amyr57•29d ago

My neighbor the retired bricklayer told me to stop soaking my firebricks

I was laying a pizza oven last month and kept dunking my firebricks in water like I do with regular clay bricks. My neighbor Bill, who laid brick for 40 years, came over and said I was ruining them. He explained firebricks are dense and don't need soaking, plus the water makes the mortar too wet. I tried it his way and the joints are holding perfect after 8 fires. Has anyone else gotten bad advice about firebrick on a residential job?

2 comments

2 Comments

anna_carter5329d ago

You know, I bet Bill's been waiting 40 years just to catch someone doing that so he could bust out his firebrick wisdom. I can just see him sitting on his porch with binoculars like, "Aha, there goes another rookie." I'm glad the joints are holding up because honestly the thought of a pizza oven slowly melting into a pile of damp mortar is kind of hilarious in a tragic way. Next thing you know he'll be telling you to stop seasoning your cast iron with olive oil or something equally heretical.

taraj1129d ago

Nobody's talking about what happens when Bill finally kicks it and some new owner inherits this oven. That firebrick knowledge dies with him, and then we've got a whole generation of pizza oven owners out here just guessing. Imagine the chaos in 20 years when someone's trying to figure out why their dome cracked and all they've got is a dusty YouTube tutorial from some guy who calls himself "Brick Daddy." The joints are holding now, but that's just because Bill's probably still doing midnight inspections with a flashlight.