Its October in CT and was wondering if you think it’s a good time to start the oven. What precautions should I consider building the oven like with cooler evening will the concrete take longer to cure?
Dave LaCroix
Hi Dave,
As a fellow Nutmegger (just south of Waterbury), I would suggest that we are close to the time when you should not start, especially if your goal is to finish before snow flies. You can do the site work for it, up to the point of filling the hole with base rock. I think you’d also be safe placing your footings (which in our area should be about 40 inches below grade to situate them below the frostline) and pouring the concrete/placing the rebar into them. I would then cover the site with a tarp and wait until spring.
We have already experienced one night where the temperature dipped below 40 degrees. I’m thankful that the last two days have been perfect for painting my stucco, but this isn’t going to last long.
Here’s a link to the supplemental instructions for footings. The frost depth map in this link is very conservative; my personal take on it is that we’ll never again see a 50 inch frost depth in this area in our lifetimes. I built to 40 inches, using SonoTubes.
I wish you the very best with your project, and hope you’ll be here often while you’re planning next steps.
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