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Spot on - and they would have heated them up fairly slowly too, to avoid thermal shock at the beginning of the cycle. If you used them that way the vast bulk of that construction would last for a very long time, but eventually the brick in the firebox would need to be replaced.

Good question! You definitely want to have plenty of thermal mass in your oven floor (which we have here in the form of a 50mm dense fire brick tile) but you also need insulation, otherwise all the heat held in that thermal mass will just escape into the benchtop beneath it, and then into the atmosphere to be lost forever. You're on the right track in wanting a good amount of thermal mass, but it is **critical** to have insulation beneath that, or you will be building something that just won't achieve the floor temperatures that you're after.

So many good questions! Yes, we move the fire to one side before making pizza, and sweep the floor clear of all dust and ash. The side is up to you, I use either interchangably. You can just add one or two small pieces of timber to the bank of coals to keep a small fire burning throughout the cook - you don't actually need flame but if you don't have a small fire burning then the temperature in the oven will slowly start to fall rather than holding at 400C or so

@@TheFireBrickCo Thank you very much for this information. Now we can really get cracking!

The coating on the inside would delaminate from the brickwork over time, shedding off in sections. Refractories are not made for thin coatings unfortunately, you would have to use a 'gunning mix' and apply it about 100mm thick, which would be more expensive than just using fire brick in the first place

Hahaha! Not quite, it would have been in a few more seconds I think

Great question Debby! Actually we sweep the floor of the oven carefully before we put the pizza in, to make sure that the ash is removed before the pizza hits the floor

It's not - but the weight of the oven is so great that even once the floor tiles are down it is almost impossible to shift it by pushing on it. Calsil is like chalk, so there is very little out there that will bond to it, but thankfully that isn't necessary

I think you are talking about our PreCast Flue Gallery? We pour fibre reinforced refractory castable into molds in our factory in Melbourne, let it set and then remove and finish the parts.

Thank you! Yep it works brilliantly if you're organised enough to build that next fire - future you will be ever so grateful if you do!

No problems! That was one of our PreCut Brick Oven Kits, it comes with all of the bricks cut to size, ready to lay.

Every single refractory material on the planet is porous unfortunately, so a Wood Fired Oven is essentially a big sponge waiting to absorb rain-water. If you've built it under a roof with sidings to prevent rain blowing in sideways then that would be a good start, plus you could put a tarpaulin over the oven in the case of a severe storm. Another method you could think about would be to build the oven into an enclosure, so that only the opening of the oven is visible. Then it is a pretty simple matter of making a cover for that opening that wouldn't allow any water through. I'm really glad you're thinking about this issue, because you're absolutely right, water freezing in the oven can cause damage that we want you to avoid. Feel free to give us a call to discuss your build further, we will be happy to help however we can!

Thank you so much! We get quite a few comments from folks thinking our kits are a bit highly priced, when we are doing our level best to make a really good quality product at a reasonable price. But until you've actually built one from scratch it's hard to understand how much it can cost

Older pressed bricks seem to have a better tolerance for high temperatures than more modern ones, but they still share the same basic properties as a solid pressed brick, they're just not created with really high temperatures in mind.

You're very welcome!

Cheers!

Oh thank you so much!!

Thank you!! Hopefully we can be of help in your next project!

Cheers!

I love it - as long as they're being supervised by a responsible adult I say GO FOR IT! Your son will absolutely love it I am sure!

@@TheFireBrickCo Well let's face the simple truth, us rowdy boys (and gals), didn't listen to reason no matter how reasonable our parents sounded. After all, we still need to find out ourselves that fire is somehow hot 😂 So I have no problem having my son give himself a nice burn to find out the same. I guess it's also responsible to stand back sometimes. Completely sheltering kids from the world isn't a good strategy either.

Hi, great question! Definitely don't just use normal Portland Cement based mortar - it breaks down at around 350C which you are definitely going to exceed. You'll need to find some Refractory Mortar in your region

I've found that most smokers aren't really built to retain a lot of heat (they're mostly made with an uninsulated steel tank), whereas a good wood fired oven really focusses heavily on insulation and heat retention. Quite different really, but it's pretty cool that we can use an oven to do both high heat and low heat cooking!

Jump on our website! www.thefirebrickco.com

We sure do! We have a warehouse in Toronto and another in Vancouver that we ship from. You can find all of our Canadian pricing on our Canadian website: www.thefirebrickco.com/ca

Thanks!! I don't know about that but we do our very best!

Fair enough - there are some serious challenges to installing a fully assembled oven though, that you should be aware of. An authentic Wood Fired Oven is going to be heavy, well over 1500lbm, which means you're going to need heavy lifting equipment to get it into your back yard. If you don't have really good access to the yard you would need to get a crane to lift it over the house... Often it's actually more economical to get a kit and have a professional construct it for you on site instead. Worth looking at all the options to see what's out there

Ooooh cool idea regarding the hydronic lines! You can still install gas in our ovens, but you would have to buy the gas burner as an aftermarket addition, and have the burner installed by a suitably qualified plumber who can arrange the signoff.

If you're in Australia you can order through our online store! www.thefirebrickco.com/au/online-store/

I'm in Canada @@TheFireBrickCo

You're so welcome Brent! Thanks for the encouragement!!

I built my oven, too.

Thanks Damon! If your oven is built from the right refractory materials then it should handle thermal shock just fine - in fact that's precisely what a medium duty firebrick is designed for, coping with severe thermal shock.

Ooooh that does sound good!

Great question - the key in a cold climate is to keep the oven completely dry at all times. Unfortunately you really don't have the option of building the oven outdoors in the elements, it would either need to be under a roof (which would keep the user nice and dry too) or it would need to be built into an enclosure such that no rain can reach the oven at all. The cold itself is not a problem, providing the oven is dry. With a dry oven you can just get a big fire roaring right away and the materials will handle the thermal shock without any issues.

🤣 yeah, it's certainly not my favourite part of the process!

The brick is really pretty, that is exactly why we have the brick arch (the floor is more practical, a cast floor wouldn't last nearly as long as the brick floor as the brick has a harder wearing surface). That being said, the internal dome isn't that easy to see unless you're standing right at the mouth of the oven, so in the end you spend a lot more time looking at the fire rather than the dome surface. But the brick dome definitely has a romance to it for sure.

Thank you!!

That's a very interesting question - the issue is actually the 2" coating - there aren't many refractory products that we've found that work well in that kind of installation, as the thermal cycling tends to make them de-bond from the brick surface that it's applied to. This is due to the difference in the thermal expansion coefficients of the two materials. With the right engineering and careful product selection this could be done, but without dedicating a lot of engineering time to the design you would most likely find the internal lining would fail. On top of that problem, the 2" refractory lining would most likely cost you more than just building the structure with firebrick for the firebox instead (good quality unmolded refractories like castable are quite pricey)

@@TheFireBrickCo ah, great point. I didnt think about the coating falling off due to the difference in expanding and contracting. But like i said it wasnt to cut corners. Thx for your input. After i build my 3rd bike trailer then a rabbit enclosure i will start plans on building a home on my land with earth floor. And the stove or fire brick stove on the ground. One thing at a time

Clever!!

I totally agree, this is one of our older videos, we will be putting a whole new set together in the coming year (with much better audio!)

Thank you! The fibreglass domes are custom made by us for our kits, we don't sell them separately sorry!

Thanks!! You are correct on both counts - however they will also be more thermally conductive which can be a problem for the oven floor (burning the crust). We find the 38% mark is the sweet spot - high enough for great quality brick, but low enough that they aren't going to burn a pizza the second it hits the oven floor

Thank you!!

That's a great idea! This is a P85 PreCast Oven

This was filmed with the D105, but the method works with all of our ovens (just less wood required for the smaller ovens). All of our ovens can be installed indoors

Potentially, as it doesn't get hot on the outside of the dome. We have just completed some experiments using Drizoro Maxseal Flex which is a water-tight membrane coating, and the results are terrific so far

We manufacture those, we designed and made the molds and produce them as part of our Wood Fired Oven Kits

I couldn't speak to the toxicity of other bricks, but I can tell you that the bricks used in our ovens have been tested and certified to NSF standards for food safety, they're completely safe to bake directly on

@@TheFireBrickCo thank you.

You mis-heard me I think, I was referring to the 'Alumina' content of the bricks, not aluminium. Our bricks have been tested by UL in the USA and certified as safe to bake directly on, so hopefully that helps set your mind at ease

No, rubber would melt unfortunately.