Advice re the insulating hearth

[BamaGirl]

Re: Advice re the insulating hearth

It's been 3 days since I poured the hearth and it has cured quickly. I can stand on it today. I cut about 60 bricks in half this morning and started laying out my chains to get an idea of how it will look. Still have a lot more to cut. I am planning to lay the cooking floor later this week. The fireclay and sand is mixed wth water to make a paste. Correct? What is the consistency like?

[dmun]

Re: Advice re the insulating hearth

Originally the fireclay and sand was mixed with water to a loose mortar consistancy, and trowled on the insulating concrete with a quarter inch notched trowel, like the kind you use for floor tiles. I believe the current thinking is that you can lay a thin dry layer of the mixture, lay your floor on top of it, so that if anything is a little high, you can pull out a brick and scoop out a little of the dry mixture. When you get your floor as flat and level as you want it, you wet the floor to solidify the base. Either way works, the second way is a little more forgiving of error.

[james]

Re: Advice re the insulating hearth

I would agree with David. I have done the wet mixture, as well as notched trowel Refmix to attach the round floor pieces, and I think the dry mixture is easier in terms of getting the discrete bricks level.
James

[Hendo]

Re: Advice re the insulating hearth

I'm curious about two issues:

1. What is the reasoning behind the recommendation of 50% sand with the fireclay? I used 100% dry fireclay, as I found the stuff flowed much better when I plonked a brick down, and in fact the sand seemed to inhibit this 'flow', which ultimately affected the level of each brick and left voids underneath it.
2. If using the material(s) dry, what is the purpose of wetting the floor after laying the bricks? Aren't we just trying to create a level cooking floor?

Paul.

[BamaGirl]

Re: Advice re the insulating hearth

My hearth is unlevel in several places and I wondered which way would work the best. Thanks for all of your advice.