Insulating Blanket and Vermiculite

[dinoforno]

I about to insulate this Pizza Oven and have read thru the plans enough to understand that I really did not need the Vermiculite I bought if I was planning to have 3 in of blanket around the oven. If I have 3 in of blanket and I want to add the Vermiculitte anyway do you add this stuff mixed with cement or will loose be just fine around the blanket and the open areas of the oven?

I have surrounded my oven with 4 in block instead of using steal studs as I have seen here. I plan on facing the entire oven in the spring as it is getting a little cold to do a stone veneer or stone work around the entire oven. I want to at least just enclose the roof and make sure the oven s insulated properly. I just do not want to ruin the insulated blanket with wet Vermiculitte Mortar Mix. Thoughts and comments?

Dino

[nissanneill]

Re: Insulating Blanket and Vermiculite

Dino,

If I have 3 in of blanket and I want to add the Vermiculitte anyway do you add this stuff mixed with cement or will loose be just fine around the blanket and the open areas of the oven?

This will be all that is needed! 1" of the superwool blanket is equivalent to 2" of vermiculite cement! By all means, if you have the vermiculite spare, then you can add that to your enclosure but you might need some metal bent around the corners to keep it where it will do the most good rather than insulating the further corners and wasted. The top of the dome gets the most heat, so that is where you should place all your blanket offcuts as the lose vermiculite won't stay in place there!

Neill

[dinoforno]

Re: Insulating Blanket and Vermiculite

Once again thanks Neil!

Yeah I got enough room around the oven for 3" of blanket and I thought of the corners as well as I would not want to waste it there either. I just wanted to make sure that loose would be fine. Everything I see or read shows a mix of the vermiculite and mortar over the blanket. I believe that was with less insulating blanket.

I started the second day of fire tonight. So i will keep going to increase heat as I go and see how it goes. I am suprised how well it keeps the heat with just the coat of hs50 cement on it.

Dino

[SCChris]

Re: Insulating Blanket and Vermiculite

Loose Vermiculite is reported to be R-2 to R-2.5 per inch, Rockwool R-3 to R-4 per inch, Fiberglass R-2.5 to R-4.5 per inc. This info is from the magizine Fine Homebuilding..
I don't know how the super-wool would rate, I'd bet at the 4 range, I'd hope for better. I'm sure it lays better over the dome shape than the rockwool and because of the organic binders in fiberglass the super-wool looks to be the best product for contact with the dome. I used rockwool and the price was great, but the flexability of the product I used wasn't what I hoped for. This said, I made it work and will have full results soon.



Chris