Insulation

[shane70]

Hi guys,my name is Shane and have just joined,what it is have just moved into a new house and it's got a really nice pizza oven on the back garden,the only catch is its Been built out of tradional reclaimed bricks(terraced house bricks),really don't want to take it apart but with having no insulation I e single brick,it does not hold the heat,so was wandering what I can put inside to create no heat loss please,all advice would be much appreciated as its a beautiful oven,King regards everybody,shane

[annie]

Hi Shane do you know if the floor is insulated?

I'm no expert as I'm in the process of building mine at the mo, but I have just built the brick dome - which is what you have.

After that I am going to 'clad' it, which is a grog mixture, which contains crushed fire bricks, vermiculite or perlite - this insulates it.

After allowing that to dry, I am covering it with ceramic fibre blanket, and covering that with chicken wire to keep it in place.

After that you can add another coat of insulation (cladding) or just render it.

Hope I am giving you sound advice - but that is how I'm doing mine. 


I am sure someone will be on here soon to give you advice. Hope I have given you food for thought in the meantime.

Go on fornobravo.co.uk you can get free downloadable plans there - or just read it and copy!

Good luck 

[oblertone]

Shane, please take some pictures of the base/floor of your oven and post them on here, that'll help determine if it has any underfloor insulation. Applying insulation above the dome is pretty straightforward, adding it underfloor is quite another matter.

[shane70]

Here is some pictures,can't do anything with the outside so need to insulate inside,but with what,thanks 

[albacore]

Am I imagining it or has your oven got a face?

[cobblerdave]

G'day
It's pretty hard to add insulation at this point without changing the look of the exterior of your oven greatly. By the ash and the pans you've adapted to your oven and bet your enjoying the results.
One thing that might go a bit of the way to retaining heat in your oven is by modifying the doorway a bit. At present the doorway is as high as the roof and your heat flows out in the form of smoke and hot gases. If you were to cover the top of the doorway to decrease the height to 60 per cent of the internal size of the roof. The smoke has time to linger and burn off the last of the gasses and doing so helps to heat your oven more efficiently. You'll also discover it will hardly smoke as that's burnt away in that top section.
I'm thinking a metal cowl at the top of the entranceway perhaps? I recon that could be easier than trying to match the brick.
As for using your oven... We all know our ovens best I'd just get used to yours. With a rolling fire in the corner it will cook pizza. With a good long 2 hour burn to get the heat deap in the brick swab the floor with a wet mope and you'll get a few loafs of bread with the addition of a door. Same for baking the door insulated or not will make the diference. I would not stop there either fire in the oven is do able as well. You've got the pan in the oven so you've already tried that, great. With a few bricks you can make a small wall inside your oven to protect your baked goods from the direct heat of a fire or coals. Search Tuscan grill as well it's just a grill over the coals in the oven so you get not only the heat from the coals but the radiant heat from the walls as well.
Hope something here might help
Regards dave

[shane70]

Thanks for your reply