leveling oven floor

[irelande5]

Howdy folks,

Received my FB boards, and they are not level in regards to height, have areas that rise and valleys. I have dry stacked my herringbone pattern, and believe there are too many bricks that are not level in regards to each other (varies, but not higher than 1/8" in most spots).

I read many threads on what to use, fire clay/sand, but cannot locate fire clay here in Ohio without a special order and large cost of shipping.

I have heat stop 50 for mortar that I will be using for build, so I will not use the clay for any other purpose.

I tried using just fine sand, but it seems to float the bricks around while setting others, and gets in between bricks, not letting them sit flat together.

I purchased a higher temp clay here in town, it comes in 50# blocks, used for pottery, not sure the exact name, but thought that could be used by adding water and creating a thick slurry, (it comes like pliable putty)then adding find sand, then troweling on as recommended.

I have also seen threads using heat stop/sand instead of fire clay/sand, but also seen that you do not want to mortar down floor.

I am building a 42" oven, have the stand already made, I will be building the dome directly on oven floor.

Any thoughts/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Pat

[Tscarborough]

Re: leveling oven floor

You can use a thick or thin slurry of the HS just fine for an 1/8" +/-. There is no particular reason not to mortar the floor down anyway if you are building the dome on top of the hearth brick.

[david s]

Re: leveling oven floor

If you can access plastic clay from a potteries supplier then they should also have powdered clay, any type should be OK. The advantage of not using mortar is that the floor bricks are easily replaceable down the track should you need to do so, although the bricks on the perimeter will be permanent because your dome sits on them. Any brick that needs to be replaced will almost certainly be one nearer the centre or nearer the door.

[deejayoh]

Re: leveling oven floor

If you are going to be cutting your floor bricks then you can just use the fireclay that comes from that or from cutting the bricks from your first course. Cut the bricks, clean out your saw tray, and mix it with the sand. You don't even need to let it dry. And you definitely won't need any more fireclay than you get from cutting your bricks if you are using the HS

[Tscarborough]

Re: leveling oven floor

Mortar won't stick well to the cal-sil board anyway.

[irelande5]

Re: leveling oven floor

Thanks for your time and advice, this is a great forum, looking forward to building the oven finally! Take care, pat