What do you do with your wood stove/fireplace ash?

[atvdave]

I just dump it in my yard waist burn pile in my yard, and fill holes, but here a link for many things you can do with it.

10 Uses for Wood Ashes | Fireplaces | Interior | This Old House

 

[mom45]

It's great for certain flowers like the rose bushes. We dump them out back.

 

[Lee11b]

thanks for the link atvdave!!!! this years wood pellets from TSC stink....lots of ash and they haze the glass door quickly

 

[Slawburger]

My ashes get hauled about once a week during the winter. Wife does all the work and cleans up afterward.

I see what you did there.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I used to put them on the garden; after 2-3 yeras of repeated application my soil got too basic and now I can't grow potatoes without scab problems. Ashes are VERY basic, be careful adding them to your garden.

I primarily use them as a traction aid on ice/snow. It works better than salt/sand and is some really great stuff for traction. We have a steep driveway and steep hill on the road right after our driveway. Those 2 hills are enough to keep my ash supply wiped out.

Last but not least, I would like to try making lye for homemade soap. Do your research. IIRC, there are right ways and wrongs ways to make lye. I've done a little reading on this subject and many people found that 1 pass through the ash isn't enough for the water to pick up enough lye, they have to do multiple passes through more and more ash to increase the strength of the lye solution to the point that it can be used to make soap. You will need a couple tools to measure the specific gravity of the solution. I don't believe there is any way to know the true solution strength when making lye this way because of the other dissolved contents but you can generally get close enough.

 

[tc556guy]

n the garden or on the sidewalks if its fresh warm ash with a lot of unburnt clinkers and its an icey day

 

[ghuns]

Outdoor boiler here, so I make LOTS of ash. It goes on my compost pile with manure, grass clippings, and leaves. I stir it all up several times a year with the tractor loader. Comes out looking like potting soil. Used a lot of it last year to re-seed parts of my yard. Really makes the grass grow.