Keeping The Oven Dry

If you've made an earth oven, then you need to keep it absolutely dry. If you don't, then the oven will revert to its primal state. Mud. Even brick ovens should also be kept dry.

 

But it's not a simple matter in deciding how to protect your oven. The small oven in the photo has been stuccoed with surface bonding cement. This seems to protect the dome well enough, but the interior surface of the opening gets quite soft when it rains. Probably a brick arch would have helped. Perhaps a better arrangement would be metal roofing, as shown, but since the metal is draped over the dome, I keep wondering if the metal might melt when bombarded by the flames. Trying to always remain vigilant about pushing the fire to the back makes me more than a little anxious. Ideally, the roofing should be quite a bit higher, framed out, above the oven.

 

An earth oven extremely well protected

Brick and Mud Oven

Many of you already know how to make a brick arch to protect the opening to your mud oven. Following the same process, if you link three arches together and brick up the back wall,  you'll have a brick oven.

 Making your layout

 Assembling wooden form

 First arch in place. Stones hold bricks apart

 Three arches complete with mud filling all the spaces

Fired up