My first Pizza oven build, Thailand

[Ken.thai]

Aloha pizza lovers, greetings from Thailand - I hope you are doing well!

I recently relocated to Thailand with my wife to a sleepy tropical town a few hours north of Bangkok. There is not much choice when it comes to pizza here, except for a few local shops that use frozen pizza bases and microwave and the pizza company (if that is pizza is debatable ).

Since my urge for a proper stone oven pizza is mounting by the day, I recently decided to make my own oven!
I checked a few youtube videos for inspiration and started planning my build, however - I should probably have done a bit more research as I didn't find this forum until today !

So a few weeks ago I began my build, and I have just completed the base and poured a perlite layer on top. Due to the current situation, I had quite limited success in finding "proper" firebricks in the area. I did however find some firebricks (quite cheap as well,6 baht per brick ~ 0.2 usd), but they are not of very good quality I think.. It seems like they crushed some old chimney and made new bricks of it, they are very inconsistent and some have bits of what looks like iron/rust in them

Today I sorted out the best bricks of the lot and tried to arrange the bricks on top of the perlite base.
Now I have a few questions if I may

1. Will these bricks be good enough for building the oven?
2. They bricks seem to vary slightly, so it's impossible to make them to perfectly align against each and there is some places where gaps are up to 3-4mm
3. Initially I tried the herringbone layout, but the gaps gets worse than if I just lay them in a sideways pattern (for lack of a better word!) - will the sideways pattern be good enough?`(cons vs herring?)
4. Can you add fireclay mortar in places where the gaps are to wide?
5. The perlite base is not 100% even so I will need some fireclay mortar underneath the bricks, is this ok? (I saw somewhere that you shouldn't for the expansion?)

A huge thanks in advance, I will spending my arvo browsing this forum for inspiration!

[UtahBeehiver]

You are well on your way. I suggest you download the free eplans from the Forno Bravo store website. It is a good baseline for building ovens. Don't believe everything you see on YouTube as being the best practice. There are some really bad ones out there and some decent ones as well. Do not fall for the p.vcrete domes over a yoga ball. They are not in your best interest.

Bricks appear to be okay, I would just play around with them, switch locations, turn over, turn around etc. For level on pcrete, use a wet slurry mix of 50% sand and 50% fire "clay" (not mortar) laid down with a 1/2" notched trowel.

Do not mortar in floor, it needs to float for expansion and contraction. Ash will fill in the gaps, any high points that will catch a peel can be knocked off with a angle grinder with a diamond cup.

"Important" - the floor insulation is on the thin side, you do not say what ratio you used. A min of 2" of CaSi board is recommended and a typical 5 to 1 p/vcrete requires to be at least 4" thick to be equivalent.

[Ken.thai]

You are well on your way. I suggest you download the free eplans from the Forno Bravo store website. It is a good baseline for building ovens. Don't believe everything you see on YouTube as being the best practice. There are some really bad ones out there and some decent ones as well. Do not fall for the p.vcrete domes over a yoga ball. They are not in your best interest.

Bricks appear to be okay, I would just play around with them, switch locations, turn over, turn around etc. For level on pcrete, use a wet slurry mix of 50% sand and 50% fire "clay" (not mortar) laid down with a 1/2" notched trowel.

Do not mortar in floor, it needs to float for expansion and contraction. Ash will fill in the gaps, any high points that will catch a peel can be knocked off with a angle grinder with a diamond cup.

"Important" - the floor insulation is on the thin side, you do not say what ratio you used. A min of 2" of CaSi board is recommended and a typical 5 to 1 p/vcrete requires to be at least 4" thick to be equivalent.

Hi UtahBeehiver, thank you for your quick replies.

Thanks for the tip on the plans, I tried to download them https://www.fornobravo.com/diy-pizza-oven/ page, but never received the email with the plans. I'll try again later. I'm currently loosly following another plan from "Melbourne fire brick company". In regards to youtube, you are right - I seen a lot of questionable builds, especially the yoga ball builds It's been more as a visual aid for me.

When it comes to the floor insulation, I only had enough perlite to make a 2" deep layer. Due to the lockdown here, it will unfortunately be difficult to get hold of more for a while (same with CalSil board) So now i'm a bit stuck haha! Either I proceed without an additional layer, or I'll try figure something else out. I've seen some traditional builds using crushed glass and salt (?) - would that be an option do you reckon?

Sorry for the confusion, so I shouldn't use any mortar for the floor due to the expansion/contraction - gotcha, but what do you mean with the 50% fire clay and sand mix? Will that not set the bricks like mortar? I'm not sure if I have fireclay or fireclay mortar, the only thing i could get hold of here is SK30HM - is this fireclay, or is this something different? (see attachments)



Thank you again!

[UtahBeehiver]

Fire clay is powdered clay only. I can be found at brickie or pottery supply stores. The clay/sand mix does not set like a mortar, the clay just binds the sand enough so it will not free flow away. I would search some more for adding a layer of CaSi or AlSi board on top of pcrete. Now is the the time to do this, once to bricks are laid you cannot go back.

[Ken.thai]

Fire clay is powdered clay only. I can be found at brickie or pottery supply stores. The clay/sand mix does not set like a mortar, the clay just binds the sand enough so it will not free flow away. I would search some more for adding a layer of CaSi or AlSi board on top of pcrete. Now is the the time to do this, once to bricks are laid you cannot go back.

Thanks for the advices Russel.

I managed to get hold of some more perlite which is going to be shipped here. I will do another 2" layer on top with it.

I'm thinking to add a cm or so of unmixed perlite on top of this 4" perlite cement mix so that I can level the floor bricks properly on top, is this a good idea or not? I tried searching the forum but haven't found anyone that did that.

[UtahBeehiver]

sand/clay is your best bet if you need to level. straight perlite may not have the compressive strength needed to support the dome and floor, refer to vcrete chart I attached earlier. 5 to 1 ratio is recommended for under the floor (for your next 2" layer).

[david s]

The grains are also far too large for it to be used as a levelling medium.

[Ken.thai]

Cheers for the input lads!

I hope my perlite gets delivered today, eager to build! I off to make my IT now in the meantime, whoever came up with that deserves a nobel price

[Ken.thai]

Latest update Taking way longer than I originally thought, lol

[MarkJerling]

Looking good Ken!

[Ethan1989]

Latest update Taking way longer than I originally thought, lol

Excellent Job Buddy! Had you use fireclay mortar to fill the gaps or use any other technique? Waiting for your reply.

[Ken.thai]

Excellent Job Buddy! Had you use fireclay mortar to fill the gaps or use any other technique? Waiting for your reply.

Thanks Bud!

Yes im using the 3-1-1-1 mix (sand, fireclay, portland, lime)

[Ken.thai]

The other day I received a custom-made double barrel isolated stainless steel chimney, really happy with it! I good a great deal too, only 4000 baht for the lot (thailand) which is about 120 USD. I've made curing fires every day since, and today I'm starting the isolation job. Still need to figure out a good ratio mix for the perlite which I will cover the ceramic fiber with..