Rutland Castable Refractory Cement, High Temp Fireplace & Woodstove Fire Cement, for Casting Custom FireBrick, Refractory Panels & Fire Pits, Outdoor, Taupe, 12.5 Pound

Very easy to use,set up nicely in 24 hours. The pail was enough to make 1 single block that was 3 and a half inches wide and nearly that thick and 21 inches long. I made a form to make 1 solid brick to place across the front edge of my Opel2 fireplace insert to prevent debris from falling out onto the hearth. So far no cracking and is working as intended.

The inner wall of the wok stove in the restaurant is peeling off. Ordinary cement cannot withstand the high temperature of several thousand degrees. This high temperature resistant cement perfectly solves the problem. It can withstand 2200 degrees and is worth recommending.

Let me start off by saying that my rating is coming from someone who has never worked with mortar of any kind. For my application, I'm giving it a 4 out of 5. I bought this after exhaustive research into finding a product that would seal up the gaps between my fireplace facade and the firebox; There was a danger where embers could be sucked up into the framing of the fireplace and catch the chimney on fire. The drywall is visible as well. I had a bottom strip opening, (roughly .125"-.25" x 30") and 2 vertical side gaps running the height of the firebox, about 1.25" x 2" x 24". When mortaring onto a ground surface it's much easier to work with, but if you're trying to patch/fill a gap on a vertical surface, it's more challenging. Take care to add water a little bit at a time, and do the ball test like the instructions on the outside of the box suggest. It's easy to get the mortar too wet. ***If you're going for a vertical application where you're using a thicker layers: make sure it had a good and tough consistency.. if the mortar starts sliding out, it's too wet. There is definitely a sweet spot, where using this mortar on vertical surfaces can be more easily achieved. I suggest using braces, wood, or strong tape to hold vertical gaps you're trying to fill. The color dries to a very light gray. I also suggest gloves, a face mask, goggles, gloves, and a drop cloth, especially if you're working indoors.Photos: 1. Still wet after filling in the bottom gap. 2 & 3. Dried vertical sides and showing a bit of the bottom as well. You can see how much cleaner the work was on the bottom versus the vertical sides. If I was to do this again, I would have waited when realizing some of my mortar mixture was too thin to apply, and I would of had some type of bracing setup to hold in place. But if you find the "sweet spot," you wouldn't need any braces.

Easy to use. Work well as grout/mortar in my kiva outdoor oven.

Worked perfectly on repairing the woodstove, would recommend it to everyone

Mixed exactly by directions and it was very thick. Difficult to trowel and sets up far to quickly

I got 4 bricks from 12.5 lbs. That's $5.52 per brick. That might be a little less than if I bought the bricks at the hardware store. The bricks are way better than the ones at the store. The bricks are 9 in X 4.5 in X 1 in X 4 bricks = 162 cu. in. So I didn't know how many bricks I could make, so I made forms to make 9 bricks. I'm going to make more. Next time I'll get a 25 lb. bucket of cement and make 8 bricks. Here's what I did, I had a piece of 3/4 in. plywood X about 11inches X 48 in for the bottom and covered it with plastic, then I ripped a 1X4 into 1-inch strips. I cut 2 of them 48 inches long and covered them with plastic. Stapled on the top and cut 10 pieces 9 inches long and covered them with plastic. (before I covered the 1-inch strips I drilled the holes for the screws.) I cut 2 pieces of the plywood 9 x 4.5 inches and screwed them together, (the size of a brick) I put one long side on the bottom and one end piece on then put the wooden brick next to the end piece and put another 9-inch piece in and screwed it down. and that till it was finished. I used 1 1/2 inch screws. Good luck !!Update: 9/2/22 - So it turns out I can buy the fire bricks cheaper than I can make them from the same company (Rutland) I get the cement from.

Used this to fix some mortar on the hearth of my fireplace, near where it meets the firebox. The old mortar had cracked and fallen out after 40+ years. This material is easy to work with in small batches, though my experience was that it set quite a bit faster than stated in the directions - I was supposed to get up to 20 minutes of work time; I scarcely got 10. Mix a little bit at a time, trowel it in and leave it be - don't fuss. Filled in a large area at the edge of the firebox, no issues with shrinking or cracking, cured product is rock hard and staying in place. I've used Rutlands Fireplace Patch product before - don't waste your time with that, this is superior in every way.