I want to close off the front of my Barile series oven a bit. Do I have to use fire brick or can I use regular brick? What type of mortar should I use?

If you plan on closing off the front of your Mattone Barile or Mattone Barile Grande oven, try to use firebrick to make the enclosure - and make sure you use High Temperature mortar when placing the bricks into place.

Now, several customers in our Mattone Barile Photo Gallery have closed off their ovens using standard clay brick as clay bricks can withstand around 600° + degrees (and the front of the oven doesn’t get as hot as other parts of the oven). But no matter what type of brick you use to close-off the front of the oven, just make sure that you use High-Temperature mortar.

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Can I use the "thin"fire bricks or full size for front enclosure

We would prefer that you use full size fire brick if at all possible! This will give you a long-lasting 3.5" thick front oven wall.

Thin brick is great for hearth floors - but the front of the oven needs to be much more durable than the 1.5" fire brick split thickness.