cast oven floor

[sgoldstrohm]

OK. I screwed up. I built my oven on a wing and a prayer and it did great for about 4 years. My "fire clay" sucked, cracked and caved eventually (well, luckily it did not completely cave, but a brick fell out of the roof). It is a hybrid oven with a larger opening but a Pompeii dome (I wanted to make sure I could bake other things, including a Turkey for the last four years). I know now that I will be using HeatStop for my mortar now unless something better has come up. I do not mean to start a new thread on fire mortar. Lets just say, unless there has been a universal agreement that there is something better, then I am using HeatStop 50 for my mortar. My main question comes from something I have wanted to do since I made the oven originally. I was lucky enough to find some firebricks that were 10" square that I used for my base. They are great, but I think it would be great to have a seamless base. I get into trouble now and then with the seams in the brick so can I use some of the commercially available high heat casting material to pour over my base to get a solid, unseamed surface? I know it is going to be a problem if it is too thin, but I do not want to go any thicker than I have to. Now is the time to do it though since I am rebuilding my dome and I have complete access to my floor. I am hoping for some suggestions. Thanks

[Andresfilley]

Re: cast oven floor

i think it might works, some pictures would be nice

[david s]

Re: cast oven floor

Any large casting will want to crack somewhere due to uneven heating. That is why commercial cast ovens are in sections. Cracks don't really matter usually, they just look unsightly. If you cast the floor in one piece it will crack over time. If you don't like the look of it you can cast the floor in a few pieces, but then you're back to a similar situation of having a brick floor.Perhaps you could cast it like concrete and make some grooves in the top in the hope that the cracks will follow where the grooves are.A cast floor will be hard enough, but not as hard as a fired fire brick.It also makes it pretty much impossible to replace the floor unlike loose laid firebrick.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: cast oven floor

I went with three 14"-wide slabs of soapstone in order to end up with only two seams. If the soapstone cracks within (like you) three or four years, I will regret not cutting the slabs into 14" squares, thereby creating control joints.

IMHO, the desire to create a seamless cast floor is admirable, but, unfortunately, impractical.