Reclaimed bricks: a good o rbad idea?

[gazzagwire]

Hi guys,

First question of what I suspect will be many as I stumble down the road to my first Pompeii oven!

I have access to a small pile of reclaimed bricks that someone has rather conveniently fly tipped at the place where I walk the dog of an evening. They are mainly very old Thistle (38% alumina) and Dougal (?) refractories, so I'm guessing they came out of a chimney breast from a house in the local housing estate. (built c.1930) Do you think it's a bad idea to use bricks that are that old?

I've also been eyeing up these:

www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/reclaimed-bricks--red-dougal-winchburgh--ideal-for-bbq-or-wall-building/1015791063

I think that both options are a great step towards lowering the cost of my build.(especially option 1) However, I am concerned that cutting corners on the dome bricks is potentially not a good idea.

I'd love to know all you experienced WFO builders thoughts on my dilemma.

Cheers

Gareth

[tonyb]

Hi Gareth, the only issue with reclaimed firebricks is how 'clean' they are, by that I mean whether you have good flat faces, particularly for the floor. I've seen some concerns around not knowing what used bricks have been exposed to but don't really know whether they could absorb gases/liquids.

The reclaimed reds look to have a poor physical quality and not suitable for the floor of a wfo but wouldn't really be a problem for the dome itself, where you can get away with imperfections. There's no way to tell from a picture whether they will be thermally sound for a wfo.

No reason you couldn't have a firebrick floor and red brick dome I just would mix the two in the same part of the structure.

[mikeyt1968]

Hi Gareth

I used red bricks for the dome and firebricks for the base and my wfo performs well. I did the same to keep costs down too.

You can check out my build on my blog

mikesbrickoven.blogspot.co.uk/

Cheers

Mike

[gazzagwire]

Thanks Mike, that's an awesome build buddy! I hope mine turns out as well.

[bookemdanno]

Hi Gaz, i too used Victorian full clay reds for my dome build.

I doubt that soft (sandy) reds will be any good though. Mine were hard, a bit like London Stocks but red, and probably did well from the second firing that they had from the Barn fire!

My thoughts were that i didn't have the budget for Firebricks so i took a chance. So far, its paid off. I can get a full soot cleared dome in 45 minutes, 500+degree temps and 60-90 second pizzas so i'm happy! Looking forward to finding out about my beast, and learning its ways for different cooking scenarios. My trouble is that i love the big rolling fire up and over the roof of the dome!

Good luck with your build.

[cec]

I also used old clays , and works spot on , just like bookemdanno clears soot in about 45 - 60 mins then bricked seam to turn a nice white sort of colour

[gazzagwire]

These bricks have came out of an internal wall in a farmhouse dating back to the turn of the last century. The seller sent me a picture of the inside of one of the bricks that broke during the demolition work (attached).

Hopefully they'll be up to the task.

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