Pizza stone in lieu of fire brick for hearth

[TorontoOvenMaker]

Hi -

Instead of laying fire brick on the oven floor, I was considering inlaying a ceramic pizza stone (Kamado Joe Pizza stone ). Is there any reason I wouldn't want to do this? It seems more simple and I understand it can withstand temperatures >750 degrees. Has anyone else done this?

[Petter]

Why? How many stones to cover the floor? How to get 2" thick?

[david s]

I tried a pizza stone in my first oven thinking it would be easy to clean off the ash since it is higher than the floor. When I lit a fire on top of it it split neatly down the middle....idea abandoned.

[TorontoOvenMaker]

The stone would be 21" and 1" deep and I would only need one. I was thinking of inserting it directly into a 4" vermicrete slab. I'm wondering, if I split it myself intentionally dead into the centre to allow expansion, would that work? I'm just to damn lazy to set 15 stones ... Are there any other alternatives?

[Petter]

Worth a shot. You only need to cut into the center. Not all the way though. Place the fire on the cut. If it does not work, just smash it and replace with firebricks. Lay an inch of compacted sand-clay mix underneath for leveling and increased thermal mass. Report the result.

[Mongo]

The stone would be 21" and 1" deep and I would only need one. I was thinking of inserting it directly into a 4" vermicrete slab. I'm wondering, if I split it myself intentionally dead into the centre to allow expansion, would that work? I'm just to damn lazy to set 15 stones ... Are there any other alternatives?

The oven floor around the stone will be exposed vermicrete? That is interesting.
How will you construct your dome?
I can't shake the thought that laying the floor is one of the easiest steps of building an oven. If you are balking at that you may be in for a big surprise when it comes to the dome, archways and flu. Just a thought.

[TorontoOvenMaker]

Hey - no, it will be vermicrete. The dome is already constructed of vermicrete and stucco.