Just started laying the block yesterday.
hope I don't screw up the rest
We will fire brick as much as we can I only have 147 of them. I got 97 from the old chimney that was in the house here before hurricane Katrina the other 50 I bought for 100.00 they are expensive here in Louisiana. We will do what we can. The smoker is part of the outdoor kichen project. We are working on a budget. LolQuite the smoker. Just a thought fire brick is easier to heat and retains heat better than CMU. You may want to consider fire brick for the entire interior. Otherwise you will spend a bunch of time and fuel heating up the CMU.
The roof should not get hot.... To provide adequate air flow to the smoker, and controllable air flow to the fire, may I suggest something similar to the door below...We lined the entire fire box with fire bricks including the floor, the only thing that doesn't have fire bricks is the roof. Dose anyone think that will be a problem?