Hi all, I am just getting ready to start my first oven build project and have been doing a bit of reading round this forum, as well as others and books on oven building. I have decided to go with a brick oven, with a barrel-vault design, as it seems the simplest and strongest to build and I make a fair amount of bread as well as pizza. I have sourced a load of reclaimed clay bricks (from a Victorian chimney) for the oven floor and roof, as well as most of the other materials. However I could do with a bit of advice on a couple of points:
1) Brick roof design. I would like to make the roof as strong as possible, so the structure will last and so I don't have to waste time, expense and additional heat sink on coating the roof in structural concrete. I have seen a few discussions and the odd photo of brick roofs made with offset bricks, so integrally tying into one another, but I can't find any infirmation/photos of how to tie the first row into the back wall, or whether this is necessary. I have thought that I could tie in the centre brick and the two end bricks into the wall, would this be enough? Also from my basic bricklaying experince (watching other people!) would a simple system of offsetting the bricks alternatively, so tying in every other one be enough to give additional strength?;
2) Fire brick mortar recipe. I would like to make my own fire brick mortar, to bind the bricks. Again I have seen a number of recipes, with or without Portland Cement and/or Lime, but have not come across a definitive answer. I have bought a large bag of Hydrated Lime, Portland, building sand, stone dust and can get some clay dust too. Has anyone got a decent recipe for make-your-own fire brick mortar, which is sticky enough to hold the bricks in laying, but low enough in Portland cement not to degrade with the heat of firing.
As you can probably tell from my posting I have little direct building experince, I do work in the building trade (as an environmental consultant) so have seen plenty of building done and am sure I can apply myself, but I have little actual experince of laying bricks - so would be grateful if the replies could be in nice simple laymans terms - nothing too technical - I do hope to get a bricklayer mate of mine to help me with the basics, but he has no brick oven experince!
Am looking forward to your replies and learned information, so I can put the last pieces of my project together and get started!
Thanks Col
1) Brick roof design. I would like to make the roof as strong as possible, so the structure will last and so I don't have to waste time, expense and additional heat sink on coating the roof in structural concrete. I have seen a few discussions and the odd photo of brick roofs made with offset bricks, so integrally tying into one another, but I can't find any infirmation/photos of how to tie the first row into the back wall, or whether this is necessary. I have thought that I could tie in the centre brick and the two end bricks into the wall, would this be enough? Also from my basic bricklaying experince (watching other people!) would a simple system of offsetting the bricks alternatively, so tying in every other one be enough to give additional strength?;
2) Fire brick mortar recipe. I would like to make my own fire brick mortar, to bind the bricks. Again I have seen a number of recipes, with or without Portland Cement and/or Lime, but have not come across a definitive answer. I have bought a large bag of Hydrated Lime, Portland, building sand, stone dust and can get some clay dust too. Has anyone got a decent recipe for make-your-own fire brick mortar, which is sticky enough to hold the bricks in laying, but low enough in Portland cement not to degrade with the heat of firing.
As you can probably tell from my posting I have little direct building experince, I do work in the building trade (as an environmental consultant) so have seen plenty of building done and am sure I can apply myself, but I have little actual experince of laying bricks - so would be grateful if the replies could be in nice simple laymans terms - nothing too technical - I do hope to get a bricklayer mate of mine to help me with the basics, but he has no brick oven experince!
Am looking forward to your replies and learned information, so I can put the last pieces of my project together and get started!
Thanks Col
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