Castable instead of tiles

[jewlock]

Has anyone tried casting the floor of oven rather than tile? I can get good hard trowelled finish with light weight castable. Possible?

[david s]

A few years ago Forno Bravo were offering some of their oven models with cast floors and judging from posts on the forum had some warranty issues.
Any large casting made from a castable material is subject to cracking because of uneven heating leading to uneven thermal expansion. Added to this problem is that a calcium aluminate castable is not as durable as fire brick unless it is fired to over 1000 C. Also the material needs to be dense to act as thermal mass. Insulating castable is not suitable as it lacks both strength and thermal mass.