Hearth Design Philosophy Getting Started Discuss Hearth Design Philosophy in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; Quick question about the oven floor. Do you sit the walls of the dome onto the cooking floor or do ...

[dmun]

Quick question about the oven floor. Do you sit the walls of the dome onto the cooking floor or do you cut the floor round like Hendo did and have the walls rest on the FB or vermiculite concrete? It seems to me that the oven would be more efficient if the dome walls sat on the insulating layer and not directly on the cooking floor.

Either way works fine. The dome-on-floor method is easier, using few or no cuts, and it's what I did. The cut-to-fit method is what's used for professional ovens in constant use, where they may need to replace a worn or chipped floor in a few years. I figure any worn brick will be in the center, not the edge and can be sucked out with a shop-vac, and replaced.

I think the efficiency is the same either way. Both methods allow you to completely surround your oven with insulation.

[Xabia Jim]

Originally Posted by dmun

The dome-on-floor method is easier, using few or no cuts, and it's what I did.

Picture your finished oven as one unit, not a separate floor and a dome.

Opt for easier, no one except you will know the difference when it's finished.

[jhobbs]

When using the FB for the insulating floor does it need to be as large as the support slab or just big enough to cover the oven floor, I imagine that you need some are to absorb and reflect the heat.

[dmun]

Your oven should be entirely surrounded with insulation. Having the board sticking out beyond the oven floor means less dome insulation that you would need to surround the unit than if you cut it exactly to fit under the dome.