Firebrick done in a herringbone pattern would probably be ideal, maybe ask fishingpol or ironpony for some input. I'm planning on building one later this summer as well....
Yah, red firebrick over mason sand. Never a problem with grit on the bottom of pizza or calzones. Very durable so far. Watcha up to?
Ironpony, Excuse my ignorance, did you cast that in place or did you purchase it already cast? Do you have a link? One of my guys that used to work with me wants to go in with me to build a pizza oven on a trailer so that we can each use it and take it to parties to use at other peoples houses. Andrew has photos of ones he has seen. They look pretty cool. But, we are thinking a foam insulated bottom with a cast in place refractory would be the ticket.
ironpony- I too am a little ignorant on this "medium density" castable... Do you mean like "Mizzou?" which is a dense castable, or did you get a bucket of ready mix, something like "Rutland?"
Hey , I set my tan 4 1/2" on edge directly on 2" of ceramic fiber board insulation. I sat the insulation on aluminum u channel with some stainless steel perforated metal , just so the heat had a harder time migrating into the slab. I built my oven to hold heat for a long time though, I highly recommend you insulate under the firebricks
https://instagram.com/p/mvPetAjDb3/ I'm not sure the link will work, but you could see this mockup that I did, it doesn't show the ceramic fiber board, but the u channel is there.. The board was placed between the two.
It is cast in place over light density insulating refractory. there are some pics on here somewhere, I am not that computer savy. medium density as in X lbs per cubic foot. I worked with a local furnace suppliers engineer and he specd everything for me. on a trailer I would go with cast there is a lot less joints to come apart. my oven is 6 pieces total. the dome is 4 pie shape pieces and a center plug, then the base. I will post some pics here. basically I built a plaster mold, cast the dome in 5 pieces. then the base was cast in place and the dome set on top.
Sounds like you put some serious effort towards your project, ironpony. What's your wood of choice for firing yours?
Wow! Thats incredible, ironpony! Last Fall, I bought some Tough Shot 2600 for use in my potential Rocket stove... didn't realize it was for gunning- called the warehouse and the rep said there was a guy in Floyd who used the same thing for Pizza Oven floors... Any thoughts? I ended up figuring out a way to ram it into my mold, and pound the air pockets out... I'll try to find some pics....
not really, I used what the 30 year furnace engineer specd, did not do a lot of extra research. got lucky as it is a small family company and they were willing to work with me and sell me the small quantity I needed.
Would be nice to see a set of vid clips on the firing, raking/pushing of coals, and the placement of food to be cooked, and of course, the end results!!! Anyone?