Glass or porcelain tiling outside of oven?

Construction Materials Needed to Build a BrickWood
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Has anyone used glass or porcelain tile to cover the outside without problems of cracking or falling off from the heat or outside cold winter temps

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Hi @Jotrtt, and welcome to the community!

I’ve moved your post to the Construction Materials board to give it a better chance of being seen. Your question applies to any of the oven styles, and I know from looking at the galleries that there is a number of builds that used glass or porcelain at least in part.

One general thought is that heat (coming from inside the oven) shouldn’t be much of a factor. The idea behind the castable refractory is to keep the heat in the oven, rather than to allow it to convect through.

As for extreme cold, let’s hear from people who have added glass or porcelain. I’d want to know:

  • what style of oven (dome, barrel, or box)
  • the kind of tile you used, and whether it was small pieces or larger squares
  • the subsurface it was applied to (which for most ovens should be stucco)
  • spacing you used between tiles
  • (most critical) the kind of adhesive used

That last item, in my mind, is the most important. I’d also want to know whether it was something you picked off the shelf at the big box hardware store, or a specialty adhesive that was recommended by a sales consultant after a thorough study of your oven’s installation environment and characteristics.

Also curious, @Jotrtt, what you’re picturing for your creation? Sounds like it will sparkle when you’re done!

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Beautiful job on your 28" Mattone Cupola pizza oven! You are just about to wrap up what looks to be an AWESOME oven! Nicely done w/ the stucco work and LOVE the split face block on your oven base!

And BikerBudMatt is correct - So all we can add from our end is:

  1. The hottest part of the oven that concerns me is the chimney / exhaust area… and the oven opening area. They are both subjected to an intense amount of heat and this might affect standard tile mortar. I don’t know if they make a high-temp mortar for tile - I’ve never seen it, but I would suspect that you could use standard high-temp mortar / pre-mix like Ovenzz Mortar (15lb pail) on the tile (but keep the joints thin).

  2. Make sure ANY mortar or adhesive you use is NON-WATER soluble. If you get water soluble mortar, it will crumble when it gets wet. Guaranteed.

  3. Heat may affect the glaze on the tile or glass. I don’t believe glossy / glazed finishes fair very-well in high-heat environments.

That’s 3 points to consider from our end…

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Continuing the discussion from Glass or porcelain tiling outside of oven?:

How hot does the main body get on dome and rear other than front opening and exhaust area

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I don’t have a definitive answer for you, because I am not as familiar with the dome style. But again, you’ve made the dome from castable refractory, which by its nature will keep heat in the oven interior rather than allowing it to convect through.

The response from Brickwood is about the openings. The chimney area is specifically designed to exhaust VERY hot gases, and the door will have some exhaust gas and a lot of radiant heat. So when he says:

…he’s talking possible temperatures exceeding 1,000°F.

The Ovenzz product he mentions is a HarbisonWalker product, and there are others. You could contact them directly and describe your plans to them. They’re really good about recommendations, and if they have a distribution center nearby, so much the better. Use the Supply Locator on this site, or go directly to HWI’s web site.

Let us know what you find, and good luck! (Really, let us know—I’m curious now!)

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Hi. How did the tile finish come along?