Hi From Alabama

[Monroe13]

Hello from across the border in the Florida panhandle. Just starting my build (39 ID Pompeii) and would love advice on sourcing materials. I have a quote of about $700 for foamglas, calsil board and ceramic blanket from Distribution International in Mobile. Price is high because I have to order full boxes of each. For firebrick either Acme in Mobile or WR Taylor in Pensacola should have what I need but haven’t priced that yet. Any suggestions for other local sources?

And if anyone in the area has an IT or arch forms, I’d be happy to take those off your hands.

[UtahBeehiver]

With the advent of using tiles on the hearth as the base layer with weep holes, I am not sure that FoamGlas gives you any advantage now (although that is what is used in 2011). The newer ThermoGold 1200 CaSi is water resistance as well. A more budget friendly option would be 5 to 1 pcrete with tiles/weep holes. I snooped around on classifieds/facebook/habitat Restore for materials as well. But it takes time. Here is a pic of a good baseline IT plan from one of our members that is not too difficult to build. The IT has to have the correct design to work correctly.

[Monroe13]

Thanks UtahBeehiver. I actually printed that IT design and added it my planning folder the other day. Not having used the tool it’s hard to know what makes for a good design so I am glad I picked one that comes highly recommended.

I priced out that Thermo-1200 because I do want its water resistance. The 2” thick variety runs $8.40 a sq foot. The foamglass is actually a bit cheaper at $5.76 a square foot for 1.5” thick blocks and if I’m reading the spec sheet right, it has better insulating properties than the calsil (0.14 to 0.54 Btu-in/hr-sq-ft-deg F vs 0.344 to 0.647 Btu-in/hr-sq-ft-deg F for calsil).

So my plan was to use weep holes plus 3” foamglas to keep things dry and for its better insulating value topped by 2” calsil for its higher heat tolerance and compression strength.

With the good price on Foamglas (or maybe it’s a bad price on calsil), does that plan make sense?

[UtahBeehiver]

Looks good, best of all worlds. I would check other refractory suppliers for pricing. DI is not the cheapest but they are a reliable supplier. Also ask if they have open box material as well.