I use it to fill in the low spots in my gravel driveway.
Great for traction on ice and snow, better than salt.
Ash Disposal?
- BrotherDave
- Member
- Posts: 98
- Joined: Wed. Jan. 05, 2011 12:50 pm
- Location: Stroudsburg, PA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Harman VF3000
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Godin 3727 / King KCC205
- CoalHeat
- Member
- Posts: 8862
- Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
- Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
- Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
- Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
- Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert
Merged with the already existing thread.
Ash on the driveway, ash in the yard, ash in the woods, I have it everywhere.
If you dig down about 6 inches around the house there is ash from years gone by. In one spot I actually found lots of burnable pieces, looks like it was nut size.
Ash on the driveway, ash in the yard, ash in the woods, I have it everywhere.
If you dig down about 6 inches around the house there is ash from years gone by. In one spot I actually found lots of burnable pieces, looks like it was nut size.
- Sunny Boy
- Member
- Posts: 25556
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 1:40 pm
- Location: Central NY
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
- Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood range 208, # 6 base heater, 2 Modern Oak 118.
- Coal Size/Type: Nuts !
- Other Heating: Oil &electric plenum furnace
Same here.
The first house here (front half of my house now) was a small two bed room "English cottage" built in 1866. It was expanded to a Queen Ann Victorian in 1892. Two of the early owners were the local coal dealers. Remnants of the brick foundation and cold air chase of the original coal furnace "octopus " still remain in the dirt basement floor.
Wherever I dig on the property there's unburned bits of coal in ash pits, along with pieces of rusted cans, broken glass, and pottery. They burned and buried their house-hold garbage in pits about two feet deep.
When I tore out the 21 x 32 foot wooden floor of the carriage house, under the floor, from foundation to foundation, it was a foot deep with unburned coal fines. Buried in the fines were a lot of old glass bottles, more house-hold burned garbage, and a woman's high button leather shoe. I guess they dumped the fines there to get rid of them from their coal business's silos across the road. I had to dig out all the fines to pour the concrete floor. It all got mixed in with the 22 tons of crushed stone that makes up my driveway, along with eight years of coal ash from my stove.
Paul
The first house here (front half of my house now) was a small two bed room "English cottage" built in 1866. It was expanded to a Queen Ann Victorian in 1892. Two of the early owners were the local coal dealers. Remnants of the brick foundation and cold air chase of the original coal furnace "octopus " still remain in the dirt basement floor.
Wherever I dig on the property there's unburned bits of coal in ash pits, along with pieces of rusted cans, broken glass, and pottery. They burned and buried their house-hold garbage in pits about two feet deep.
When I tore out the 21 x 32 foot wooden floor of the carriage house, under the floor, from foundation to foundation, it was a foot deep with unburned coal fines. Buried in the fines were a lot of old glass bottles, more house-hold burned garbage, and a woman's high button leather shoe. I guess they dumped the fines there to get rid of them from their coal business's silos across the road. I had to dig out all the fines to pour the concrete floor. It all got mixed in with the 22 tons of crushed stone that makes up my driveway, along with eight years of coal ash from my stove.
Paul
- skobydog
- Member
- Posts: 275
- Joined: Mon. Jun. 10, 2013 9:53 am
- Location: Greenfield MA
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 50-93
- Coal Size/Type: Nut Anthracite
I have a gravel driveway and spread some around where I had large ice patches. I could still run and slide across the ice. All the ash seemed to do was turn the ice a tan color.
I ended up sweeping it off because I didn't like the looks of it and didn't want to track into my house.
I think I'll just dump it over the embankment in my back yard from now on.
I ended up sweeping it off because I didn't like the looks of it and didn't want to track into my house.
I think I'll just dump it over the embankment in my back yard from now on.
- davidmcbeth3
- Member
- Posts: 8505
- Joined: Sun. Jun. 14, 2009 2:31 pm
- Coal Size/Type: nut/pea/anthra
I just dump my ashes on cars of politicians that voted for that stupid gun bill .... enjoy, its "for the children"
-
- Member
- Posts: 3555
- Joined: Tue. Sep. 04, 2007 10:14 pm
- Location: Dalton, MA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: H.B. Smith 350 Mills boiler/EFM 85R stoker
- Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/anthracite
Not sure what's wrong with your ash. Mine is the best traction agent ever. We always keep a barrel of it handy. Wet shoes come off at the door in all seasons here, so tracking it in the house is not an issue.skobydog wrote:I have a gravel driveway and spread some around where I had large ice patches. I could still run and slide across the ice. All the ash seemed to do was turn the ice a tan color.
I ended up sweeping it off because I didn't like the looks of it and didn't want to track into my house.
I think I'll just dump it over the embankment in my back yard from now on.
Most of our ash for the past few years has been used to build up my brother-in-law's unpaved driveway. Before that we had an unpaved driveway, and used the ash for that purpose ourselves.
We now have a paved driveway in pretty marginal condition. My favorite use of coal ash has been in a custom "flowable cinder block" pavement patching compound. The right mix of portland cement, bottom ash, fly ash, plasticizer and tint has the working consistency of pudding and can be screeded singlehandedly by an old guy with a 2x4. And it hardens like concrete and has withstood all forms of weather extremes and lots of traffic. For under $80 in materials I generated and installed a couple of cubic yards of color-matched patches, instead of paying 15x that much to the low-bid paving contractor. It's not perfect but is a giant improvement over the mess that was there.
Mike
- Rice Burner
- Member
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Sun. Apr. 19, 2009 7:24 am
- Location: Cortlandt Manor, NY
- Coal Size/Type: rice
I used a large portion of this winters ash to lay a bed for a flagstone patio. Mixed it with some soil and tamped it down works great.
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- Member
- Posts: 27
- Joined: Sat. Dec. 01, 2012 8:18 am
- Location: South Western Pennsylvania
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Newmac
- Coal Size/Type: Anthracite, nut all so Bit.
- Other Heating: Oil
I now put my anthracite coal ash in several white plastic bags, and leave for garbage pickup. I use maybe 3or4 of the bags a week only because I don't want the garbage pickup guys to lug up to heavy of a bag.