Brick Oven Progress

There’s been quite a lot since last week, as you can see. By the time I got back over the weekend the exterior of my new brick oven was entirely put up. Only the top of the chimney remained, and that went on yesterday. As you can see I bought a load of old bricks for the outside (the interior structure is cinderblock), many of which had a coat (sometimes several coats) of paint. A pressure wash is the next step, to take some of that paint off and make the whole thing look more cohesive (some will stay on, simply because it looks cool). God only knows how old these bricks are. Louisville having been a brick making mecca for well over a hundred years, my guess is that they date at least as far back as the turn of the (last) century. My mason positively hated working with them (odd sizes, very dry, no holes in the interior for mortar to adhere to), but as my father is fond of saying: that’s why they call it “work”. He’s done a truly stellar job though. I’m in awe of the man. From here all that needs to happen is the wash as I said, then of course the roof. I’m thinking slate tiles…