Do you actually need to use fire bricks in a piza oven?

cityfarma · Jul 25, 2008

I am building a pizza oven on my farm over a period of time as I don't live on the place. A lot of the designs mention using fire bricks. I was wondering is it necessary or will standard bricks work ok. I ask as it will only have occasional use and I have standard bricks available.

Cityfarma

RalphVa · Jul 25, 2008

I didn't use them in a BBQ that I made out of plain brick. The brick started to crumble apart after a while.

The mason who made my wife's $2,000 wonder out back used fire brick around the inside and up the inside of the stack.

Ralph

Blagadan · Jul 25, 2008

Ditto, and for an oven regular bricks will likely crumble a lot faster. Lil chunks of brick would not enhance the taste of your pizza!!! You can still use your regular bricks on the outside of the oven but I would recommend you line the oven with firebricks.

3gun · Jul 25, 2008

I lot of bricks sold today are made with porcelain cement, I can say from first hand experience they will not work.

Real bricks (made from fired clay) will last a lot longer, but firebricks would be best.

Don't forget the mortar, fire bricks are not used with standard cement mortar.

Lil_FarmerJim · Jul 25, 2008

You will want to use Fire brick for your oven for several reasons,

1st - They will hold up under the stress of heating and cooling much longer than standard bricks.

2nd - they will help to hold the heat in the oven, this will allow it to radiate the heat back inward towards you pizza, bread or what ever you decide to cook.

3rd - Even if you build it outside it will help prevent the fire from spreading beyond the box through radiant heating of the outside materials. (Provided you also add the needed airspace behind the firebox)

Remember a true pizza oven temps can range between 550 degrees Fahrenheit and 700F. Under that amount of heat, it can quickly cause normal brick to spauld and crumble.

Good luck.