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**UtahBeehiver** · 10-30-2017, 07:58 AM

Since time and money and wet saw are limiting factors, why are you not wanting to consider cast ovens? Some are commercial pre-cast, others DIY cast, actually one of the best cast experts in David S out of Queensland and he is willing to share his knowledge freely on this forum. Fire brick ovens are very time and labor intensive (I know, I did one) I understand how expensive fire brick or in general material cost are in the Southern Hemi. There have been several kits developed in Aussie land, not sure they are truly precut fire brick, only in the general sense. The cost of the project are not only the oven, but the base, finish coating and overhead structure (if you have one), etc.

**BanjoOgre** · 10-30-2017, 02:15 PM

Thanks for the reply, I should have been a bit more clear, it’s not just the time involved with cutting my own bricks - it’s also the mess and dust. We live in one of the newer suburbs in South Australia - which for better or worse has fallen into the trend here of much smaller block/land sizes - which means not only is room a bit more tight in our yard (although it’s plenty big enough for us at the moment) but it also means we are very close to neighbors and I don’t really want the hassle of having dust everywhere to clean up in our yard and don’t want to inconvenience the neighbors with the dust and noise whilst cutting a couple of hundred bricks. My daughter is 2 and I have another baby on the way with the mrs. 18 weeks pregnant so don’t want to say to the little one she can’t come out in the yard on weekends when she wants to play because it’s like a construction site with dust and noise everywhere.

I am am looking forward to the actual construction and challenge of actually building the oven. I like to have projects like this to keep me busy - I’ve just about finished landscaping the yard from scratch after we built the house two years ago and I’ve always said since we decided to build and plan the house I want to cap off all of the landscaping work with my own brick wood fired oven I build myself.

ive known quite a few people who have had cast ovens and regret not going brick and I don’t want to be one of them. Whether they just got a bad oven, or went through shoddy companies I don’t know but I’ve heard nothing but positive reviews from people with Bri k ovens and nothing but negative experiences or regrets with cast ovens.

**UtahBeehiver** · 10-30-2017, 02:25 PM

You probably need to review the builds on this forum, there are good brick and not so good brick ovens as well as good cast and not so good cast ovens. Like I mentioned, David S is one of our casting expert, he also does this as a business. That said, brick or cast, they are time and labor intensive. Here is link of one of our founding members "cast" oven, even though mobile, the concept works as well as a stationary. His original build was a brick oven as well. https://community.fornobravo.com/for...-s-mobile-oven.

**fnbroken** · 10-31-2017, 12:07 AM

I looked at doing a cast one...then the various kits available...and then full DIY. The kit from MFB Co. is pretty good value if you ask me.

I'm planning on having all my materials shipped to Canberra from them later this year - but im going full DIY. Saves about $500 over the kit.

And yes, everything here is expensive lol.

re: the kit your looking at - check the brick sizes and alumina content. You will find that they are using much cheaper quality materials and less of it....

**JRPizza** · 10-31-2017, 09:30 AM

Also, if you can get your hands on a wet saw, dust from brick cutting should not be an issue. You do end up with mud/slurry you have to dispose of and you need to hose off the saw at the end of the day, but you can confine that mess to a much smaller footprint.

**Steady** · 11-08-2017, 08:58 PM

I'm not answering your question sorry - but as someone who went for the MFB kit, all I can do is say I am happy with the decision.
There isn't much I would change, but one thing would be a second layer of calsil under the floor (Kit comes with one x 50mm).

**BanjoOgre** · 11-19-2017, 04:59 AM

Thanks all for the replies. Im still undecided on the type of kit/build but think Ive finally settled on size. I love the melb fire brick kits but budget really just cant stretch that far. Ive since been in touch with field furnace and Sydney Firebricks who both have some great looking kits at a price that is a little
more budget friendly.

Id happily go full diy if I could get hold of a decent Brick/wet saw but the prices are crazy for a one-off project. Ill keep trawling gumtree and see if I can find any decent second hand ones while I plan things. In hindsight I should have got one before I started all of the paving around the house and got some good use out of it - but by that logic I should have also bought a compactor as I hired that enough while paving around the house!

Its really frustrating not having somewhere I can buy things locally as ideally Id like to be buying it in stages to help eleviate the need to have to outlay such a massive amount of money in one go!

In in the meantime I did decide that the oven will be 1000mm internal diameter which I figure is going to be a good size if I ultimately decide to go with a Sydney fire brick or field furnace kit or if I go full diy. Having decided that I did manage to actually physically start something today! Ive dug our and laid the first course of rubble for my base slab. 1900x1550mm sonthat should be plenty big enough. Getting a plate compactor from the big green shed next week to whack it all down so I can frame it up and get the reinforcing material in before pouring in the next few weeks.

Feels good to to at least have something started - even if not everything has been sorted as yet.

**UtahBeehiver** · 11-19-2017, 08:21 AM

With a 1000mm ID oven (39" for us Yanks) the 1550 dimension is going to be quite close and maybe not enough. You may need to factor in a cantilever overhand on the hearth pour so you have some room to work with. Assuming the front is on the 1550 side you have 1000 id for oven, 220 mm for brick walls, 220 vent chamber +/- (with a 39" oven you might get by with a 150mm chimney so the vent chamber could be shallower , min 50mm on fence side insulation, finish coating??,110 mm for outer arch., zero mm available for any landing. It will be a little difficult to work on the back side by the fence but others have done it.

Update,

If the front of the oven is on the long leg then there may be enough width for a 1000mm oven depending on the insulation and final coating material.

**fnbroken** · 11-22-2017, 02:43 PM

Hey buddy, I went and looked at the kit from Sydney. I think you will be disappointed in the quality at the end of the day. You can get a lot done before needing to order the kit - so I would save up the extra coin to get the better one. Freight charges are based on half and full pallets - perhaps you can get half the kit now and the other half later when your ready?

**BanjoOgre** · 11-22-2017, 10:02 PM

Thanks heaps for the feedback on the Sydney ovens, what about them did you not like? I don’t need to make them exactly the same as their plans if I got their ‘uncut’ kit – I would have some kind of creative licence, so long as the bricks and materials are of a high quality I’d be fine? The bricks do seem to be the right kind of Fire Bricks and the Cal Sil board and the ceramic fibre insulation seems standard.

I honestly couldn’t stretch the budget any further to get the more expensive kit. I’m pushing things as it is. $2000 is about the max I can stretch. Melbourne Fire Brick kit is close to 3k with shipping. Unless I can get some extra freelance work I just won’t be able to get close to that!

Like you’ve said though I do still have some time to decide, I’ll get the slab poured in the next couple of weeks (I’ll be raiding some building site skip bins around my area to get the reinforcing mesh this week! – but I’ll have to go and buy some rebar at the right size)

Then I’ll have to find some cheap or second hand blocks for the base. Plenty of time to make a decision on what to do. Plus I might pick up a cheap we-cut saw in the meantime if I see one for sale.

Utah Beaver – the opening will be on the 1500mm side. I can’t go any wider because I still need to leave room against the fence for hole to dig in a pergola post and stormwater pipe (the one in the pics will be moving closer to the fence eventually!)

I’ve done some calculations and it should fit on a 1500mm bench top, I did plan on overhanging the top of the bench slab at the front by 200mm but I may also do the edges as per your suggestions just to be on the safe side, even if I add as little as 70mm that will be helpful as I’m not 100% sure how to finish the render yet, I was thinking of a mosaic tile effect which would add around 10mm to the sides.

**BanjoOgre** · 02-23-2020, 04:29 AM

Soooo – it's been a few years, had a couple of kids, changed jobs and FINALLY have my kit ready to go.

I ended up getting the Murex Forno pizza oven kit, 900mm internal. Before Christmas they had a good special and got the kit shipped form NSW to SA for $1100 which seemed incredible value. YES, there are tradeoffs with this kit but nothing I don't think I can work with. I do love the fact the kit has cast arch bricks, 5 large bricks to make the inner and 5 for the outer arch makes a much easier build for a novice like me (or so I hope will be the case). I also love the circular cast chimney brick that the flue will eventually sit in.

The biggest tradeoff so far though has been lack of proper instructions. I keep just getting sent some scribbled notes and pictures of their own commercial builds at different stages of completion for reference, which gives me a little bit of an idea, along with all of the help I'm getting reading this forum.

I'm at the stage now where I've spent the last few weekends building the base – and today I poured the slab. Went with 130mm reinforced concrete for the bench top slab. My biggest question for next week is going to be how to insulate under the floor and the dome and landing area. The kit came with several 300x300mm x 70mm deep insulating bricks for under the floor (see photo). I don't know much more about them, and I can't seem to get any more info from the company. They just say they are what they use in their commercial builds recessed into the concrete BUT say to cut the blocks to just fit under the oven floor not the dome. Which seems weird to me, they said they lay their dome bricks onto the concrete slab – which I don't think (from what I've read) is the right thing to do.

So now I'm thinking of using the insulating blocks they have sent under the floor, recessed into a vermiculite concrete slab I'll put ontop of my reinforced concrete slab. I'm thinking a total slab height of 90mm for the vermiculite – which would give me 20mm under the insulated floor blocks to allow me to get them perfectly level, that will leave the outer dome with 90mm vermiculite concrete under it. If I mix vermiculite at 5:1 from what I've read that will have enough compressive strength. Is this correct?

I'm trying to not have to buy anything additional that'll be super expensive – vermiculite I can spring $40–45 on a bag but around $100+ for CalSil board might be stretching the budget a bit far. Would my solution in anyones opinion still be enough insulation?