loose fire bricks

[maplefarmer]

last season was my first,and a friend firebricked my evap, a 2x6. i noticed after the season that the bricks were loose on the wall on one side, like the whole wall moves out from the evap. side. i don't know how strong they are hooked together, or should i take them apart, if they will come apart and remortar them?

[red maples]

one thing you can do which is what I did last year and it did work was to thin down the mortar and let it run into the cracks. I did use refractory cement for which cures by heat no chemical. I still have a few cracks but nothing moves!!!

[Dennis H.]

I had alot of cracks in the motar on my barrel evap after a few firings.
When I tore it apart to make room for the new evap I had to break a few bricks in half or multiple pieces to remove them. And this is even when I few could move slightly.
I don't thinks small cracks are anything to worry about. As long as there are no large gaps in the motar or that any bricks can be removed easily. With refractory motar you should have just used a thin layer between the bricks. Most should have squeezed out when setting the bricks, maybe 1/8" motar between bricks.

[red maples]

yes I was told to use very little gap between the bricks with the ref. cement. I was also told the good thing about the ref. cement over the mortar is that when cracks develop the cemenrt doesn't crack smooth its jagged so in most cases the the jagged cracks combined with the 1/8" spacing the bricks won't move. and the sides of the arch are angled out so gravity helps too!!!

[maplefarmer]

thank you guys for the input, that was my concern all along that the mortar was to thin. it seems he must have done it right, i will have to pull on thema little harder, and if they hold, i will try the thin mort. to fill in the gaps