Got these firebricks, how should I build a pizza oven with them?

[UtahBeehiver]

Sometimes you have to recharge the oven floor after cooking a lot of pizzas. You rake the coals back over the cooking area for a while then clear the area and start cooking again. It takes several firings for the oven to get completely cured of water and each firing the oven performs better.

[david s]

If the oven has only just cleared at the top of the arch, it is not hot enough for pizza. The whole of the inside of the oven needs to be clear of soot. With my oven I like to give it around another 20 mins of firing after the whole oven has cleared. Every oven is different though and as Russell has suggested your oven is still probably not dry enough yet. Getting all the moisture out from under the floor is the hardest. Try the semolina test. Cast about a 1/4 teaspoon of semolina onto the floor. It should take 3 secs to go black. 2 secs= too hot, 4 secs= too cold. Also because yours is a high barrel arch the vault is a long way from the floor, making it more difficult for the floor to pick up heat from the arch. The Neapolitan or low arch design, which is specifically designed for pizza, gets its floor heated from the low dome more easily.

[Fizz]

Six months later ...

I removed the insulation (rock wool) to see how last year fires and the winter has treated my owen ... I knew i had some cracks, but not this many ...
There´s cracks everywhere ... But it´s holding together still ..

I was planning to add a layer of bricks on top of the curved bricks, but now I´m wondering if it´s a good idea to add weight ....

Maybe it´s better to use thinner fire brick, and laying them in the other direction as the curved brick? Or maybe it´s better to add a 15-20 mm thick layer of some sort of vermicrete mix?

Any ideas?

[Fizz]

And a pizza pic. of course ..

Not the best shape, but I did manage to learn how to fire the owen right, and got pretty far on making good dough for pizza napoletana, last year ... This season I´m aiming for the sauce ..

[Les]

I've seen some oven with far worse cracks. I would cover the brick with the blanket and move on. As far as the shape of your pizza, never changes the taste ;-)

[Fizz]

I've seen some oven with far worse cracks. I would cover the brick with the blanket and move on. As far as the shape of your pizza, never changes the taste ;-)

Thanks for the reply! (the last margherita I made before winter was awesome!)

Some of the bricks are loose, but it doesn't feel like it´ll fall apart .. I think I´ll stick to the original plan of adding some support at the base, and maybe a single row of thin fire brick at the top of the dome ...

[Fizz]

This is how far I´ve gotten ...