Where can I find firebrick in the UK?

[fshakoor]

Hi All,

I am new to this forum and glad to find so many people enthusiastic about food and clay ovens. From my experience this is not very popular in the UK at all.
Anyway, I recently returned from a holiday in Cyprus where I stayed round somebody's house who had a clay oven in his garden. The bread just tasted fantastic I have since become a clay oven fan and would like to construct my own and have been doing lots of reading about it. But first thing's first, it cannot cost too much. I have just been quoted £2.61 per firebrick by Travis & Perkins. Anyone know if I can get firebrick cheaper in the UK and if so where from?

Thanks all,
Regards,
Farzana

NB: Anyone know how much an oven can cost to construct in £ pounds sterling (all the materials etc)? It might be cheaper to build a tandoor oven and have tandoori instead

[dmun]

In noodling around on Ebay.co.uk, I am amazed by the different types of masonry and brick products inexpensively available. A quick look right now doesn't show any firebricks up, but I bet if you sent messages to some of the brick vendors, you would find a source of inexpensive firebricks.

UK eBay masonry items

And yes, a tandoor is inexpensive, and more efficient to fire, but you can't make pizza in it!

[Alf]

Try these guys http://www.yrpl.com/ or http://www.purimachos.demon.co.uk/fire-bricks.htm the first one are usually the cheapest depending on quantity and where you live

[fshakoor]

Thanks for that Alf. I am based in London - do you know of any places selling firebrick in London?

Thanks,
Farzana

[Alf]

Sorry, don’t know of any one in the London area. Suggest you work out your quantities and give the boy’s yrpl a ring and get a quote. Try “refractory London” in Google

Alf

[Puy de Dome]

I'm just going to bump this one up as I think it's a current topic for at least one other Brit on here.

Cheers.

[Faz]

If you're not in a rush keep your eye open on EBay, I have seen very reasonably priced firebricks on there which have been reclaimed from Hop ovens and the like.

They won't necessarily show up on a search for "firebrick" though, as it depends how they have been described. I would do a search for "brick" and limit it to the distance you're willing to travel to collect them.

[Puy de Dome]

Yeah, thanks - I have had a search going on for a while, but I agree that they are quite hard to find. Still, keep trying.

cheers

[mmmhumous]

Handsworth Refractories - Refractory Products & Services Based in sheffield I picked up 40 bricks @ £2 each.

From other posts, you can knock them down to £1.20/£1.60 per brick depending on how much you're ordering. I picked mine up, but delivery is £30-70 depending on where you live.


For total cost: (brick eclosure and stand, firebrick hearth, barrel vault design 900mmx770mm hearth, 1200mm square enclosure)

I'm expecting it to come in at £500 +/- 10%

[Faz]

I'm hoping to only have to pay for concrete, rebar, mortar and vermiculite as I have managed to pick up some other stuff for free. I am going to use bricks from night storage heaters, though they are a different shape to normal bricks so it will be a bit of an experiment really!