Hi from northern Sweden, w. questions

[mian]

Hi all,
I'm from the northern part of Sweden, and have been lurking for a while. I originally planned on building a brick BBQ, with a small oven attached, but have decided that a pizza oven might get more use, and I could probably make decent BBQ in it as well.
Now all I have to do is figure out how to get materials, preferably at low cost. Anyone out there who knows of a source of cheap firebricks in Sweden? The quote I got from the lokal building supplies store was appr 7 USD per brick, a bit too pricey for me.

At first I thought of making the dome out of old (really old) recykled bricks from the fireplace/chimney from an old farm house. They are smaller, darker red and much heavier than the "regular" new bricks I've seen. Some of them are a bit warped. Could they be used, cut in half, for the dome without breaking of little pieces in to the food (is that called spalling?)? They have been outside, uncovered, for many years, but surprisingly many of them are whole.

Next thing is insulation. Perlite and vermiculite is a bit hard to find, as well as pricey, and I doubt I could find superIsol boards at all. I read a thread here about using aerated concrete blocks under the floor. Has anyone tried it yet? How about building the enclosure of these blocks (they are easy to find here), maybe stuffing some rockwool in there too?

Thanks for a great forum!
Mari

[Frances]

Re: Hi from northern Sweden, w. questions

Hi Mari,

Welcome to the forum!
Is this the thread you saw?

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/a...nder-1808.html

As far as I know Carl is the only one who used something similar to AAC under his hearth, but it has added wood ash (I believe) and his oven isn't finished yet. I think someone said that the usual AAC gets brittle when repeatedly heated. Maybe whoever it was will chime in here, because I can't for the life of me find the post anymore. I personally would also be very interested to know if AAC would work...

My oven dome is insulated with rockwool, and it insulates very well. The only hassle is keeping it from getting wet while building the next layer. But if you build a house style oven that should not be much of a problem.

Your red bricks sound cool, and could well work, especially as they are heavier than usual bricks and from a chimney - but don't listen to my advice on this one. Wait till someone asnwers who knows what he's talking about

Enjoy planning your oven, and keep us informed on how its going!

Frances

[Acoma]

Re: Hi from northern Sweden, w. questions

I would think that there would be other brick suppliers within the region. Even if is is another country, my thought is that you adimately confirm the brick needed, no exceptions. Once you do, find out shipping costs.

Dusty, do you think our regional supplier would ship 2nd's to her? She would need to pay 1st of course.

Here is the company name and number Mari.

H. C. Muddox, a division of PABCO Building Products | bricks
4875 Bradshaw Rd.
Sacramento, CA 95827-9727
Toll Free: 800-776-1244
Fax: 916-362-9182
H. C. Muddox, a division of PABCO Building Products | bricks

Call them to see if they will ship 2nd's and how much. I bought all mine from them and my oven is coming great. They charged us .30 cents per brick. My suggestion is to buy 400 of them. That would be $120 U.S. The reason is that you may have half with too many cracks, or imperfections. Plus shipping may damage some. Bricks are 7lbs per too.

You may have an international freight carrier in your region that ship door to door. That could be plan B for shipping. Seriously, if you can buy from these guys do it! As for the shipping, see whether they will or the international carrier doing door to door, and get 3-4 quotes. I know DSL, Fedex, UPS and other specialized carriers do. As for the vermiculite, and other material, do research from threads first. For now, being that it is winter there, get the bricks, SLOWEST method.

Get them securly wrapped too!

Well, maybe I am a loon bag, but these are only ideas.

[mian]

Re: Hi from northern Sweden, w. questions

Thanks Frances and Acoma for your replies.
I'll have to do some more research on the AAC blocks first I guess. It would be bad if they got brittle from the heat and collapsed under the dome. They might still be good for the "house" around the dome though, since it is not supposed to get hot if I put rockwool around the dome (Glad to hear your oven seems to work well with it Frances). They build real houses around here from the AAC stuff, so I guess it is strong. Another product that is common here for house fondations is concrete blocks with LECA in them, I wonder if they can be used for the stand (or maybe even as insulation under floor?). I'll ask over in the "getting started" section. Acoma, 30 cents per firebrick sounds great, but I think shipping might be a lot. Also. if I buy from overseas, I'll have to figure with taxes and stuff, so I'll try around here some more first. Thanks for the link though, I'll keep it in mind if my efforts here fails. My dad has some old firebricks layng around somewhere (under roof, but not heated), but he does not remember how many, or what size they are. It might be enough for the floor. I also have a few (6-7) big industrial ones, that I have no idea what kind they are. I know that they crack if left uncovered outside during the winter They are way back in the corner of the garage where I cant get to them at the moment. Maybe I'll be so lucky that they are insulating bricks, but I don't think so. They are (unused) from a plant that made graphite electrodes, so my guess is that they were used in a kiln of some sort, and might be useless for pizza oven.

/Mari