Good stove makers have been valued in Rus' since ancient times. Their skills were passed down from generation to generation. The order and composition of mortars that were used for laying fireplaces were brought to perfection.
The most popular today are sauna stoves. In order for them to serve for a long time, you need to know the secrets of cheap raw materials, the peculiarities of preparing a solution from clay for laying stoves, and be able to calculate the ratio of components. You can prepare the solution yourself.
Brick sauna stoves are large structures, their parts function in different conditions. The humidity level and temperature conditions at the base of the stove, next to the firebox and in the chimney duct are different. Temperature delta can reach from 0 to 1000 degrees or more. Smoke passes through the firebox and chimney. In addition, the pipe is exposed to rain, wind and cold. Universal mortar, which would fit all these parameters and withstand them with honor until they were invented.
Cement or lime, either together or separately, cannot withstand such a temperature range.
On a note. Clay spreads in water, lime allows gases to pass through. Therefore, where the steam room, washing room and rest room are used no less three types masonry mixtures. They will all be different in their performance characteristics.
In addition, it should be borne in mind that fire-resistant solutions are expensive. It is advisable to use them where it develops Maximum temperature. But for the foundation and main structural parts of the furnace, you can prepare cheaper mixtures. Clay is considered a relatively inexpensive building material. If you wish, you can obtain it yourself, and then the solution will be practically free. All that remains is to determine its quality and suitability for masonry and prepare it in a special way.
Clay sand mortar for furnaces is also sold and manufactured in factories. There is already a calculated ratio of components. The big disadvantage is their high price; the oven will turn out golden, because you need quite a lot of solution. For comparison: for 100 bricks you need about 2-3 buckets of the mixture. The exact quantity depends on the thickness of the seams and the density of the rows. Each master has his own style of masonry and, accordingly, the consumption of mortar.
If you recalculate factory mixtures to the actual scale of construction, then thrifty owners will not be pleased with the price. Therefore, you can take a closer look at budget masonry mortars that you can make yourself. It is also possible to prepare clay for ovens with your own hands; the composition of the solution will not be affected.
The composition of the mixtures is not complicated: one or two components and water. Binding elements - clay, cement, lime. The filler is sand, which can be silicate or fireclay. It is important to take water that does not contain impurities or any technical additives. Water from a tap, well or open reservoir is suitable. But the ideal liquid for the solution is considered to be rain or melt water.
Porosity, gas conductivity, and thermal conductivity qualities of solutions vary. They are united by ease of application, good ductility and high strength after the solution hardens. Each type of solution must meet its declared properties.
Furnace masters classify solutions into the following categories:
When the mixture contains one binder component (cement, clay), the solution is classified as simple. The ratio of components is designated as follows: 1:1, 1:2, 1:3. These designations help you understand what proportions are used in solutions. The first number indicates the binder component, the second the filler. When the solution is complex, made of two binders components(cement-lime mixture), the designation is as follows: 1: 2: 8. The first number is the most effective binder. Stove makers use mixtures that are normal in plasticity and strength. Fatty solutions are brought to the desired condition by adding sand; thin solutions are mixed with lime or clay.
If we exclude the reinforced concrete mortar used in the foundation, when constructing the furnace, use the following types solutions:
This is the cheapest solution; it is used to lay the main part of the structure. The seemingly low cost of a ready-made, factory-produced clay mixture will actually add up to a considerable amount, since a lot of the mixture will be needed. But the components can be obtained for free. They are under your feet. Therefore, it makes sense to find out how to make clay mortar for laying a stove with your own hands; it doesn’t require much effort. Clay will also be needed when you need to make a mixture for laying the firebox.
Before you start preparing solutions, you need to select a tool:
After the tool is prepared, you will need to prepare the components for the solution.
To get by on a budget, you should first stock up on clay and sand. With their help, they not only make solutions, but also regulate plasticity. When the furnace part is laid out, clay will be needed. What is she? This is a material created by nature itself, very plastic when saturated with water. Varies in fat content. If it contains more than 40 percent sand, it is skinny. It is not suitable for laying stoves pure form, since the seams will be fragile. The normal sand ratio is 37-38 percent. When there are fewer of them, the clay is normalized by mixing regular or fireclay sand.
Where can I get clay for laying a stove? There are several methods:
On a note. You need to know that colors may vary. It depends on mineral inclusions. And this does not affect the quality of the clay. It is believed that the best clay white, that is, kaolin. It is used to prepare a clay mixture when laying the firebox.
Gray, bluish-gray and greenish-gray breeds are more common. But there is clay in brown-chocolate and earthy shades. This indicates that the composition contains iron oxides, which give this color.
Experienced stove masonry masters not only know how to prepare clay for laying a stove, but also determine its suitability immediately, without laboratory research. But novice craftsmen must test the clay experimentally. To do this, you need to take 5 measurements of clay, half a kilo each (or a kilogram).
Sand is sold packaged or in bulk, already sorted into fractions. But it is possible to obtain it yourself and use it for stove mortar. So, white quartz sand is perfect for laying any areas of the stove; yellow sand cannot be used for the firebox.
On a note. If you decide to buy sand, then it is better to take the mountain or lake option, such construction material is best suited for the construction of a furnace and binds the components of the solution well.
Where can you dig up sand yourself? In abandoned quarries, ravines, river shallows, along steep river banks. The purest sand is not at a depth of one meter or one and a half meters. Otherwise, you will have to wash it for a long time.
If the sand has foreign inclusions, it needs to be cleaned. To do this, sand is poured into a trough and filled with ordinary water. After this, the mixture is thoroughly shaken. The turbidity and dirt that floats out are drained. And so on until the water is clear. For sifting, take a metal construction sieve with cells of 1x1.5 mm.
To understand how to properly dilute clay for laying a stove, clay samples must be placed in various containers. Add water gradually to obtain a plastic solution that does not stick to your hands, resembling well-kneaded dough. Each sample is marked with a serial number.
Sand is introduced gradually, in portions, stirring after each addition. When a lot of sand is added, you need to increase the volume of water.
Before soaking clay for laying a stove, you need to determine its quality. As samples, 2-3 balls with a diameter of 50 mm are made from each sample, as well as cakes 20-30 mm thick. Then they should be dried in a place where there is no draft. After ten days have passed, the cakes and balls need to be checked to understand where best composition. To do this, each ball is dropped from a meter height onto the floor. It should not break or crumble when compressed. Dried samples should not have large cracks. For the experiments to be successful, it is necessary to prepare several balls of each type of clay to be sure.
There are two more ways. First, each sample is rolled into balls 50 mm in diameter. They are placed under a press, the role of which is performed by two planks. If, after compression, the ball shrinks twice and small cracks, clay is plastic. If shrinkage occurs only by a third of the diameter, cracks will be noticeable; this is clay with medium plasticity. Skinny clay will shrink only one quarter or less, or it will simply crumble.
The next method is with flagella up to 20 mm thick and 250 mm long. They need to be stretched one by one and bent around a wooden rolling pin or a shovel handle (50 mm in diameter). Skinny clay will not withstand the test; the flagellum will immediately break without stretching. With an average degree of plasticity, the flagellum will begin to tear, and the stretching segment will become 20 percent less in thickness. The folds of the “sausage” will crack. The plastic clay will not break off, but will smoothly bend around the handle.
Furnace mortars are made from clay, which has average plasticity. It is not difficult to determine the amount of solution required; its volume is a tenth of the volume of the oven.
Before soaking clay for the oven, you need to prepare convenient containers. This could be a barrel or a trough. The clay is loaded into a container and filled with water for 2-3 days. If during this period it does not completely soften, then you need to leave it for another day.
How to make clay for laying a stove so that it meets the standards and requirements? The softened clay must be mixed very well. The result should be a mass similar in structure to thick sour cream. If necessary, add water. Then the creamy mixture needs to be strained. The ratio of sand and clay is determined through experiments.
Clay mortar for laying a stove is made as follows. Pour the components into the container gradually, distributing them in layers. Then you need to mix everything thoroughly, adding water as needed. Do this until the solution becomes a homogeneous loose mass. If you stick a shovel into such a mixture, the solution will slowly slide, but not spread. Such a clay batch is stored by covering the top with roofing felt, polyethylene or plywood. The shelf life is unlimited, you just need to add water when needed.
There is another way, but it requires an application physical strength. There is no need to sift anything. Sand in the required quantity is laid out in ridges on a wooden board. You will need a platform of approximately 1.5x1.5 meters. The width of the ridges is about 40 cm, the height is no more than 25 cm. A depression is made exactly in the middle of the ridge, which is filled with softened clay. The raw materials are shoveled, and sand from the edges is poured into the clay until everything becomes a homogeneous substance.
After this, a ridge is formed again, which is cut with force with the edge of a wooden oar. Use frequent blows to break up all the lumps. Add water if necessary. This method is not used often. This folk method used for preparing small portions of solution.
By using lime mortar laying the foundation of the stove and the chimney on the roof. It should be taken into account that when slaked, lime increases 3-5 times. Therefore, take the appropriate container.
Lime is well filled with water. Mix the solution and break the stones until the mixture resembles thick sour cream. Gradually add sand until pieces of the mixture begin to stick to the shovel. This solution can be stored for a long time, adding water as necessary.
This is a rather difficult procedure; you can buy a ready-made lime mixture. As a rule, you won’t need much lime when laying a stove. This material behaves very well when working; there are no special problems with preparing lime-based solutions.
How to make fireproof mortar for a stove so that the stove lasts a long time? For laying the firebox, take plastic white clay, maybe yellowish or gray. The role of filler is performed by fireclay sand. It is made from broken fireclay bricks, which are then crushed by crushing. It brings the solution to more high level resistance to high temperatures. This sand is used instead of the usual sand to prepare solutions intended for combustion chambers, which are laid out of fireclay bricks.
To reduce the cost, you can take fireclay sand mixed with ordinary quartz sand in equal proportions. The mixture will still retain its fireproof properties.
Plastic clay does not need additional testing. It is kneaded in clean, soft water. To facilitate the kneading procedure, construction mixers are used.
If you know what solution to lay the stove on and how to get cheap building material, you can save a lot when building a sauna stove.
On average, when laying stoves, three buckets of mortar are required per hundred bricks.
Ideally, clay mortar and brick are almost the same in composition and can withstand heat of more than 1000 degrees. Professional stove makers determine the quality of the clay for the mortar by touch and carry out the laying with a joint thickness of 3-4 mm. With thicker seams, the clay between the bricks does not withstand high temperatures and crumbles, cracks form into which air is sucked in, which means traction worsens, fuel consumption increases and there is a danger of escape carbon monoxide into a living space.
The golden rule of kiln work is that the less clay in the kiln masonry, the higher its quality.
One of the basic rules of a stove maker, inherited from our ancestors: the less clay, the better the quality of the masonry. And yet, clay is the most noble building material, since it gives the right to make mistakes. If masonry with cement mortar cannot be disassembled without loss, then stove masonry with clay mortar can be disassembled easily and without waste. At repair work brick and facing material laid on clay mortar can always be preserved.
There is an opinion that the strength of clay mortar can be increased with the help of various additives. For example: for 10 kg of clay - 100-150 g table salt or 1 kg of cement.
However, our great-grandfathers hardly used cement, and their furnaces stood for a hundred years or more.
If the components are correctly selected, the clay solution does not require any additives, and all kinds of recommendations are just a safety net.
The mortar for masonry should be plastic, moderately greasy, or, as they say, normal. The greasy solution dries, decreases in volume and cracks. Skinny does not provide sufficient strength. Clays for preparing mortar come in different fat contents or plasticity. There are clay deposits from which a solution of normal fat content is prepared without adding sand. Sometimes you have to mix two or three clays taken from different places, and strictly dosing them.
First they are mixed dry, then mixed with water. If the clays turn out to be oilier, then sand is added to them, the amount of which can range from 0.5 to 5 parts by volume. The most common ratio of clay and sand in the finished solution is 1:1 or 1:2. The amount of water is approximately 1/4 of the volume of clay. Fatty clays will require more sand, which should be fine-grained and free of foreign impurities. The sand is first sifted through a fine sieve with a mesh size of 1.5x1.5 mm, at least. Very thin clays have to be washed by removing excess sand.
There are many ways Clay quality testing.
One of the simplest: form a ball from the prepared solution and throw it on the floor. If the ball crumbles, it means there is a lot of sand and little clay in the solution; if cracks appear in the resulting cake, it means there is still a lot of sand. If the ball does not show a single crack, the solution is normal or greasy.
First way.
Take 0.5 liters of clay, add a little water to it and knead it thoroughly with your hands until it completely absorbs water and sticks to your hands. Having prepared a stiff dough, roll a ball with a diameter of 40-50 mm and make a flat cake with a diameter of 100 mm from the same ball. Dry them under normal conditions for 2-3 days. If cracks appear on the ball or cake during this time, it means the clay is oily and requires adding sand. If, after drying, there is no crack on the ball or cake, and the ball, falling from a height of 1 m, does not crumble, then such clay is suitable for preparing a solution. Lean clays do not crack, but do not have strength; fattier clays must be added to them. Sand or clay is added in several stages, each time checking the quality of the resulting solution.
Second way.
Take 2-3 liters of clay, place it in some container, fill it with water, knead the lumps and mix with a paddle. If the clay sticks strongly to the funnel (completely envelops it), then it is oily. Sand must be added to such clay. If individual clots remain on the jig, then such clay is considered normal, and a solution is prepared from it without adding sand. If the oar is covered with thin layer of clay, which means she is skinny and requires the addition of fatty clay in certain quantities.
Third way.
This is the most exact way determining the quality of clay necessary for making bricks. 0.5 liters of clay is kneaded until the dough becomes thick and thoroughly kneaded with your hands, as indicated in the first method. Roll the prepared clay dough into a ball with a diameter of 40-50 mm by hand, place it between two smooth (planed) boards and gently press on the top one, gradually squeezing the ball. The compression is repeated until cracks form on the ball. In this case, the degree of fat content of the clay depends on the amount of flattening of the ball and the nature of the cracks that form.
A ball made of lean clay (loam) breaks into pieces with slight pressure on it. A ball of clay slightly fatter than loam will crack when compressed by 1/5-1/4 of its diameter. A ball of normal clay cracks when compressed by 1/3 of its diameter. A ball of oily clay gives thin cracks when it is compressed by 1/2 of its diameter.
The same clay dough as the ball is rolled out by hand into flagella 10-15 mm thick and 150-200 mm long. The flagella are stretched or bent in the shape of a ring around a round and smooth wooden rolling pin with a diameter of 40-50 mm. 
A flagellum made of fatty clay stretches smoothly, gradually becomes thinner, forming sharp ends at the point of rupture, and does not form cracks when bent. A flagellum from normal clay stretches smoothly and breaks off when its thickness at the break point becomes 15-20% less than the thickness of the flagellum, and when bent, small cracks form. A flagellum made of lean clay stretches little, gives an uneven break, and when bent, forms many cracks and tears.
Two or three times repeated testing by crushing the ball, stretching and bending the flagellum allows you to select normal clay suitable for making raw bricks or mortar for laying stoves.
When testing, you have to mix two or three clays, adding sand or, conversely, removing it. Only with this selection can you find the best proportions of certain materials
Still, it is better to err on the side of the fat content of the solution. This is not significant for the operation of the furnace. Conversely, excess sand in the solution can affect the strength of the masonry. The fattier the solution, the more cracks the plaster will produce, but they can be eliminated by grouting with a leaner solution (with more sand added) and whitewashing in several stages.
After the sand and clay have been collected, what remains is prepare the solution correctly R.
First way.
To prepare the solution, the clay is soaked for 2-3 days in a large wooden box, upholstered in tin, or in a special iron “trough”. Then they put it on rubber boots and, gradually adding sand, they trample it until not a single lump of clay remains. You can also break up clay lumps using a special tamper. Then the solution is felt with your hands and the remaining pieces of clay are crushed (or removed). A well-mixed solution, where sand and clay are in the right proportion, should slide off a steel shovel or trowel, and not stick to it. If you apply an even layer of mortar (3-4 mm) to the brick, put a second brick on top, pressing it (knock), and after about five minutes try to lift the top one, then when good quality The bottom solution should not come off. If you dip a stick (the handle of a shovel, etc.) into a normal clay-sand solution, then an insignificant mark will remain on it. A very greasy solution will leave a kind of film on the stick; skinny - will not leave any traces at all.
Second way.
When the clay is normal in fat content and does not require the addition of sand, then do this. They make a boardwalk or shield measuring 1.5 x 1.5 m, called a striker. It is not recommended to mix clay on the ground, as soil and various impurities will get into it. Layers of clay are poured onto the firing pin and moistened with water. As soon as the clay softens, it is shoveled several times and raked into a pile in the form of a narrow bed 300-350 mm high. The length of the bed depends on the amount of clay. Then blows are applied to this bed with the edge of a wooden shovel, as if cutting off slice by slice of the plate from the bed. The impacts cause the lumps to break and become crumpled. Round stones and foreign impurities are removed during operation. Then the clay is shoveled again, raked into a bed and crushed again, striking with a shovel. This operation is repeated 3-5 times until all lumps are broken.
If sand is added to clay, then do this. They pour sand in the form of a wide bed, make depressions in it, pour clay in layers, moisten it with water and fill it with sand on top, wait the required time until the clay softens. Then it is shoveled repeatedly with sand, collected in a bed and crushed with a shovel exactly as described above. You need to knead the clay for so long until it is completely mixed with sand and becomes homogeneous. IN in this case There should be so much clay in the solution that it can only fill the gaps between the grains of sand.
Well mixed solution with the right amount sand and water should slide off the steel shovel, but not spread over it. To the touch it is a slippery mass, uniformly filled with sand, without clay or sand clots. This solution has one drawback: large particles often remain in it, making it difficult to make thin seams and also injuring your hands. While working, you have to constantly probe the solution with your hands, removing all kinds of foreign particles, and this makes the work difficult and slow. It is best to strain this solution through a fine sieve.
Third way.
If clay of normal fat content is used, which does not require the addition of sand, then it is poured into a box or barrel in layers, moistened with water, and poured on top. The clay soaks for several hours. Then it is thoroughly mixed and filtered through a sieve with 3x3 mm mesh. By adding water at the workplace, the required density of the solution is achieved.
When sand is added to clay, all components are measured in the required doses. The materials are sifted separately. After the clay is soaked, it is filtered, sand is added, mixed and filtered again.
Clay solutions should be stored in a closed container so that foreign objects do not accidentally get into the solution. Time spent sifting materials or straining mortar pays off handsomely when laying stoves.
An important stage in the construction of a stove for village house or baths - preparing a reliable masonry mortar.
Properly mixed mortar for laying a stove affects the tightness, durability, heat resistance and safety of the finished structure.
A good mixture for laying a stove is resistant to high temperatures, mechanical damage and cracking.
The process of constructing modern stoves is divided into several stages:
The most important is the stage of direct masonry and the preparation of a reliable foundation, which should have high performance characteristics– heat resistance, adhesion, water resistance, strength and durability.
To equip modern stoves, several types of masonry mortars are used: clay, lime and cement.
Masonry mortars can be simple or complex. Simple ones consist of one type of binder and filler; complex mixtures include two or more binders and several aggregates. Binding components are lime, clay and cement.
To prepare a solution for performing brickwork The following tools will be required:
One of the cheapest and most accessible types of connecting stove mixtures. Clay mortar for laying stoves is characterized by increased fat content, which determines the degree of plasticity, heat resistance and strength of the finished material.
Natural clay oven mortar can be:
A refractory clay mortar is prepared using three components: clay, sand and water. This composition is resistant to cracking and drying out and ensures reliable installation of a brick stove.
The quality of the clay determines the amount of sand needed to mix the solution. Clay and purified water with a low content of impurities are used for work. To lay 100 bricks, on average, up to 20 liters of clean water are used.
To prepare the solution, use a quarry or river sand small fraction without additional impurities. Before use, it must be sifted through a fine-mesh sieve. If it contains gravel impurities, then it is recommended to use a sieve with a mesh size of up to 10 mm. For fine-grained material, a sieve with 2 mm cells is suitable.
Before adding other components, it is recommended to test the clay base for plasticity. How to do such a check? To do this, a small board should be lowered into the resulting mixture for laying the stove and its thickness should be determined. It should be moderately thick and viscous. If there is excess liquid, then it is worth adding a little binder, stirring periodically and testing the mixture for plasticity.
The optimal thickness of the connecting material is 2 mm, which indicates the correct proportions of all components. The finished masonry mass is viscous and not very dense.
The appropriate density of the mortar for masonry depends on the ratio of the main components in it - clay and sand, respectively:
Methods for preparing clay composition
How to prepare high-quality clay-based connecting mass? There are several proven methods.
The required volume of clay is soaked for 24 hours, water is added to obtain a thick mass. The resulting material is carefully filtered, then sand is added to it and mixed again. It is important to avoid the formation of clay puddles, which can be eliminated small portion binder component.
Fireclay sand and clay are combined in a container in equal proportions, purified water is added (1/4 of the volume of clay). All components are thoroughly mixed until a homogeneous mass is obtained.
The composition is mixed on the basis of loam. This recipe makes 10 various options solution from which the best one is selected.
For the first: 10 volumes of loam, 1 volume of sand and 1 volume of cement, etc. Descending volume of loam. Ten resulting bases are placed in different containers and left to dry for 5-6 days. At the end of the allotted time, the most high-quality composition mortar with a minimum degree of shrinkage and resistance to cracking.
Sand and ¼ water are added to the clay. All components are mixed to obtain a thick viscous mass. To increase strength, it is recommended to add rock salt or cement to such a mixture. For a bucket of mixture – up to 250 g of salt and ¾ liter of cement. The salt is first dissolved in water, and the cement is diluted with water to a thick consistency, after which it is added to the finished base.
For the construction of the foundation and stove chimney, it is recommended to use a composition based on lime and cement.
A special dough made by mixing quicklime and water in a 3:1 ratio. Sifted sand is added to the finished dough through a fine-mesh sieve in a ratio of 3:1 - 3 volumes of sand to 1 volume of dough. The finished mass is diluted with water until a thick mass is obtained.
The mixture for laying a lime-based stove is quite plastic and durable.
The fat content of the lime composition is determined by the amount of sand. For an excessively fatty mixture, 5 volumes of the sand component are required, for a normal mixture - no more than 3 volumes.
Strength and water resistance can be increased by adding cement. To prepare such a composition, it is necessary to use the components in the following proportions (parts):
Preparation of the solution has the following sequence of actions: cement and sand components are combined in a separate container. The finished lime-based dough is diluted with purified water until a thick consistency is obtained. Add bulk ingredients to the diluted dough and mix. To increase viscosity, the composition is diluted with water.
What solution is needed for arranging the stove foundation and laying the outer part of the chimney? The answer is simple - a composition based on cement, sand and water. In terms of strength, it is equal to its lime counterpart, but it takes much longer to harden.
The optimal composition of the finished mass is obtained in the following proportions - 3:1 (for 3 volumes of sand 1 volume of cement grade M 300 or 400). Before mixing, all components are sifted through a fine-mesh sieve. Sifted sand is poured into a deep container, cement is added and mixed until smooth. At the end water is added.
The finished mixture must be brought to a thick and viscous consistency. Determining the appropriate density is quite simple - the composition should remain mobile, but not flow off the shovel when it is rotated up to 45 degrees.
To increase strength, you can use quartz chips. Fireproof concrete mixture It turns out to be coarse-grained, with increased density and water resistance.
For proper mixing of 25 kg of finished mixture, 10 liters of water are required. The best way mixing - mechanical using a concrete mixer. The finished composition hardens quickly, so it is recommended to use it immediately after preparation.
Construction of the furnace has its own distinctive features in a relationship the right choice composition and preparation of masonry mortar. Different compositions are used for different structural elements.
There are no trifles in the baking business. Construction process brick oven verified over centuries, any deviation will inevitably affect its subsequent operation. One of the most important stages This process is the preparation of masonry mortar, the strength and durability of the future structure depends on it. How to properly prepare and mix clay for laying stoves will be described in this material.
To begin with, it should be noted that at the moment there is the simplest and quick way properly prepare clay for laying a stove. The method is convenient for beginners in the stove business or those people who decided to build a brick stove at home once and never return to it. Nowadays there is a ready-made mixture for laying stoves in bags on sale; you need to purchase a sufficient amount of it and mix it in accordance with the instructions on the package.
It is clear that such a clay solution for laying stoves will cost a pretty penny, and if not done correctly, even a ready-made one mortar may be kneaded incorrectly. Therefore, it is always useful to become familiar with the traditional process of preparing masonry mixture. And it begins with the extraction of natural clay, which is available in your area. The best way to take it is from ready-made soil excavations, ravines or cuts on river banks.
Advice. You should not use clay from the most upper layers, where there are many organic impurities, due to which the future structure may lose strength.
Having dug up the raw materials for the solution and moved it to the construction site, you need to pour it into a suitable container (barrel or large trough) and dilute the clay with water. The minimum ratio is 1 part water to 4 parts clay by volume. This procedure is called soaking and lasts 1-2 days, after which the solution must be thoroughly mixed to the state of a liquid homogeneous pulp, best of all using an electric stirrer. The resulting pulp is filtered through a sieve with 3 x 3 mm cells, sifting out impurities and pebbles.
It is not always possible to extract sand in the same way, since it is not found everywhere, so it is easier to use imported sand. In order for the mixing of clay for masonry to be successful, the sand must be dry and clean; wet sand cannot be used. Accordingly, the sand is dried if necessary and then passed through a sieve with a fine mesh (1-1.5 mm). The components for the masonry mortar are ready.
There is important point. There are no clear proportions of components for mixing the solution; you need to determine them yourself. The fact is that the clay already contains sand in a certain amount; if there is little of it, then it is considered fat, and when there is a lot, it is considered skinny. Accordingly, the proportions can be different - from 1: 2 to 1: 5 by volume.
Note. The first place in the ratio of any solution is always the binder, in our case clay. The second place indicates the amount of filler (sand).
To complete the masonry, it is necessary to maintain such a ratio of clay and sand so that the solution turns out to be of medium fat content. To do this, it is recommended to do a test batch in the following sequence:
When the masonry mixture behaves in accordance with the description, the proportion of clay and sand is maintained in the future. If the solution falls off the trowel in an inverted state, then you need to add clay to it and repeat the test. If the mixture sticks to the trowel at the 90º position, it indicates that it is too greasy and requires adding sand.
A mortar that is too greasy will crack after drying, and a thin mortar will not provide adequate strength to the masonry. That's why proper preparation clay is so important.
As for the amount of water, it is also determined experimentally during the mixing process. A thick mixture will not fill the pores of the bricks well and the seam will be too thick. The liquid will spread and will not provide normal adhesion between the bricks, and adding the mixture will only cause increased consumption of clay, but not the strength of the seam. To do this, you need to check the solution by running the flat surface of a trowel over it and examine the mark left behind.
In photo No. 1, the mixture is too thick, the trace comes with tears, you need to add a little water and mix the clay correctly. Photo No. 2 – the groove quickly floats on the sides due to large quantity water, the clay should settle a little, after which the excess water can be drained. A correctly prepared solution is shown in photo number 3. How clay is mixed in practice is shown in the video:
A solution of natural clay and sand is used for laying stoves with low temperature conditions– up to 1000 ºС. When more is provided heat in the firebox, fireclay clay is used for masonry, and the walls of the combustion chamber are made of refractory bricks. By the way, the latter is made from the same fireclay (kaolin) clay.
In this case, the working solution can be prepared in two ways:
Stirring a solution of fireclay clay, sold in bags, will not be difficult, you just need to monitor its fluidity so as not to overdo it with water. To prepare using the second method, you need to purchase fireclay (mortar) in the form of sand and white or gray refractory clay. The proportions are as follows:
Otherwise fireclay clay for masonry it is prepared in the same way as simple one. The main thing is to maintain the normal fat content of the solution so that your oven does not crack.
Properly mixed clay for stove masonry is the key to long service life of the future stove. Unlike cement mortars, the clay does not harden, but simply dries out and does not have such strength. Therefore, choosing the correct proportions of all components is very important.
