It says you should cover up to 40 percent of the front of the oven to retain heat.
However, it looks like they tell you to just use whatever veneer you chose to do so.
I don’t understand why you would use all this fire brick and high temp mortar, just to slap a common veneer on the front with no protection from hear behind it. Thoughts?
No!
You need at least standard brick, and if possible you should use firebrick and high heat mortar.
The instruction manual does not say veneer. The illustration shows standard brick.
Read this topic:
Good luck!
First sentence after stucco is finished… “Now that your Stucco (or Mortar) shell is dry and rock solid, you can apply almost ANY type of veneer to the outside of your oven.”
Thoughts?
Yes. The “outside” of your oven is the area outside the heat envelope. The raw opening is the inside of your oven. Until you have brick of some kind to form a heat shield, that area can’t take veneer on its own.