Insulating the floor of an oven is very important. It serves to help protect materials under the oven and retain heat within the oven.
A wide range of materials have been traditionally used as insulation. These include sand, clay, perlite, vermiculite and glass bottles. More modern options like calcium silicate board and ceramic fibre board are now available.
After extensive testing, we prefer to use calcium silicate board in our kits. It provides an incredible amount of insulation, has high compression strength to take the weight of the oven components, is resistant to moisture and is an easy product to work with.
The board is easily cut to size with a hand saw and placed in position ready for a mortar layer and fire brick floor to be added.
Note; this is not the same as ceramic fibre insulation 'blanket' which is light and fluffy and will compress under weight reducing its performance. Don’t use a 'blanket' style product under the oven as it will compress.