If I close off the front of my Mattone Barile Grande to the recommended opening size, does the door still fit?
I notice the door purchased has a lip on the bottom of the steel plate.
The Barile Door fits both the Mattone Barile & Mattone Barile Grande.
Since no two BrickWood Ovens are identical, having a single size door was not an option. Instead, we designed a door that simply presses against the opening of your oven to keep 95% or more of the heat inside the oven.
So now, no matter what size oven opening you have - our door can be used to cover the opening.
The Barile door is 27.5"W and the flange on the on the backside of the door is 20"W. This gives you 3.7" of clearance on either side. If you choose to close-off the opening with a bit w/ brick, you are able to add up to 3.5" of closure and still be able to use the door (with .25" to spare).
I’ve attached a pic of the BrickWood Ovens Mattone Barile Door dimensions -
If I make a 17" wide opening, should I not mortar the underside of the bottom/base bricks that surrounds the door opening, so the 20" flange can slide underneath?
You just hit me w/ something that has never been brought up - but I think I will redesign our door flange so it is a bit smaller in the future.
But for now, if you want to go w/ a 17" wide opening - Grab a piece of 1/8" MDF paneling or thin wood veneer from your local HD or Lowes (usually in the millwork / fine wood section). They may also sell small panels by the wood dowels section too (hobby wood). Before you purchase a large 1/8" x 4’ x 8’ sheet ($15), see if they have any small / scrap pieces lying around that is around 12" x 24".
Cut that piece of panel to roughly 20" x 4" or 5" ish… Then place that thin board where the door flange will be inserted under the front brick… then mortar the brick in as normal - right on top of that board (and even behind the board. Make sure you use high-temp mortar. Try to keep the mortar as thin as that wood panel (no mortar on the wood panel - just around it).
Once the mortar is dry… good and hard… remove the thin piece of wood. It will be lodged in there, so you will need to use a knife or something small / flat to really get it out… but once it’s out, you will have a 20" opening about 1.5" deep - and under the brick / mortar.
The additional benefit of this - when the door is in place, that flange will be under the brick and be extra secure when the door is in place.
Thoughts?
Yep this is along the lines of my thinking too. Makes sense otherwise the flange will not slide up under the 1.5” of brick on each side of the 17” door opening. Thank you.
One other thing, the diagram measures the dimensions of the flange at 20”. However in the picture of the door it looks like the flange runs the entire length 27.5”, as you can see the flange sticking out on the bottom side. Just want to confirm this observation. Thanks.
I threw a tape measure on the door flange that we are currently shipping and its 12".
I need to update the CAD… Directions 2.0 coming soon 
So no need for the 20” gap for the door flange? 12” correct? If not I will fill in that 20” gap on the under side of the front entrance bricks.