Unglazed quarry tiles

[simsavage]

Hi I am thinking of using 2 layers of unglazed quarry tiles on the floor of my oven instead of fire bricks...any thoughts ? I am in the South of England and there is no where to buy Fire Bricks apart from a few company's up North at ?2 each + p+p...

I am also going to use red bricks...yes I know, I have read all the threads on this, but I know there are lots of people having the same quandry as me, they have probably read the Russel Jeavons 'Your brick oven' and thought.... well it seems to work okay for the Aussies surely it will work in the UK.

Well if it goes tits up I will post a thread so everyone will know, its gettin a bit cold here in Hastings so may have to wait till the Spring to finish...

any way any thoughts on the quarry tiles?

[blackjimmy]

Re: Unglazed quarry tiles

Hey,

I realise this is quite late, but just thought I'd reply in case you did postpone your build to the spring. I used exactly what you are suggesting in my oven, two layers of unglazed tiles with a thin layer of mortar between.. mine were terracotta which seems to be an excellent surface as it's very porous (sucks water up like a sponge!) and is happy with high temps. So far my oven floor is doing wonderfully.. it probably doesn't look anywhere near as nice as a herringbone brick pattern would, but I'm quite happy with it.

I also used red clay bricks instead of firebricks. Apart from one small brick shard that came off during one of the curing fires, I haven't had any problems.

I'm sure that an oven built with firebrick is superior, but by how much I don't know. If firebricks are hard to get I would definitely suggest you go with regular brick. I also actually couldn't use refractory mortar because of availability issues so I just used regular portland. Although it's been fine so far, I'm the most concerned about the mortar for longevity as I read that constant cycling of temperatures can break it down.. but so far so good.

In short, just build to your budget and to the materials that you can get. A WFO is always better than no WFO! no matter if it doesn't look as nice. I wish I had enough money that I was able to drop ?5000+ on building an oven like some of the guys on here! But I'm still really happy with my oven, it performs great, cooks beautifully, and came in at under ?100!

[simsavage]

Re: Unglazed quarry tiles

Black Jimmy I bloody love you, that is exactly what I wanted to hear...havent touched the thing for a while too wet now. I did a job recently which required the disposal of an old storage heater....loads of bricks out of that baby....might hunt for some more in the local rag, free fire bricks.

Thanks for the reply.


Sim-Savage

[nissanneill]

Re: Unglazed quarry tiles

simsavage
before you use your salvaged red bricks, select a couple of what I would call the poorer ones and hit them with a sledge hammer. If they crumble and fall apart, don't use them, but if they break into hard pieces, then they will be fine.
Some of the old red bricks that were further from the heat source, are not suitable and will shard on you and your tucker within. Only use the hard ones.
A good way will be to cut a shallow groove into the brick and then using a brickies bolster (a wide chisel) cut hen with a single hard sharp hit. If it breaks nice and clean, use it, if it crumbles a little, then cast those 2 halves aside.

Neill

[simsavage]

Re: Unglazed quarry tiles

Yes I will do that...
cheers mate

Sim-Savage

[Alomran]

Re: Unglazed quarry tiles

Hey,

I realise this is quite late, but just thought I'd reply in case you did postpone your build to the spring. I used exactly what you are suggesting in my oven, two layers of unglazed tiles with a thin layer of mortar between.. mine were terracotta which seems to be an excellent surface as it's very porous (sucks water up like a sponge!) and is happy with high temps. So far my oven floor is doing wonderfully.. it probably doesn't look anywhere near as nice as a herringbone brick pattern would, but I'm quite happy with it.

I also used red clay bricks instead of firebricks. Apart from one small brick shard that came off during one of the curing fires, I haven't had any problems.

I'm sure that an oven built with firebrick is superior, but by how much I don't know. If firebricks are hard to get I would definitely suggest you go with regular brick. I also actually couldn't use refractory mortar because of availability issues so I just used regular portland. Although it's been fine so far, I'm the most concerned about the mortar for longevity as I read that constant cycling of temperatures can break it down.. but so far so good.

In short, just build to your budget and to the materials that you can get. A WFO is always better than no WFO! no matter if it doesn't look as nice. I wish I had enough money that I was able to drop ?5000+ on building an oven like some of the guys on here! But I'm still really happy with my oven, it performs great, cooks beautifully, and came in at under ?100!

I am grateful for your advice, is your red brick oven still OK? no cracks, God forbids!!
I want to build an oven using red bricks and have stopped my work due to the doubts casted by what has been mentioned on using anything other than fire bricks.