A familiar question of mortar in the UK

[aureole]

UK builders, I hope you can help!

I'm about to buy from Yorkshire (Midland) Refractory: I'm getting ~230 bricks, some 50mm fibre board and some blankets.

However: I'm really, really stuck/confused on mortars. Yorkshire refractories do a tub or ready-mix stuff, but it's air-setting rather than hydralically setting like the refmix FB sells. I've been told this isn't good for large gaps (like setting the dome and arches). So: do people use the lime/fireclay/sand/mortar mixes or is there some place good in the UK to get a better mix. Or is it okay to use the air-drying premixed stuff?

[nissanneill]

Re: A familiar question of mortar in the UK

Hi Matt,
it doesn't look like you got much response from your enquiry.
I hope that I'm not too late but in my build, I used the poor mans mortar, 1 portland cement, 1 hydrated lime, 1 fireclay and 3 brickie sand.
I thought that the old Italian builders didn't have these modern refractory adhesives and I couldn't be bothered with the 2 types for the small joints and another for the thicker ones.
When I was out at Paul Henderson's home finishing his Pompeii, his brickie was using these adhesives and they were terrible to use instead of what I used. Mine has been in use for over a year and no problems, Cheap, sticky, easy to use and no need to use formwork apart from the last few courses.
Check it out at:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/n...-1-a-2005.html

and follow the prompts.

Neill