Insulation question fast

[mark4604]

My dome is done and i have it wrapped with foil, i have the chicken wire but i cannot find any vermiculite or perlite in this country at all, I have gone to every plant nursery building store everywhere and nothing, not to mention i asked if there were any fire proof or temp resistant insulation materials i could use and still nothing. Does anyone one know any materials that I can use for insulation in the dome? I have all the components except the insulation and the blanket and vermiculite seem to be out of my reach here in Santiago. Can anyone give me an idea fast. I don't want to lose all my heat every time i fire the oven.

[Johnny the oven man]

If you are really stuck and the oven is under cover, would mud and straw work?

[tdibratt]

Is cinder blocks a common building material in the Dominican? If so, check out some building suppply stores that sell blocks and bulding materials. At one time vermiculite used to be used to fill the cores of the blocks as the walls were built to provide some insulation properties.

You might have some luck there.

Tony.

[dmun]

I assume that if you can't get insulation, you didn't insulate under the oven floor, so you may have a problem even if you can get vermiculite or refractory insulation at this point.

Is Hispanola volcanic? There may be tufa or other lightweight rock that would work. I'm thinking that coral might do the same kind of thing.

The DR has a huge tourism industry, hence a lot of swimming pools. Perlite or vermiculite concrete is commonly used to construct swimming pools. You might try pool suppliers.

[christo]

I got some of my first perlite from pool guys.

For what it's worth, it had portland cement mixed in with it.

Christo

[egalecki]

My pool guys had both with and without portland cement and offered me the choice. I didn't know the ratio they had going of portland to vermiculite, so I just went with plain.

[MrsDC]

Hi, I'm a newbie on this forum, but I was having a similar problem to Mark's. Brick ovens are extremely popular here in rural Mexico, but no one uses vermiculite. I don't even know how to say it in Spanish! I've hunted all over for reasonable alternatives and found nothing here that will work.

Anyway, the tried and true insulation for generations of brick ovens here: a mixture of 1 part tierra muerta and 1 part caca de vaca. Yes, that's one part good, ol' dirt and 1 part dried cow patties. When in Rome, right???

I'm pretty sure you've already solved your delimma, but maybe this could be useful for another oven-builder in a country with no Home Depot.

Hope that's somewhat helpful!
-- Rebecca

[gjbingham]

I love the last post. I have no doubt that it will work if nothing else is available. I think if you search ebay for ceramic blankets, you should be able to find the firm in Portland Oregon that (I assume) can ship you the insulation best suited to your needs.
G.

[Xabia Jim]

Also look for Argilite...it's an expanded clay ball used in masonry insulation.

That's where I'd go, to a mason to see what they use for insulation from heat or the sun.

Good luck

(that second last post was a bunch of siht!)