source for light duty firebricks in eastern NC

[CoastalPizza]

Does anyone know of a good supplier of light duty firebricks in the area around Jacksonville, NC (eastern NC, north of Wilmington)? These are for the floor of my planned cast oven.

Thanks, Brian

[dakzaag]

Why are you specifically looking for light duty? Most masonry supply places will carry a decent medium duty fire brick that will work just fine for your oven floor. I cannot recall ever seeing a light duty fire brick. What are you using for the cast refractory?

[CoastalPizza]

Biscotto di Sorrento, the tile used in most Italian traditional ovens, has a thermal conductivity of <.6 W/m-K. It would seem that Whitacre Greer light duty buff firebricks would be the closest match to this and I found a local source - they have thermal conductivity of about 0.7 W/m-K. Most of the medium and heavy duty firebricks are around 1-1.3 W/m-K so, with a 8-900 deck temperature (what is needed to get 45 second cook times on a neapolitan style pizza) the crust would likely be over charred.

I know that there are folks out there that use high thermal conductivity materials like soapstone (~12 W/m-K) for their oven deck - they must have to run at a much lower temperature and cook longer to keep from ending up with a burnt crust.

Many of the home oven stones are made of Cordierite which runs around 3 W/m-K - these work well since most home ovens struggle to get to ~500°F so the higher thermal conductivity means a well done crust over a longer cook time.

[Caliea]

Adams Products in Greenville/Winterville carries light duty firebricks. They've been extremely helpful to me, and can give you product cut sheets that give the materials specs you want. I think there's an Adams in Jacksonville.