Mortar Loss

[jwnorris]

I have had my Casa 110 up and burning for three or four weeks now and have not enjoyed anything in my yard more. My oldest daughter say that I am obsessed – well, maybe so but the pizza is great.

I noticed this weekend that the Refrax mortar grout that I put in the seams on the modular floor is starting to come out in one section [no mortar on the perimeter, just where the four sections meet]. Is this anything to worry about?

Could it be happening because I did not put enough mortar into the joint in the first place? Can I re-grout these joints or should I leave well enough alone.

J W

[james]

Hey JW,

Glad you are having fun. It is definitely addictive -- I'm not sure what is better, the fire or the food.

I have also seen little bits of Refrax come out of the seams between the floor pieces. It's possible your floor tiles might have been too dry when you applied the mortar (maybe, maybe not), but it is really something you don't have to worry about. You might want to regrout those joint lines as some point in the future, but you definitely don't need to do anything about it for some time.

The worst that will happen it that you need to brush a little more to clean those spots. Another way of thinking about it is that there is one school of thought on installing the pie-shaped floor pieces where they don't even mortar the joint. They let the ash fall in, and brush it clean each time they cook -- and there is no ash on the pizzas.

So for a long time, you can just enjoy your oven.
James

[jwnorris]

In thinking back to the days of installation, I do beleive that the floor was dry. I remember being initially frustrated that the SuperIsol was sucking ALL moisture out of the bed of mortar that I intended to set the floor pieces on [and eventually did not] and did not even think of wetting the floor pieces before mortaring the joints.

And adicting doesn't even cover the feeling when you fire up the oven. So much so that we are serving pizza appetizers to 23 for Thanksgiving.

J W

[nyknicks]

I have the same problem with my oven floor. I will retry this fall grouting the floor. This time I will really wet the floor.

[Archena]

Turkey and dressing pizza?