Making a wood burning oven "Insulating the Hearth"

This step is pretty simple

Use a mixture of 5 parts perlite, 1 part portland cement, 1 part water. I used a 5 gallon bucket to measure and found that using 2 1/2 buckets perlite, 1/2 bucket each water and cement was about right. Much more and it is hard to mix the stuff on the bottom. So here we go:

2  1/2 buckets perlite

1/2 bucket cement. Mix dry ingredients

1/2 bucket water and mix until it will clump when squeezed

Shovel it in and screed it off

Pack lightly with your trowel fill low spots screed pack etc...