Minimum coating over firebrick oven

[Derocherconstruction]

Hi All, I am wondering what I could coat my oven with that will keep the firebrick dry, but not add much thickness, and not take much time. I will have the dome done soon, it is a half firebrick thick. Is it possible to just coat this with stucco, fireclay mix, other and start to cure the oven. I will be using this oven for pizza, and maybe one batch of bread after pizza cooking, no extended cooking times, so keeping the oven from cooling for hours is not an issue here. Thanks for the help. Jim

[Ed_]

Even then, you'll want it insulated. If nothing else, you probably don't want to have that exposed dome heated to several hundred degrees. Also, just from reading other posts here, I think I can safely say you'll go through a lot more fuel.

Still, it doesn't have to be anything too involved. Do some searching around here and you'll see various options.

[dmun]

You are going to be unhappy if you don't insulate. You are unlikely to reach pizza temperatures, or keep them for more than one pizza. Even if you get free firewood, there is still the labor of splitting, stacking, hauling it.

There is one thing that will lead to the failure of a brick oven - not having enough insulation above and below.

[biondoli]

On top with no insulation, you dome will not last long, imagine all the shock in case of rain or snow while the oven is hot. Stucco will crack as well.

[gjbingham]

Geeze, James goes to all the trouble to make good plans and people try to shortcut the steps, over and over again. Apparently nobody reads the past posts anymore.