Brick Oven in Conservatory: Part Four

 Once the top slab has hardened, 4" insulating blocks (brand name Foamglas) are laid and scribed with the dimensions and placement for the oven floor.

At this point, the woodbox form is used to support the face are below where the oven hearth will go. This oven has an entirely faced brick woodbox.  The chamber in back to the left is intended to be a time capsule.

Every oven base I've built has a dividing wall halfway to the rear for supporting the top slab.  noticed that this aft chamber usually gets shut off when the top slab is poured and can, if desired, function as a time capsule, sealing something in this chamber that can be found generations later.

It may serve other purposes.  In the search for vernacular elements to the  brick oven, this one seems somehow natural.


 I've written in the past blogs that the herringbone pattern of the oven floor goes beyond decorative.  The angled bricks allow the baker to slide the peel in without it catching on minute differences in the floor brick edges.

The woodbox front and the oven floor

Because of space constrains, this oven has a slightly shallower depth for the dome.  To accommodate this, I have sliced the back of the first three courses of dome brick to meet the rigid insulation again the wall of the masonry heater.  Above that height, the oven will resume its normal construction of chains of brick.

Masonry heater front in progress