Hi,
I have a pizza oven made from refractory cement (see
http://www.purimachos.demon.co.uk/pizza.htm). This works OK, but the walls
are not thick enough to retain much heat - therefore, having heated the
oven with a wood fire and raked it out, it's only possible to cook about two
pizzas before it's cooled down. I'd like to be able to cook at least four
pizzas and maybe some bread afterwards. I therefore need to thicken the wall
to increase the heat capacity - I thought by adding at least one course of
bricks around the sides and top of the oven, followed by an inch or so of
render. Question is, do I need to use special heat-proof bricks (eg
firebricks) and cement, or can I get away with normal house bricks and
mortar? I'm concerned that the mortar and render will crack - when in use,
the outer wall of the oven gets too hot to touch for more than an instant -
I would guess about 100-140C.
Any advice appreciated.
Andy