Setting Firebrick Floor - 40" Wood-Fired Oven Build - August 2024

Moving on to building the ACTUAL oven - starting with setting the floor.  The last time I checked in, I showed how I used a 50/50 blend of Masons sand and Fireclay to create a bed for the floor to sit-on that allows for a smooth, even floor surface.  And, just a few days ago, I showed how I experimented with the medium-duty refractory mortar to learn how to set the joints and work with the stuff.  

As I've talked about, I'm going with an isolated floor and dome.  That means that I've cut the floor bricks to sit *inside* the dome.  It required a few more cuts, but it is the right move, imho.  My first job was setting the oven floor and landing.  You can see that layout below.  I aimed to have the herringbone pattern hit dead center and I tried to keep larger cuts near the entry to avoid having my peel 'catch' on them:

This is a BIG MOMENT for me.  20 years ago, I thought about an oven.  Six months ago, I started the project.  Today, I have my floor set.  The very floor that will bake the pizzas.  How exciting.

But, the isolated floor and first course of the dome is where the refractory mortar comes in.  While the floor is just set CLOSE/TOGETHER, there's no mortar holding it in place.  That changes with the dome.  You can see in the photo below as I sent around and mortar'd in each piece of the first chain of the dome.  This chain - called a solider course - is laid LEVEL with the floor. 

The project goes up-and-up from here.  Next up, I'll begin to build the dome with one chain on-top-of-another.  Twelve in total.