Laying The Oven Floor

Once you have the bricks home it's time to lay your oven floor. I used a 2x4 about 8 feet long as a screed to make sure the sand was smooth and even. Then I used a level to make sure the top of the base level in all directions. That was really easy, once the sand was screeded I just had to add a little or move a little to make it all level and then screed it again and check with the the level until it's all level and smooth.

Now I had already looked at my pans and pizza peal and decided that the door needed to be more than 20 inches wide. Which works for me since the oven door should be about half the size of the internal oven space. So a 24 inch door works for me. That is 8 bricks laying next to each other. Remember that if you are building an arch like I did then leave space for a base brick on each side of the door base bricks.

This first step really works well with string. Lay string across the round base to determine where the center of the base is and where the door will be. In the picture below I drew out this layout.

Now when you start laying your bricks lay the door first. In my case I laid 8 bricks so I put four on each side of the center line. I also used the center line as my starting point for the running bond. Below is another picture I drew out to give you an idea what I mean by running bond and the fact that the oven floor doesn't extend to the outside of the base except for the door.

OK why did I use a running bond and what is it? Well there are many different bonds for brick. The bond just means the pattern used when laying the bricks. I used the running bond because I didn't have to cut any bricks. With my bad shoulder and back injuries not hammering or sawing is a good thing. The running bond is simple enough for anyone to lay. The bricks are laid end to end and the next row is offset by half a brick. That means that you line up the middle of the next brick with the ends of the bricks in the row before it. You can see in the picture above what the running bond would look like.

One last note about laying the bricks. Place the bricks straight down tight against the previously laid bricks. This keeps the sand from shifting or getting dug out or moved. If that does happen then just remove the brick you place and smooth out the sand and replace the brick. After you get you bricks laid then use a level to make sure your bricks are nice and even and level. If a brick is too high just use a rubber mallet and tap it down. It's that easy. Once those bricks are laid you're ready to move on to building the oven.