How to convert my oven into a Pizza Oven with fire bricks

[allan_tonky]

Greetings from the Philippines ,

I have an 8 yr old double deck oven that I normally use for bread baking and my question is, would it be ok to add fire bricks on the bottom part of the oven to sort of convert it into a pizza oven? (By the way, it fits about 8 baking trays (12" x 16")). The height of the inside of the oven is about 15" which is high for a standard pizza oven.

I know someone who supplies fire bricks here and suggested me to also purchase a bag of mortar to stick the bricks together. They would also be installing a steel chassis underneath to support the weight of the
bricks.

Would it also make sense to pave the top part of the fire bricks with mortar just to make it smooth once I start baking pizzas like on a pizza stone? My concern is that the bricks may not be leveled and my pizza peel may eventually damage the bricks.

Some have suggested to just place the pizza on a steel pan during baking. But I still prefer to place it on top of the bricks. Currently my oven can only go up to 550 F. I also hope the fire bricks would help increase the temperature inside my oven as well.

Thanks very much for your help.

[windage]

don't use mortar in the joints or on top. you can buy large cast sections to go into pizza deck ovens, I used to have Baker's Prides with stone floors

[alicesmith]

The pizza oven I designed was about 700mm circular internal. this is perhaps as little as you would need to go. If you look at page 58 of the Forno Bravo material there is a components list, which is pretty close to the mark.

I used Littlehampton 70mm solid pavers to create the oven dome. Some people might prefer to use your fire bricks for the dome. the floor of the oven must be firebrick.
These are some hard to find parts:

1. the fire blanket – i eventually got mine from Bradford Insulation.
2. Vermiculite for the insulation under the floor of the oven. These are available from hydroponics shops. One bag was enough for me.

I used a cut out of timber for the inside shape of the oven and this was very useful in obtaining the bricks in the right spot.