Brick BBQ advice

[Peanutthecat]

Hi, I'm going to buid a brick bbq in the garden, which in Sweden has temps from -10C in winter to +30C in summer.
For the concrete base I'm going to use 'fine concrete' as that seems all that's available for outside use here, but for the cement used to build the bbq I was going to use refractory cement- would this cope with cold-temps or am I over-thinking this?
I'm going to use house bricks for the bbq but line with fire bricks.
Thanks in advance.

 

[JohnD]

if the bricks are liable to get wet and frozen, ordinary bricks are liable to spall and crack. Some UK bricks can crumble after a few winters if wrongly used. Here I would use a paving or engineering brick, which is dense, expensive, and can resist damp and frost. Engineering brick are used as a damp proof course in fine work as they do not absorb water. They are made from a different clay (often from coal mines) and fired at a higher temperature.

I expect Swedish building materials will be somewhat different.

Italians may use different techniques for outdoor pizza ovens, but they are scarce here. They look like they might be moulded from clay or Roman cement. Italian bricks are different as they do not have shale oil in the clay and are made thinner. We do not have Roman cement as it is volcanic.

 

[Peanutthecat]

Thanks very much JohnD, really good to know! (I'm a beginner DIYer...)
I've seen conflicting guides/comments that you either need to use refractory cement and fire bricks or that you do not as the open fire doesn't get hot enough.