So here it is day 3 and we’re still adding more cob. I began by filling in the counter space and adding an angled base around the back side of the oven to meet the cob cap. This allows the back side of the oven will to be setup so any water landing on it be able to run right off.
So you can see where we filled in the counter area and began adding the slope for the water run off. After filling the counter area I checked it for level. Wow, was I seriously out of level. You can see the right corner in the above picture is really low.
In this picture you can see that we continued to fill the counter space and build up the low corner slightly but, still not enough. I had to wait and let this fill of cob setup before I could add anymore. I did trowel the top of the cob fill to make sure I was leveling it out. When I took this picture it was before I roughed up the surface. After letting the cob begin to set I used a toothed trowel edge to make the surface rougher so the next layer would bond well.
You can see the second layer of cob that I added in order to get the counter level. Don’t let the depth of the picture fool you, this counter is larger than it looks or what I had originally planned. In order to level the counter I had to use 3 batches of cob. I would recommend here that you may consider using a level and string to make things easier and more level. I wanted to try this experimental build without the string and only use my eye, well hence the reason for needing to fill so much to level the counter.
You can also see that I added the red bricks for the rest of the hearth. I did this before I added the last leveling layer of cob on the counter. I’m sure you’re looking at the picture going what’s with the cement paver? OK this is for weight only. I used the 2×4 with the paver to add weight on the back of the brick after setting them to keep them level and embed them well. I also added cob mortar in between the hearth bricks to aid in keeping them solid.
Here we added more of the angled base to be able to shed water if it rains. This was where we ended our work for the day.