Checking on brick specs

[TKLEO]

Greetings friends.

I have a local brick manufacturer, Pine Hall Bricks, and they have two kinds of fire bricks: a standard brick and a paver. The standard brick is roughly the size of the bricks suggested on here for building an oven. I have one of each at home. They are not, to my mind, too expensive. But how do I find out if they are up to specs for an oven? What information should I seek from Pine Hall to verify?

Please be gentle with the language. I've never, ever, done anything with bricks.

Thanks.

[Gulf]

Hi TKLEO,

Welcome to the forum. A standard size firebrick will be 9" X 4.5" X 2.25". Most firebrick sold by local brick yards are rated for residential fierplaces. They are usually minimum / low duty and they will work just fine for a WFO. Brick referred to as "pavers" are not a firebrick. Though, I have seen firebrick used as pavers by some. I did a quick search for Pine Hall Firebrick and found this hit. It is for a 4" X 8" X 2.25" firebrick. Since you have both in hand, and I assume that Pine Hall told you that they were both firebrick, then the "paver" you refer to is the 4" X 8" brick. Standard fiebrick are molded, which makes them all a uniform size. The only 4" X 8" that I am familiar with are extruded and are wire cut. They are not uniform. In my experience, they are fine for the dome, but not for the inner arch nor the oven floor. You should be able to get a material data sheet for each of the brick that you have from Pine Hall. When you get it, reply back with the alumina numbers.

I hope this helps.

[TKLEO]

Hello Joe! Thanks for the welcome. I suspect my planned build will be along, slow slog, so I suspect I'll meet more than a few people on here.

I contacted Pine Hall and was not able to get an alumina 4x8 brick. The salesperson had two spec sheets and we spent 20 minutes together and she could not find a definitive alumina spec. What I found online was confirmed by her and that is this: The firebrick have a PCE Value of 17 (2754 degrees F).

Tammy (the rep) said people have used these bricks for any kind of wood burning application: fireplaces indoor and out, pizza ovens, etc. So logically I can't imagine a pizza fire exceeding 1000 degrees very often, if ever, do a 2754 degree brick seems reasonable.

On another hand, I wonder where in my neck of the woods I would find a 9x4.5x2.25 fire brick. It is a curiosity.

Thanks for any and all replies.

[Gulf]

I wonder where in my neck of the woods I would find a 9x4.5x2.25 fire brick. It is a curiosity.

Probably most any brick yard in your area other than Pine Hall. 9"X4.5" is the standard size for firebrick. (The thickness can vary from 2.25" to 2.5" depending on the manufacturer) Pine Hall makes their own 4"X8" firebrick in Fairmount, Ga. From their pdf, they appear to be wire cut to me. My dome is built from 4"X8" wire cut firebrick. If I were to do the research, I bet that they are from the same plant. My dome has served me well. I'm sure that they will be just fine for your build. I just found many of them to be, for a lack of a better term, "warped". For my floor, I opted for the standard size which are molded/pressed. They were a lot more uniform for my floor appication. Later, I regretted not using the 9"X4.5" for my inner arch. The 8" brick did not extend far enough into my dome. That led me to splicing the inner brick arch to keep from having a beaver tail. A beaver tail is not really a problem, It's just not what I wanted.