# Ashes in the driveway



## Bushmans (Mar 1, 2014)

I've been dumping my ashes in the driveway most of the winter. So much ice and snow! It helps quite a bit. Right now it's so bad that when I back into the turn around I can't go anywhere. I have to put in 4x4 just to get turned around in the drive. Ashes make a big difference!
Of course I had a major leak in my downstairs toilet (daughters bathroom) and with her having the door shut all the time I never noticed it. Apparently the guy we bought the house from installed a floating vinyl floor. (never seen one) and the wax ring was leaking but it was pushing all the water under the floating vinyl. Well it spread through the whole bathroom and started soaking into the drywall and long story short I had to pretty much gut the bathroom today. Lot of mold hiding behind the baseboard trim. There was an entire built in closet that had to be removed and all the chunks of 2x4s went into the stove. Now I have to remember not to throw this ash clean out into the driveway because it's full of nails.
And of course it is snowing AGAIN! 2-4" tonight.

Anyone else dump in the drive? Mine is gravel so I don't worry about any mess!


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## MNGuns (Mar 1, 2014)

As long as there are no nails, ash in the drive is fine except come mud season it's black nasty mud you're tracking in. I just dump it all in a spot behind the barn myself.


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## pennsywoodburnr (Mar 1, 2014)

Never did that but I might try soon. I've been having too many close calls lately almost busting my ass on the ice!


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## dave_376 (Mar 1, 2014)

I also dump some ash in the driveway.some get spread on the lawn and some goes into the garden. I keep a magnet next to the stove and use it when I am cleaning out after burning wood that may have nails. Ash does add some traction and helps melt the ice. I also have a gravel driveway.


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## Cheesecutter (Mar 1, 2014)

Yup use them all the time. They turn dark and attract the suns heat to melt the ice evn when its cold. I mix mine with sandblast sand I get from an auto-body shop and that works even better. I save anything with nails until late in the burning season, then magnet/sift the nails and sell them as scrap.


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## Iska3 (Mar 1, 2014)

I'm with MNGuns, No ashes on my driveway. That nasty stuff gets on your tires and in to the parking spot, soon it's on your shoes and in to your car and house. I'll use the ashes on my lawn, the garden and in the road ditch to help kill the underbrush. I'll use the sawdust from the chainsaw or the noodles for traction. In the spring they'll float to the top of the water and freeze in over night. Easy to clean up if they get in to the house. Burned Coal or the cinders make for good traction but ashes from burned wood???? I'd rather buy a few bags of sand. That black muck will get to be nasty..



MNGuns said:


> As long as there are no nails, ash in the drive is fine except come mud season it's black nasty mud you're tracking in. I just dump it all in a spot behind the barn myself.


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## Cheesecutter (Mar 1, 2014)

I guess it would be messy if you had a blacktop or concrete driveway. I have 700 feet of gravel so I don't really notice.


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## bobt (Mar 1, 2014)

For me in this winter of winters, I have resorted to slinging the ash pan from the wood furnace over the snow banks deposited by the road crews. I hope the melting will be hurried by this. Cant hurt.


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## Sawyer Rob (Mar 1, 2014)

All of my wood ashs goes into my gardens, GREAT stuff!

SR


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## Cpjlube (Mar 1, 2014)

I have been using wood ashes on ice since I was a kid. It's amazing how the little ashes you need to make glare ice walkable. Of course gravel driveways are much kinder to making the "muck" go away.


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## Ronaldo (Mar 1, 2014)

Ashes work great to give automobiles traction on ice and packed snow, too. I carry some in a cat litter bucket in the back of the truck and they have helped me out of some bad stuck situations. We also use them for helping get better traction for the tractors when on ice(side benefit is they help to attract sunlight and melt ice, as has been mentioned).


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## ponyexpress976 (Mar 1, 2014)

Using them on the driveway as well this year. I've got a decent slope so they run off pretty quick during the melt off.


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## CTYank (Mar 2, 2014)

Works best for me to spread some ash before the snow. And ... they're much easier on trees with roots underneath.

No shortage this winter.


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## johnnylabguy (Mar 2, 2014)

Can someone tell me what in the ashes is good for your garden? I've done it a little but I don't even know what the benefit is! I know it doesn't grow giant pumpkins well because my brothers beat me every year!


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## chuckwood (Mar 2, 2014)

johnnylabguy said:


> Can someone tell me what in the ashes is good for your garden? I've done it a little but I don't even know what the benefit is! I know it doesn't grow giant pumpkins well because my brothers beat me every year!



Tree roots go down very deep, and take minerals out of the ground and into the wood. The minerals are still there in the wood ashes, the primary one being potassium, commonly known as potash. This is all stuff that plants need. My garden soil tends to get too acidic from all the composted leaves I put in it, and wood ashes help sweeten it up. Today, I went over to a friends house and removed their entire ash pile. They run two wood heaters on two separate chimneys, and I got a very nice load. I spread it all on the garden area, and plowed it in this evening. If you garden repeatedly on one spot, the soil there will need too be replenished with fresh ingredients. Wood ashes are a good source, along with composted organic stuff.


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## windthrown (Mar 2, 2014)

johnnylabguy said:


> Can someone tell me what in the ashes is good for your garden? I've done it a little but I don't even know what the benefit is! I know it doesn't grow giant pumpkins well because my brothers beat me every year!


 
Potash... wood ash is high in potassium. Good for the garden, just do not use too much. Ah, I see that someone else beat me to answering your post.

Anyway, I have been using wood ashes on my trees, garden and driveway here for years. Not only do the ashes help with traction on my 3/4 minus driveway in the snow, but they add fines to help keep the driveway from developing potholes. I use a magnet to pull all the screws and nails out of the ashes and I screen out the coals and fused ash lumps with hardware cloth nailed to a wood frame. There is no potassium deficiency on my property.


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## turnkey4099 (Mar 2, 2014)

MNGuns said:


> As long as there are no nails, ash in the drive is fine except come mud season it's black nasty mud you're tracking in. I just dump it all in a spot behind the barn myself.



For sure: I don't dump ashes anywhere I will walk, they all go on the lawn and disappear with the first rain or snow melt. 

Harry K


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## buggyspapa (Mar 2, 2014)

I wish I hadn't dumped ash all the fall in a fill location. Now, with up to two inches of ice from house to driveway, and driveway (all gravel) up to three inches, every pan I fill goes to keep me from falling on my a.. getting to the car, garbage cans, etc. Like someone said, it helps melt the ice by absorbing heat. If I don't step in it before it has had a chance to melt in (when it is stuck), I don't notice much tracking in the the house.


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## Deleted member 83629 (Mar 2, 2014)

i dump mine in the garden. stove ash makes the soil a little fluffy here


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## alleyyooper (Mar 2, 2014)

I mostly use a drop spreader to spread my ashes on the drive way and walks where it is slick. Of course where we walk the ashes are swept off with a big barn broom so there is none left that tracks in but it did it's job of making the area less slick. I always spread the ashes in the gardens when they are not needed to reduce the slickness of the drive way and walk ways.
This year seemed I was always running out of cool ashes to spread so I got a galvanized garbage can I store them in so I have them when needed. When spring has sprung and the grass is greening up they will get spread on the gardens again.

I even do where the mail carrier drives to do my mail.









 Al


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## Cycledude (Jan 27, 2018)

Ashes are supposed to be good for apple trees , hopefully that’s correct because I recently spread two 5 gallon pails of ashes around the very old apple tree on my lawn.
My yard is so slippery from ice right now that it’s extremely dangerous walking out there, tomorrow I’m going to try spreading some ashes out there and see if it helps. I do know from experience ashes do speed up the snow and ice melting process.


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## turnkey4099 (Jan 28, 2018)

MNGuns said:


> As long as there are no nails, ash in the drive is fine except come mud season it's black nasty mud you're tracking in. I just dump it all in a spot behind the barn myself.



Yep, ashes will track everywhere. They do a good job gettting rid of snow/ice.


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## FlyingDutchman (Jan 29, 2018)

I sift my ashes with hardware cloth and also a screen. The heavy stuff ends up back in the woodstove to reburn the charcoal. Everything left on the screen is magneted and saved as super wind proof ice melter. The rest of it I spread on the driveway, yard, garden, horse pasture and give to neighbors for their driveways. Usually get 3-4 55 gallon trashcans full a year.

My drive is SUPER hilly and gravel, without ashes I'd be going absolutely nowhere even with 4wd.

If you spread regular fine ashes on windy days on sheer ice, it blows away. The chunky "super" stuff doesn't.

When I burnt my entire demo'd house through the OWB the buckets would be really heavy with nails. Took forever. Price of scrap crashed too, but I still took in the buckets to the scrapyard.


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## anlrolfe (Jan 29, 2018)

Growing up we would put the ash at the front of out driveway and on snowbanks to help melt them back faster. I guess I forgot the reasons why and this past storm scattered the better part of my drive with ash. Worked good until most of the snow was melted back then , what a mess.


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## alleyyooper (Jan 29, 2018)

I save my ashes in a galvinized trash can too. Not So OCD I sift them how ever, the fine stuff I use the wind to help spread then on the drive when It is slick and I need to have traction.

I mostly make sure they are around the mail box as his mail delivery rig has a grabby brake.


The rest I put in my garden unless I want some Lye.

 Al


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## TimberWolf530 (Jan 29, 2018)

I've often wondered what those who don't have a creek in their back yard do with ashes. I do, so they go in there. I cool them in an ash can for about a week first, then dump them.


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## alleyyooper (Jan 29, 2018)

I have a creek in my back yard and would never put the ashes in there. 
About as earresponciable as dumping round up in there. All that silt going down stream.


 Al


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## foxtrot5 (Jan 29, 2018)

This was my first winter really burning and being able to use the ash on my driveway and walkway was a godsend. VDOT doesn't seem to own plows and since I'm originally from the North East I'm one of like 3 houses on the block that owns a snow shovel. I got tired of watching cars get stuck at the end of my block and ended up spreading ash across the road at the stop sign, suddenly no one was knocking on my door asking for a push or pull!


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## bartman23 (Jan 31, 2018)

I dump my ashes down my outhouse...helps with the stink. The misses appreciates it


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