Hello, I wanted to make sure I am reading this correctly, on the instructions, on step 51 it clearly says to mortar set the bricks ‘vertically on their sides’, but when I see pictures and videos of most oven projects, I see most of them seem to have the brick laying flat, and not on their sides.
So, what is the best orientation, lay the brick on the 2 1/4" side, or on the flatter 3 5/8" side?
I agree! unclear… I just did it with the bricks “vertically”, taller instead of flatter, since it allowed the space for the cement/perlite, the sand and to have the fire bricks end up even with the perimeter clay bricks. FWIW on a 36" Cupola build
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Thanks for the input. I will install them ‘vertically’ too.
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I had a really nice CAD jpg that I made to explain this, but after 30 minutes of searching the ol’ HD, I just can’t find it. So I’ll go old school and explain it.
Fire brick is 2-1/2"H on their sides… Standard clay or concrete brick is TYPICALLY 2-3/8" on their sides (which is shorter than the fire brick).
By placing the edge brick on their sides (vertically), you not only ensure your hearth / fire brick are level w/ the edge brick, but you can also place about 1/2" of sand (a great heat insulator) under the fire brick - and this will help level the hearth fire brick.
Some people on our photo gallery chose to mortar their edge brick in horizontally…