KILN ROOM VENTILATION AND FIREPROOF MATERIALS
Clay is an excellent, plentiful, traditional, and inexpensive art material. Many clays and glaze ingredients contain air pollutants when fired. Electric kilns need good ventilation to remove toxins from volatile clay impurities and glaze ingredients. Place kilns in separate rooms -- not in the classroom. Masonry walled kiln rooms allow kilns to be closer to the wall. Air from a kiln room needs to go directly outside - never into a common building exhaust or ventilation system. For electric kiln exhaust systems it may be adequate to leave a one-inch gap at the base of the door(s) to the room. The ventilation system should produce a slight negative pressure in the kiln room so no fumes exit the kiln room into the classroom.