Mortar

[Gassman]

Hello all, im new here from Michigan. Im getting ready to build my first oven. Finally found fireclay for my homebrew and long story short the guy at the shop said its proven fireclay is unnecessary and what i really need is a high heat mortar. I dont think we were on the same page. Did i miss something or is he just trying to sell his mortar? Thanks, mark

[david s]

I think the guy at the shop is trying to make a sale or is ill informed about wood fired ovens. The calcium aluminate based products contain high temperature aggregates capable of withstanding double the temperature that we use, so it’s really overkill. In addition the cement hardens very quickly reducing working time greatly. If it begins to harden and you add more water to make it workable then you risk failure of the product.
You could mount a case for using it for the top third of the dome which sees higher temperatures, but builders haven’t reported failures there so that’s probably unnecessary.

The homebrew of 3:1:1:1 has proved time and again a far more suitable mix which is adequate for our temperatures, far more user friendly working time, extremely cheap and with easily obtainable materials.

[Gassman]

Thank you. I will continue as planned with the homebrew