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Hi everyone,
I’m building a Pompeii-style brick oven and I’m looking for some advice before I go any further.
The oven has an internal dome diameter of about 1 metre. The dome is built from firebricks with refractory mortar from a wood-fired oven / refractory supplier in NSW.
The crack is in the dome wall, in the mortar joint between the bricks. The bricks were soaked before laying.
Build details:
I’ve done about five curing fires. The first one was around 150°C maximum, then I increased each firing by about 60°C. The last fire got to around 450°C.
To be honest, I fired it before insulating the dome because family and friends were putting pressure on me to use the oven, and I probably pushed ahead before the oven was really ready.
The crack started at around 1 mm and has now opened up to about 4 mm at the widest point. It is in the mortar joint between the dome bricks. I’ll attach photos showing the crack from the inside and outside. The crack starts at the soldier course and runs upward however the peak width is around the solider course/layer 1 and 2.
The oven hasn't been fired since I noticed the expansion of the crack to roughly 4 mm which was around 9 months ago, the crack hasn't expanded since. I should also note that I did notice smoke leaking from the crack, smaller smoke leaks were also detected on a much smaller crack on the other side of the dome.
My main concern is whether this is just a normal curing/mortar joint crack, or whether it means the dome is spreading and I should reinforce or repair it before insulating and rendering. Is this build savagable?
I’ve read online about people using a stainless steel band around the soldier brick course to restrain outward movement. I was wondering whether that is worth considering here. One idea I had was a stainless band around the soldier bricks, possibly connected to steel brackets or supports fixed into the 120 mm concrete support bench. But I’m not sure if that is a good idea, overkill, or potentially a bad idea because of thermal expansion.
My questions are:
Any advice would be really appreciated!
I’m building a Pompeii-style brick oven and I’m looking for some advice before I go any further.
The oven has an internal dome diameter of about 1 metre. The dome is built from firebricks with refractory mortar from a wood-fired oven / refractory supplier in NSW.
The crack is in the dome wall, in the mortar joint between the bricks. The bricks were soaked before laying.
Build details:
- Pompeii-style brick dome oven
- Internal dome diameter: about 1 metre
- Firebrick dome with refractory mortar
- Mortar was supplied by a wood-fired oven / refractory supplier in NSW
- Concrete support bench is about 120 mm thick
- Under-floor insulation is calcium silicate board, either 25 mm or 30 mm thick from memory
- Dome has not yet been wrapped in ceramic fibre blanket
- Dome has not yet been rendered with perlite render
- The dome was fired while still exposed/uninsulated
I’ve done about five curing fires. The first one was around 150°C maximum, then I increased each firing by about 60°C. The last fire got to around 450°C.
To be honest, I fired it before insulating the dome because family and friends were putting pressure on me to use the oven, and I probably pushed ahead before the oven was really ready.
The crack started at around 1 mm and has now opened up to about 4 mm at the widest point. It is in the mortar joint between the dome bricks. I’ll attach photos showing the crack from the inside and outside. The crack starts at the soldier course and runs upward however the peak width is around the solider course/layer 1 and 2.
The oven hasn't been fired since I noticed the expansion of the crack to roughly 4 mm which was around 9 months ago, the crack hasn't expanded since. I should also note that I did notice smoke leaking from the crack, smaller smoke leaks were also detected on a much smaller crack on the other side of the dome.
My main concern is whether this is just a normal curing/mortar joint crack, or whether it means the dome is spreading and I should reinforce or repair it before insulating and rendering. Is this build savagable?
I’ve read online about people using a stainless steel band around the soldier brick course to restrain outward movement. I was wondering whether that is worth considering here. One idea I had was a stainless band around the soldier bricks, possibly connected to steel brackets or supports fixed into the 120 mm concrete support bench. But I’m not sure if that is a good idea, overkill, or potentially a bad idea because of thermal expansion.
My questions are:
- Is this oven salvagable?
- Is this stainless steel band around the soldier course a real solution, I'd prefer to over engineer than to have any doubt of collapse
Any advice would be really appreciated!
Attached Files