POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

[vermont oven]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I used 220 fire bricks on my 36 " oven and lbs of mortar

[smallholder123]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I am about to start a 54 inch oven and i hope i have my sums right as i have only ordered 300 bricks for the dome and flue will be starting a new thread soon with start date and plans these are 230x114x76 bricks and reading these post it looks like i might be short any thoughts??

[SCChris]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

The North American brick size, 2.25 by 4.5 by 9, seems to be unique as I would guess are UK sizes. I look forward to you thread and build..

Chris.

[smallholder123]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

[QUOTE=SCChris;88454]For fun I ran some quick calcs.

ok wow what fun .. gave me a head ache wow ok how about this then 230x114x76 first course standing up full brick alll the rest half bricks no cutting just half bricks ???? and your thoughts on the base cooking floor 4 1/2 thick insulating bricks 4 1/2 thick vermiculite slabe 2 inches supporting slab 4 inches too much overkill??? or NICE ?? dome 4 1/2 then a coat of fire clay then a insulating brick cover of 4 1/2 inches is this enough?

[SCChris]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

The floor and the dome need the thermal mass of the firebrick, this is what moderates and maintains the temps. 4.5 inches of firebrick, not insulating brick or building brick, on the floor is mostly felt to be overkill unless you're doing a great deal of bread and need the oven to provide many hours of baking. For Pizza 2.25 on the floor and 4.5 in the dome is plenty of mass and if you insulate with 4" inches of vermiculite over 4 to 5 inches of reinforced concrete, you should be good. One thing that comes to mind is that with an oven of the size you described in your other thread, about 60 inches if I remember correctly, you might want to beef this thickness up or better have some mid-span support. Forgive me for identifying different brick types but some readers don't yet know about the differences.

Have you downloaded the instruction PDF for building an oven?

Chris

PS I'll move further conversation to your thread in the commercial section.

[Wesleckner]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I built a 42" oven with the FB kit about 140 bricks. I used 1/2 bricks for the first six course and tapered every other brick starting with the 4th course. When the bottom angle started to increase the size of the mortar joints at the bottom of the brick I started to taper the edges and angle the bricks, About the 7th chain I started using 3", then 2 1/4, the 2 1/4 bricks worked better than the 3 inch, because the 3 inch bricks seemed to line up on the lower joints more often.

All in all when my vent arch and landing was complete I had two bricks left over, but needed to use them and purchase 4 more to secure the vent plate.

I used 250 lbs of mortar and still need to make some home brew to finish the vent. The angle of my mortar joints was about 3/4" on the outside.

[smallholder123]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

i think we are going to end up with a 54 inch cooking floor made from fire bricks 9x4.1/2 x 2 1/2 on there side under a insulatig brick 9x4 1/2x3/4 and then a vermiculite slab 4 inches over a 4 inch slab support hows that add up we will be using overnight thermal mass to cook slow roast and such sorry my first figs are a bit out but the bricks are ordered the dome is 4 1/2 x4 1/2 x3 with a further 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3 is this enough dome mass ??

[BarryKeith]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

280 for my 42" cutting into third after 6th row.

[Uncle-Honky]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

My oven is 32 inches wide by 36 inches deep. I used 240 fire bricks, in the construction of it. The majority of the bricks were kept square, although some had to be "wedge" cut for the arches.

The road to a wood fired oven - Smoked-Meat.com

[Ken524]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

42" Pompeii. All bricks custom cut. 295 bricks and (2) 50 pound bags of HeatStop50 mortar.

[Procy A]

Hello from Philippines.I am new in the community, thanks for finding this. I am planning to create an oven with 48 inches diameter...how many bricks of 2x4x4 inches will i use including the arc? Thanks a lot...

[mongota]

Edit and rewrote as someone asked for a more detailed breakdown:

I built a 42" inside diameter dome.

The dome floor is herringbone pattern. The landing tunnel floor is a running bond pattern.

Building the dome I only tapered the sides of the bricks to eliminate the 'inverted V' between bricks as the courses increased in height. I did not taper the top or bottom surfaces. I started with half-bricks for the lower courses and moved to third as I went higher.

On the landing tunnel, I used more bricks than most due to how I overlapped the tunnel arch with the dome arch. While the interior depth of my tunnel is 1-1/2 bricks or about 13-1/2", the outside length of the tunnel was a longer due to the desired overlap. Had I made the tunnel a true 1-1/2" bricks deep with no overlap, I could have used approximately 10 fewer bricks. It was a conscious decision to use more bricks.

For the chimney plate transition, I used 12 bricks on edge for the transition from the arched top of the landing tunnel to the flat surface upon which to mount the chimney anchor plate. I had one layout where I could have used 6 bricks instead of 12, but again, I chose 12.

All together, I used about 290 bricks, but as noted above, I could have used 16 fewer brick, or about 274. The dimensions of the bricks I used were 2-1/4" x 4-1/2" x 9".

I did a full length taper on the sides of the dome bricks, this allowed for less mortar in the dome. Doing a partial taper, just at the interior face, would result in using fewer bricks, but more mortar to fill the outside of the joint. So you can build with fewer brick.

[Baza]

Hey Everyone! Interesting read this!

I'm completing a 42" oven.
I ordered 210 and got the floor, dome and arch completed with that and 14 left over.
Very little waste (one bucket full of cuttings).
I have yet to complete my vent and chimney assembly ... I got 20 more just to be safe - it should be enough based on my plans.
So - 244 or so to complete.

I did not buy tapered bricks - with great angst - I cut them all. I did not taper the bottoms - just the sides.
Went to thirds between rows 8-11.

Hope this helps!
Barry