Oven Floor: Sunken Reds?

[aeu99217]

Hi,

I was wondering what the experts' advice would be regarding the oven floor. I am building my oven out of old pressed reds, however, they are chipped here and there and wouldn't make a good floor. So i purchased some firebircks online. The dimensions are 230 x 114 x 19mm. They are considerably thinner than the ones recommended in the instructions. So my quandry is: Do i sink (slighty) some pressed reds into the vermiculite leaving at least 3.5 inches and then put the thin firebricks on top, or would the firebricks suffice themselves?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Cheers Ross

[dmun]

With firebrick that thin, (19mm is about three quarters of an inch, thinner than our "splits") I'd recommend some additional thermal mass, I think your plan of red bricks under the floor should work fine. I'm also thinking that with floor bricks that thin, you may want to mortar them to the red brick layer, lest they shift under the stresses of firebuilding and cooking.
I know this is contrary to the usual "don't mortar it down" advice, but those are really thin tiles.

[Les]

Another option may be laying the brick 3 high orthogonally. Just a thought...

[karl]

I am a bit worried about the stability of a floor made of 19 mm bricks. Those bricks may come loose very easily and give you trouble.

regards from karl

[aeu99217]

Hi folks,

Thanks for all the advice. I'll mortar down the firebricks to the pressed reds. I bought the thin bricks cause they were really cheap and i didnt want to spend much after having already acquired the pressed reds, albeit for free. So they're just really there to provide an even floor and hopefully wont present too much of a problem ifthey are mortared down.

Thanks for the help

Cheers Ross