Herringbone floor or plain straight row floor?

[Masako Morishita]

How do you lay a firebrick herring bone pattern?
Sorry for my ignorance, and the million and one questions!
I'm trying to keep it simple. I have been reading the many threads
on this subject, and when I visited the "Black oven" site I saw in
their tutorial that the fire brick is laid in rows.
Having enough firebrick I'm thinking of covering the whole floor
with it ,I mean the whole base,is it worth the trouble.???????
Instead of cutting a round base only for the oven.
Are there any other patterns to play with or is it a matter of
tradition to go with the herring bone????
Arigato.

[toddj]

like this...

[nissanneill]

Masako Morishita
attached is yet another picture to help you see the Herringbone pattern. It is my hearth before I closed the dome.
The.pdf file is the plan which also shows the pattern.

Neill

[dbhansen]

Keep in mind that that the herringbone pattern has an "orientation" to it, especially if you plan to have the pattern continue into the entryway. These are the "before and after" pictures of my floor. The first shows a "horizontal" pattern and the second is "vertical." I went with the second option because I preferred the way it looked in my entryway.

[Ken524]

Masako,

Have you downloaded the plans? They might help you put a lot of the pieces together.

There is a download link on this page if you haven't got them yet:
Brick Oven Plans | Build an Italian Brick Oven

[dmun]

The herringbone floor is traditional, but it has a reason. Bricks laid on the diagonal tend not to catch the peel even if they aren't quite level. Mostly, though, it looks good. It's not that hard if you lay your dome on the floor, as I did, it only involves cutting triangles off three bricks on a forty-five degree angle.

My pic:

[Breven]

I didn't pay much attention to what a herringbone pattern was when I laid my floor out, I ended up with a diagonal pattern. It was easy to lay out and the peel wont catch. It doesn't lock together as well as a herringbone though.