Belated "Thanks" & mortar problem

[Pizza Freak]

Hi All,
Last summer I started working on my Casa 90. I got it done just under the wire, as my job gets very busy in the fall (I'm a winemaker). I wanted to post a pic and thank everyone on this forum who responded to my many issues during the construction. Your responses were invaluable.
So, I built this sucker myself. The only help I had was placing the two sections of the casa dome in place. The gable house was framed in steel (no problem...once you get the hang), and I finished it in stucco (I wanted a smooth finish, but I didn't have the skills). I mixed ALL the cement by hand...and that is the one thing I wouldn't do again. As you can see, I put this in above a retaining wall, so there is a major footing, going all the way down to the native sandstone. A fun project, and I'm living proof that you can do the project yourself, if you take your time.

I'm close to perfecting pizza, which is my passion.

So, I've fired this up several times...probably 30 times total. I took a break during the wet winter, but I've recently started using the oven again.

My one problem is with the Casa 90 oven floor, which consists of 4 pie-shaped pieces, in my case, mortared with RefMix to fill the spaces between the pieces, over FB Board. Last weekend, I pulled out my ShopVac to do a good job of cleaning out the ash inside the oven, and I ended up pulling up a 6" piece of the mortar that was once between the floor pieces. The movement generated by heating likely caused the union between the joint to fail. So...I can probably get back in there, through the oven opening and redo the mortar (a bit of a stretch), but I don't want this to happen again. Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks Again!
PF

[Les]

PF,

I am not familiar wit the FB kits - am I to understand that you had to pour mortar 6 inches wide to join the hearth pieces? That doesn't make sense considering it's all casted. You mentioned that you used refmix, I used a` small amount of that product and found it to be "bullet proof". Did you apply the mortar under ideal conditions? Hopefully James can chime in, the only recommendation I can make it to not use your shop vac - sorry...