5. Setting the Cooking Floor
Overview
Your cooking floor can be made from either standard
9”x4.5” firebricks, set in an offset or herringbone pattern
(Photo 5.1), or from the 18”x18” floor tiles provided with the
Forno Bravo Pompeii Oven Kit. The advantage using a
standard firebrick floor is that it is made from materials you
can purchase locally, while the advantage of the larger floor
tiles is that they present fewer seams for catching oven
tools, such as pizza peels and rakes.
As an option, you can cut the firebrick floor to fit inside the
oven dome, rather than having the oven dome rest on top of
the cooking floor. The advantages of this approach are that
it allows you to replace a broken or worn out floor tiles, and
it offers better thermal performance. A majority of Italian
ovens (including the Forno Bravo ovens) fit the oven floor
inside the dome. The disadvantage is the you have to cut a
number of bricks to fit inside the round oven dome and the
oven landing walls.
5.1 A herringbone pattern.
Instructions
These instructions show how to build a cooking floor using
firebricks. With this method, you do not mortar the bricks in
place, but rather spread a thin layer of paste made from
sand, fire clay and water as a "bed" for the floor.
To make the underfloor paste, mix 1 part of fine sand with 1
part fireclay, then add water until you reach the texture of a
sticky mortar (but without the cement). Spread the
underfloor using a notched trowel as the ridges will make it
easier for you to get your floor perfectly level (Photo 5.2).
The process is similar to setting ceramic tiles.
5.2 Ready for the cooking floor
Measure your hearth to ensure that you are centering your
cooking floor left and right on the hearth. How far back you
set the cooking surface will depend on the size and material
you are using for the oven landing in front of the oven
opening. Use a chalk line and measuring tape, locate and
mark the center of the oven, and where the front of the oven
(the vent floor) will meet with your oven landing (Photo 5.3).
5.3 Measure carefully where the oven will sit.
Pompeii Oven Instructions
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