My husband and son built a Brickwood Oven back when they were first introduced. We used it for the first few years then had some issues with cracking, mortar falling from the inside and it has sat covered ever since. We uncovered this weekend in hopes of bringing it back to life. From the pictures you can see we have big issues with cracks, mortar falling apart etc. Interestingly, the back is completely intact.
Does anyone have experience with this? In the interior- could we fill cracks between firebricks? For the external issues, could we chisel out the failing mortar and replace? Could we potentially cover with a fire blanket and mortar outside that? Open to any suggestions before we just take it apart and try to rebuild from scratch (we saved the foam forms). Thanks!
It looks like the lack of an insulating blanket layer between the firebrick and the outer brick is the cause of much of the damage. Can you remove the outer layer of bricks from the firebrick (including the back)? If so you can follow the directions for building the oven starting where the ceramic fiber blanket is added (assuming the underlying firebrick and mortar is good). It looks like the chimney needs to be rebuilt with firebrick too, hard to tell from the pictures. I don’t think filling in the cracks with mortar will really help, without the insulation layer cracks will just continue to form.
Regarding internal oven issues, how extensive is the cracking and loss of mortar between the joints? Was a high-temperature mortar used when it was built?
