Hello. I am finally to the stage of wrapping my oven and thanks to so many forums and a couple of local users I have decided to do extra insulation. My original plan was to completely stucco the entire oven including the front and the chimney, but my wife changed all that on me today so now we are going to cover a lot of it in a stone veneer which I think will look nice as well. I had a few of questions that maybe @BrickWood or @bikerbudmatt could give their feedback on as I can’t find exactly what i need on the forums.
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I live in the Phoenix area and it does not get that cold here but from what I have read and been told is the extra insulation is one of the best additional expense you can put into the oven. I have enough extra to put up to 4 layers on the sides. Is it worth doing the 4 or would 3 be plenty? I know it makes it quite a bit thicker but that does not bother us.
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Since we will be now going over the entire surface with a veneer of some sort, is using Type S mortar the recommended base and final coat for the insulation? We can easily get stucco in every store out here and I know Stucco has some fiber reinforcements, etc but it’s also considerably more money and if it’s not worth the cost to simply cover it, I would prefer not burn money.
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Putting a stone veneer over the front of the oven and the chimney, do you need to wrap that with insulation first like you would if doing only stucco or can you simply attach it directly to oven?
Thanks again to everyone so far on this forum. It’s been such a blast and we are excited to get to the part of lighting our first fire!
Jason
Hi Jason, and congrats on getting to this stage!
Insulation does shield a bit against your outdoor temperatures, but it really has a greater bearing on how long your oven will retain heat. The more insulation, the better performance for a long bake. If you ever think you’ll be trying some of the “long and slow” cooking techniques, especially baking but also slow-cooking meats and so on, you already have the insulation and I’d recommend applying it.
Type S is absolutely fine as a base for veneer. Mine has not cracked or shown any other signs of wear for the past 4 years in a much colder climate than yours.
Veneer can be applied to the brick faces for sure. The stucco or mortar shell over the insulation is there because the insulation is a soft and irregular surface. It makes a consistent surface over the insulation blanket as well as protecting it.
Some use thinset and others use construction adhesive. I have not applied a veneer to my oven so others may have advice about what has worked well and what has not.
Hope this helps, and good luck with these final steps. That first pizza is going to taste extra fine!
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Thanks so much for the reply. I think we are going to proceed with at least 4 layers of insulation. My wife now is thinking she would like to have the sides of the base flush with the oven so that the stone goes right up the side and over the top. That means I have 6” on both sides to make up so the more insulation the better!
Hope to start that part this week. We are looking BF forward to that first pizza!
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That’s exactly what will happen. My hard shell (Type S mortar) comes to about ¾ inch from edge of base with 4 layers of insulation, so if I were to apply a veneer I would be at the edge.
Hope all goes well this weekend, Jason!
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The more the insultation the better. I did the stucco layers, it was not enough
I added a layer of thin brick all the way around – that made a huge difference
Plus get a flue damper. These ovens lose too much heat up the flue
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Thanks for the suggestions. I just finished the 4 layers today and put one coat on it so far. Plan to do the second probably tomorrow. When you said it wasn’t enough what did you mean by that if you don’t mind me asking?
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you are on the right path