Anyone who has followed this blog over the last few years will be familiar with articles I post that demonstrate how, periodically, I neglect the oven and then have to undertake major repairs. This demonstrates two things. Firstly, I’m not very good at looking after my oven. Secondly, considering these ovens are only made from clay and sand, they are fundamentally extremely resilient.
My oven is almost seven years old now. I have, over the years, repaired the chimney, completely rebuilt the brick arch and replaced some of the outer layer around the front of the oven. You can see these repairs outlined in the following posts:
Last year I had to replace a large section of the outer layer at the rear of the oven. The following series of photos outlines the process.
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- Outer layer eroded
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- Outer layer eroded
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- You can see how the outer layer slumped away in the rain
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- Removed excess outer layer
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- Wet the layer and rebuild with clay:sand mixture
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- Repaired!
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- Looking as good as new again.
As you can see, the oven is very straight forward to repair. I normally keep a bag of clay:sand mixture at hand, ready to use for patching-up the oven when needed.
Obviously, if you take care of your oven better than I do mine, you’ll need to do this less frequently but what I think this demonstrates is that these ovens are much more resilient than most people would expect.
The Clay Oven 
Simon, would you recommend tiling the dome structure?
I wouldn’t. These ovens have to crack to accommodate expansion.
What kind of clay would consider to be best, terracotta/firing clay or the air drying stuff?
Any clay. Cheaper the better. Makes no difference at all. See: https://clayoven.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/beware-of-the-clay/
Cheers
Simon
I haven’t taken the winter wrapping off yet this year. I always wonder what I’ll find. Last year was great! No repairs needed. This winter was really wet, so we’ll see. I too have a bag of clay/sand mixture, just in case.
Make sure you let us know Jeanette! Good luck.