to play under it at some point. Thanks for the info.
1 Like