Building supplies in NZ

[MarkJerling]

Hi Mark,
Very helpful.
Where did you get your fire bricks from?
cheers

Hi Korbi

All my fire bricks are from night store heaters. People tend to throw out old night store heaters and I did several posts on Neighbourly and picked up night store heaters all over the district for free. I also got a few cheap ($10 etc) on Trademe and a few from friend's sheds.

Most night store heaters have 12 or 16 bricks. Each of these cut in two, so that gives 24 or 32 usable bricks per heater. A few of the heaters had really nice big bricks, 300x220mm, and I used those for the floor. The regular size brick is 230x190mm, and about 40mm thick and I used those for the dome, the door arch and the base of the chimney. I needed about 160 half bricks, 40 for the door arch and about 20 for the floor, so 140 bricks all up, so quite a few heaters! (About 10 heaters)

Check out my build photos for more information.

Regards,
Mark

[MarkJerling]

Hi Mark,
Very helpful.
Where did you get your fire bricks from?
cheers

Hi Korbi

I repurposed old night store heater bricks. Most night store heaters have a very dense brick with a little lip at both ends as that allowed them to run the elements through. Each brick is 230mmx190mm with a thickness of 34mm but, 40mm at the lip. Some have another raised lip in the centre too. I found that if I cut the bricks in half with a diamond bladed tile cutter or grinder, that I could get two bricks from each night store heater brick and if I laid the 40mm thick side to the outside, the 34mm thick side to the inside, I'd get an almost perfect radius for a 42" (1067mm diameter) oven.

How I got the night store heaters is I asked all my friends and also posted in facebook marketplace and on neighbourly, asking if anyone had night store heaters they wanted removed. As expected, there were many lying around in the Wairarapa and I got most of them for free. Each smaller night store heater yields 8 bricks (16 halves) and the big ones usually 12 bricks. (24 halves)

Two large night store heaters were of a different design to the others and they had very large bricks - 395x266x45mm. I used those big ones for the floor. The regular size ones will work fine for the floor too, but the bigger bricks gave me less floor joins.

Good luck with your project!

Kind regards,
Mark

[MarkJerling]

Mastermix in Foxton for Fire Cement. Collect from them as it's much cheaper in bags than getting the tubs couriered.