Stucco

Given that I have had some delays with the health department (which I will tell you all about in due time) I needed an outlet for my building enthusiasm and figured it was long past time to finish the exterior of the oven. When last we left the oven it had been surrounded by a steel stud wall and sheathed in concrete backer board. This was functional but pretty hideous and so something had to be done. Given the enormous amount of cement already in this 70 sq.ft. I thought a little more wouldn't hurt and so I decided to finish the oven with stucco which is essentially the same as mortar.
Stucco goes on in two (or three coats) and given that I couldn't find any info on the pros or cons of one or the other I decided to go for the 2 coat. The first coat is called the scratch coat because once it is partially cured you scratch it to ensure good adhesion with the second coat.
The concrete backer board had to be covered with wire lath, a miserably sharp product that helps the stucco adhere to smooth surfaces. I did not cover the concrete block with wire lath, although some do, and at times I wished I had because the concrete block did not grab the wet stucco with much ease. Now that it's up though I am fairly confident that it is not going anywhere anytime soon. Enough talking:
Some rounding of corners on the front of the oven done with left over stucco












Stucco around the back
















Wire Lath on the front corner of the oven