I look back at my old oven and wonder how I ever managed to cook in such a small space. I removed the bricks out of the frame as I wanted to set the bricks on a layer of sand. I should say that when I brought my original fire bricks from Vitcas, they were perfectly straight with good right angles. 3. When I was happy with the position, I built a simple wooden frame around the bricks to hold them in place. I mention about wanting to make the cooking floor as large as possible, well that was the best decision I made. That is the end of this section, in the next I deal with building the walls and dome. In the meantime checkout my disaster pictures below: ======================  STOP PRESS UPDATE END  ========================. This would then lead to the bricks moving and possibly the sleepers moving apart. It wasn’t a major fire but I was no longer able to use the oven. Lay dry plaster sand inside the oven; spread it around and smooth off to be level with the doorway screed. So what went wrong? As I say “there is nothing wrong with making a mistake when doing something new, as long as you learn from that mistake”. Fire bricks make excellent abrasive resistant floors, such as those found on the Hearths & Floors of Pizza Ovens , wood ovens, Kilns, furnaces and other applications. We can also supply these Fireclay bricks cut to specific drawings. The brand of brick I went with for the oven floor were Vitcas Fire Bricks. 8. I then covered this in another layer of insulation. You can also cook more than one item at a time, and also have a good fire going. No need to worry thou, with good quality insulation material 3” was sufficient. For this part I used 200L of vermiculate to create an insulation base of 6”. To get around the problem I put a piece of strong insulation foil I had lying around the garage on top of the sleepers. Most pizza oven build guides talk of making a wooden frame, pouring in the mix, and letting it set hard. "Insulating concrete" is a mixture of vermiculite and cement, 2 parts vermiculite to 1 part cement. A word of warning this is a very messy job, with dust everywhere. 4. I got the thickest boards I could find with a 1000C max service temperature. This was a poor design for the base and I will tell you why. I should point out that I was using firebricks for the base, walls and dome. Next I set several Calcium Silicate boards on top of the vermiculite to create another fireproof insulation level. When you drop a pizza on the hot base and see it instantly expand, and cook in front of your eyes it is really cool. Hands Up – I cocked up here”It would be easy for me to rewrite the above section to save face, but I will keep it here so you can learn from my mistakes. I ignored all this information and went with what worked best for me. Introduction 2. Hopefully you already have an angle grinder, or you could easily buy one. But more importantly, one of the success factors to a good pizza, is the surface you cook on. You might think 3” is a bit small for the insulation and protection layer, and I did worry about this myself, but I wanted to make the cooking area as large as possible. First you need to decide are you going to build the side wall on top of the oven floor or around it. 1. 2. Now it was time to build the oven with refractory firebricks, which once again I brought from Vitcas. Now the Vermiculite mix, but first here is a tip for gardeners. If you think about it, the size of the oven floor ultimately defines the size of the whole oven. They weren’t cheap, but I am glad I did as they make all the difference. I put the hose on it and it was soon out. You also have to consider the heating time, the bigger the oven the longer it will take to warm up. The set for this oven were not so good, which meant I had a lot of gaps in my herringbone oven floor. Click to see them in more detail. I have now decommissioned this oven and will soon work on oven number two, with superior insulation for the base. I only had a limited space and I needed to make the floor as large as possible, leaving 3” on the outside edge of the wall for insulation and final protection layer. Just make sure your wife hasn’t put the washing out or you will be in the Dog House. The idea being  to pour concrete into the frame to create a simple retaining wall for the vermiculite. Once the oven is at the correct temperature it only takes a couple of minutes to cook a pizza so I decided on a base size of Y x Z. I built the oven floor by first laying the bricks on the base I had previously built.