Building virgin

[dav1d]

Hello.
I'm looking into building my own brick built oven but struggling to get the correct amount of materials. I looking into either a 80cm or 90cm internal oven.

So, not including the main stand what do I really need. This is my list but obviously subject to change.

Fire brick 150,both for the base and the dome.
Ceramic insulating sheet for the base, 25mm?
Insulation blanket and chicken wire, 25mm?

Firstly, are those sizes correct, I'm thinking not.

This is where I'm really stuck, the wet ingredients, cement, sand, perlite etc etc.

It's very confusing to know what to use as there is so many differing builds.

So could someone point me in the right direction, and also where best to buy the materials from.

I live in the North West by the way.

Thank you for reading.

David

[oblertone]

Fire bricks come in different sizes so a generic ‘150’ may or may not be enough. Insulating sheet, i got mine on eBay but other routes are available. Insulation blanket is a little more specialist but readily available. For a one-stop-shop try Kilnlinings where the owner is very aware of the needs of WFO builders.

The ‘wet’ ingredients can be had from most building supply places, Wickes, Jewsons etc but you really only need Sand, Cement, Lime, Clay to make ‘homebrew mortar’ which is all you’ll need for a WFO and is superior to so called fire-cement in many ways.

To reduce costs even further, consider using ordinary building bricks for your dome, leaving firebricks for the cooking floor only. Try reclamation yards for old ‘solids’ i.e. no frogs, holes or indents and remember that as you’ll be cutting them in half you can buy damaged ones even cheaper. FWIW i got my bricks from a neighbours skip for nothing.

[dav1d]

Thanks, but I have read that ordinary house bricks cannot take the constant changes in temperature and start to break down. And also don't retain the heat like fire bricks. It's this correct?

[oblertone]

The simple answer is 'I don't know'; however I built my WFO using scavenged house bricks about five years ago and despite fairly regular use it has shown no signs of 'spalling'.

If you are viewing this on a PC you'll see my build thread below; if using a phone then maybe not.

[dav1d]

I'm in my phone.

[dav1d]

Regarding the base, which is best, using bottles then concrete, or thermal blocks covered in concrete. Or some other method, I've seen different methods but which is the one to go for?

[chriss]

On the amount of bricks, I've just finished my oven, 900 internal. i used 76mm fire bricks and I tapered them on 3 sides for the dome.
In total I orded 270 bricks and I've got 30 left.
I first only orded 210,so had to stump up extra on postage for the extra bricks.
Wish I had of know more about the homebrew before i started, would have saved some extra cash, but as it is, I used 65 kilos of vitcas outdoor oven cement,
These figure can change though, if you don't taper the bricks you will use less but use alot more cement.