Getting Started
Your Artigiano oven is comprised of a number of basic
components, which we will define here to give you a better
understanding of the installation process.
1. The Foundation Slab
Your oven enclosure rests on a wire mesh reinforced 5
1/2" concrete slab. It can be a stand-alone slab built
specifically to support your oven, or it can be poured to
accommodate other outdoor kitchen items including
shelves, grills and tables. If you are in areas with deep
frost, you will want to ensure that your slab is properly
engineered to remain level during the winter freeze.
2. The Stand and Insulating Hearth
Your Artigiano dome and cooking surface are set on an
insulating hearth stand that you build on your foundation
slab. The hearth consists of a layer of structural concrete,
topped with insulation, such as FB Board ceramic fiber
insulating board.
The oven cooking floor should be set to a height where
you can easily place and remove food -- typically around
40 inches. The insulating hearth and the block stand are
the same width and depth.
The insulating hearth serves three purposes, providing
your oven with:
•
A rigid platform that spans the opening between the
stand's legs above the wood storage area.
•
An insulation layer to stop heat from escaping through
the rigid platform and down into the stand legs.
•
A smooth surface on which the cooking surface will
rest.
3. The Cooking Surface and Vent Floor
The Artigiano oven provides a round cooking floor and the
floor under the vent. Pizza and bread are baked directly on
the Artigiano cooking surface, while other foods such as
vegetables and roasts are placed in cookware, or cooked
on a Tuscan style grill over wood coals.
Additionally, you may want to build an additional landing
area in front of the oven opening to provide a staging area
for food that is being placed inside or removed from the
oven.
The Artigiano cooking floor is set on a thin layer of sand,
centered left and right on the hearth slab, with the oven
dome resting around the cooking floor. Placement of the
front edge of the oven floor depends on the depth of the
oven landing, where the front of the oven butts up to the
landing material.
4. The Oven Dome
The Artigiano brick dome shape is designed to efficiently
absorb heat from a wood fire, and to evenly reflect the
heat of a live fire to the cooking surface – where it both
heats the cooking floor and food.
5. Ventilation
Unlike a fireplace, where the chimney is inside the firebox
in the back, the brick oven's vent and chimney are outside
of the oven -- in the front. The Artigiano vent assembly is
designed for use with either round steel chimney pipe or a
refractory clay flue liner.
The type of chimney pipe you use depends on whether
your installation is outside or inside, your design choice,
and on your local building code. Be sure to check your
local building code prior to installation. You must use a
chimney cap to minimize rainfall infiltration into your
chimney and oven, and to stop sparks from leaving the
chimney.
Artigiano Installation and Operating Manual
© Forno Bravo, LLC 2008/9. All Rights Served.
Ver. 2.2
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