unsure about base....

[hewynz]

hey just james from new zealand again.. as im buliding an oven for restaurant use, i dont want a huge bulky brick hearth, so am having a solid steel frame built for it, do i need to put anything underneath the floor of the oven to insulate the heat or will it be ok?

[maver]

For commercial use you definitely want to insulate the base. Insulfrax (the slab ceramic insulation sold by FB.com) would suit your needs well. James has described here helping commercial wood oven users retrofit their oven with better under hearth insulation to stop excessive heat loss from the hearth which leads to greater wood use and more difficulty maintaining optimum temperatures.