Installation guide

Pompeii Oven Instructions

7.4. Cut your shims to match the trial dome layout.

Do not allow for an inside mortar joint, as you will be

setting the edges of the bricks facing inside the oven flush

with each other.

Before you mortar the bricks in place soak them in a

bucket of water. Firebricks are more porous than clay and

will dry out the applied mortar quickly if they are not moist.

Cement cures through a chemical process that creates

heat. If the surrounding moisture content is too low the

mortar will cure too quickly and will not have the proper

mechanical properties such as strength. Remember, you

want cement to cure, not dry out, so starting with wet

bricks and keeping completed masonry damp is a good

thing.

Begin laying your bricks using high heat mortar. The bricks

will follow the angle and curvature set by the wood shim.

After the angle is held in place with mortar, remove the

shim; fill the open space created by the shim with mortar,

and move on (Photo 7.5).

7.5. Using a shim to shape the dome without forms.

Subsequent Courses

The subsequent chains are made up of brick cut in half

and set on their wide edge (4 1/2") with the clean edge

facing inward. Stagger the brick joints, course to course,

much like the brick you see in block walls and brick

houses (Photo 7.6). There will be bricks in the first chain

that line up with the wall brick. This is normal. However, on

the chains they should all be offset.

7.6 Three chains; no forms.