Is sandstone good to be used as the oven floor?

[Barry R]

Hi, I am in the Uk and are in the process of building an oven in my garden and am thinking of using sandstone as the oven floor, is this a good idea? Also I am not keen of having a chimney but instead having a vent at the front of the oven , will this work as well as a chimney?

Thank you

[deejayoh]

Re: Is sandstone good to be used as the oven floor?

sandstone won't take the heat, so I think the answer to that is no.
the chimney is right on top of the vent at the front of the oven - so not sure what you mean by the second question. You need some height to it to get a good draw out of the oven. Unless you are thinking of just having the smoke come out of the front of the oven with no vent. In which case, you may not keep your eyebrows.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Is sandstone good to be used as the oven floor?

No, sandstone is unsuitable for an oven floor. The vent needs to be outside the oven proper, that is to say it should be baffled by the 63% of the door VS dome height.

[rasmushansen]

So, after having read how bad sandstone is for oven floors - I did a test. I heated a sandstone tile for 4 hours at 300 celcius. I made a temporary oven of bricks in and placed hereafter in a heavy fire for 2 hours. I also placed another not pre-headed sandstone in the fire to compare. Conclusion: Both sandstones didn't show any signs of braking or other failure. I cooked a bread on it and it was fine. No dust, sand or anything. The sandstone changed colour to a greyish one a bit like concrete, but kept the heat excellently. Of course, over long time the stone might crack but to be honest it seemed very durable, so I cannot see why you should not try that out. In Morocco they have used sandstone for ovens for centuries. Now, this post is old, so I am curious to know if you tried it out and how it was. Cheers Rasmus