16. Walled Enclosures
Overview
The Gabled House, or walled enclosure, is one of the most
traditional ways to finish a brick oven. There are examples
of these ovens throughout the Italian countryside.
The basic process for finishing your oven this way is very
straightforward. Construct walls around your oven using
metal studs to a height of at least 6" higher than the top of
your insulated oven dome. Face the metal studs with
concrete board, and finish the exterior of the oven with
stucco, brick, or stone. The roof design is up to the builder,
and it can be finished with stone, clay tile or modern
composite tile.
DO NOT USE WOOD STUDS, PLYWOOD or DRYWALL
when building a walled brick oven enclosure.
The gap between the insulated oven and the house walls
can either be left open, or it can be filled with loose
vermiculite insulation.
Instructions
Using traditional partition wall building techniques, build a
wall using a single metal stud lying flat as a bottom plate,
and two metal studs lying flat as the top plates for each
wall. Attach the bottom plate to the concrete hearth slab
using concrete screws. Set metal studs every 15" in the
body of the wall to support the 3‘x5’ Hardibacker concrete
boards.
Interlock the top two metal stud top plates at each corner to
give the structure more strength. Set two vertical studs at
each corner for a larger face to attach the concrete board,
and to give the structure more strength.
The Oven Opening
Set the location of the front wall of the oven enclosure so
that the brick arch at the oven opening projects forward by a
couple of inches. Set one horizontal stud at the top of the
arch, and set two additional studs at a 45-degree angle on
the sides of the arch to provide support for the concrete
board.
Finish
Attach your concrete board using screws designed for metal
studs. You can finish your oven with stucco, brick, or stone.
The walled enclosure is also a traditional way to finish a
pizza oven. To finish your oven as a walled enclosure,
construct walls around your oven using metal studs,
concrete blocks, brick or stone to a height of at least 6"
higher than the top of your oven dome. Face the metal
studs with concrete board, and finish the exterior of the
oven with stucco, brick or rock. The roof design is up to the
designer, and can be finished with stone, clay tile or modern
composite tile. The gap between the oven and the
enclosure walls is filled with loose vermiculite insulation.
16.1. The basic walled enclosure.
Pompeii Oven Instructions
© Forno Bravo, LLC 2007-2009. All Rights Served.
Ver. 2.0
62
