Oven Floor Finish Pompeii Oven Construction Discuss Oven Floor Finish in the Pizza Oven Design and Installation forums; I am currently in the process of closing up my oven dome and noticed a fair amount of mortar splatter ...

[DimTex]

I am currently in the process of closing up my oven dome and noticed a fair amount of mortar splatter on the floor of the oven. I've been scraping it off and then brushing the dust/sand and was wondering if I needed to do anything more aggressive to clean the floor. Should I wet sponge the floor or use a hose?

Thanks

[Jed]

DimTex,

I would scrape, and wet sponge the splatters.

Don't use a hose. One of the next tasks in building your oven is to get the water out of the masonry, and at this point you don't need to add that much water volume to that section of your oven.

You could use a grinder on the face of the brick, if the splatters are really bugging you. The grinder could leave marks in the brick.

However, the splatters won't effect the function of the oven, and will wear off with normal use over a short period of time. I think that I only scrapped and sponged the splatters and the inside of my oven looks just fine at this point.

JED

[Ken524]

I agree with Jed.

You can use another brick to rub off the mortar. This works really well. Take care not to grind, sand or scrape your floor too much. This wears off the hard "factory" surface on the brick.

I used a vacuum to get rid of brick and mortar granules that I didn't want in my pizza.

[cuda]

Trisodium phosphate (TSP) might work for you.