Smoker with wood and cement board

[Vice-3]

I am in the begining stages of building a smoker with cement board on the inside and the frame being made from wood. The outside will be covered in stone, but the inside is 1/4 Hardibacker cement board. My questions are: is that ok just as it is, or should I line the cement board with sheet metal? Also, has anyone done something like this before?

The fire box will be seperate from the cooking area, so there will only be smoke and heat (no flame) in the cooking area.

Thank you for any help

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

This is the first I've heard of anyone using cement board in a smoker. I'm not sure how well it will hold up since most cement board use large amounts of fiber glass in their construction. Maybe someone else will know more about this than I do.

[Vice-3]

I've seen a few ones done with the hardibacker as cold smokers. Not sure about the fiberglass in the HB. Good point, I'll look into that

[The Czar]

I would be a little nervous of a possible smoldering issue of the board?

[Big T]

I usually have a lot of moisture in my CC when its loaded down and I've left a few sheets of hardi board under my shed and it seemed to deteriorate over time and it never had any direct water on it. jm2cw

[AlwaysSmokey]

IDK,.. a red flag immediately went off when I read this. But,.. If it's the smoke chamber, honestly I don't see why it wouldn't work. People use plywood all the time. Good luck !

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

Plywood is used in a traditional smokehouse. For the most part these smokehouses operate at a much lower temp and a BBQ pit. We used to run our old wood smokehouse never high than 180 degrees. A BBQ pit could be twice that temp.

[Rodcrafter]

I can't imagine the benefit trying to use it.

[Hotstuff]

My very first build was was a wood shed with press board on the outside covered with roofing paper the inside was cement board. However I applied surewall to the concrete board. I got the idea after touring some plantations in the South where repairs were made using surewall to brick structures the owner said the surewall held up real well. I used rock insulation in the walls my biggest mistake came from cleaning made the sure deteriorate.

[Heatermeter builder]

If you don't plan on going over 200°f then I guess cementboard would be ok. Looking at the manufacturers PDF they say not to be installed in places over 200°. I would think it would become brittle over time