forgot to dip my fire brick in water

[blamejane]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking here for some time gaining some very useful information...a BIG thanks to FB for hosting these forums!

I finally need to post a question though, because halfway through the second course of my dome installation I ran out of Heat Stop 50. I remember reading the sticky on FB about homebrew, so I quickly looked it up again (to get the quantities) and mixed my own. Everything went great and I was able to complete my entire oven yesterday. This morning I woke up realizing that I remembered reading I was supposed to dip my fire bricks in water!

Now I'm very nervous and wanted to know what's going to happen to my oven. I tried searching FB for someone making the same mistake but wasn't able to find anything.

Does anyone have any suggestions or comments regarding this? I just don't want to worry or move forward on the oven if it's not recommended.

Thanks again FB and everyone!

Valerie

[helenk579]

Thanks you for the post.

[Neil2]

Dipping the bricks in water is to mitigate the mortar "drying up" before it has a chance to cure. Dry bricks can "suck" the moisture from the mortar. There are lots of variables such as the amount of water in your mortar to begin with and the relative humidity.

Closely examine the mortar work you have done. If it is solid and not powdery you are OK.

[blamejane]

Thanks Neil. I checked the mortar, and it's solid as a rock...I can't even scratch it with my fingernail. Any chance this will change over time, or am I gonna be okay?

Thanks,

Valerie

[Tscarborough]

No worries, you do not have to dip the bricks, it just makes it a little easier sometimes.

[Neil2]

"Any chance this will change over time, ...?"

No. You are good to go.