Soot solution help needed

[coachgeo]

Slowwwwwly am converting an oil stove chimney into my wood stove chimney. First I thought this chimney had no clean out. Wierd...... then in deconstruction of the "convert to closet" that was done around the former area this oil stove stood I discovered the clean out was below the floor in this pier and beam home. Below the floor and with NO CLEAN OUT DOOR.

Anyway... from that point I started cleaning the chimney that had never been cleaned. About a gallon of soot poofed out as I probed from the bottom up. Then maybe two gallons avalanched down out the opening followed by the mother of all avalanches of another 4 or five gallons of soot.

so then soot dust was all over the house and a good 8 gallons or so is under the house. We mostly cleaned up the soot dust that puffed into the house turning everything black in the house as best we could BUT every time I work on the trap door/hearth non combustible floor area covering the spot where the wood stove will be I get soot puffed up into the house again. Thank good not as much as first time..... but enough to where the white kitchen floor is now GREY and Im about to use a carpet clean machine the hard floor AGAIN. (just 30+yr sealed junk floor..... no carpet or anything yet)

Sooo....... any chemist or pragmatist have an idea of how I can convert this soot to clumps for removal from under the floor.

Also any ideas on disposing of it in a recyclable way..... like is there any uses for it OUTSIDE. I live on dirt/gravel road. Does it make good weed killer, Rodent deterrent (moles, ground hogs, etc.) orr??

 

[skeets]

In MHO I think the first thing you want to do is put a clean out under the floor,, yeah a PIA but you dont have a lot of options. Then if you can get on the roof after sealing everything you can off start with a chimney brush and rods and start scrubbing it down to the bottom where you need to put the clean out door and go from there, as far as disposial, it is un burned hydro carbons I would think and it would go into the air were it burned but going on the driveway shouldnt hurt anything that i can see unless you have a burn pile you could try getting rid of it that way, or bagging it up and in the trash to the land fill,, other wise there aint much to be done with it that i know of.

 

[ShaunRH]

If it's contained, I'd think a slurry/pump out processes would work, even a pressure washer after it's mostly pumped out. The usual suspects for oil solvents combined with water should break it up, Tide concentrate, Dawn, Denatured Alcohol, are relatively mild and work well with water. The harsher stuff like Mineral Spirits, Acetone, etc. are more dangerous to work with and would need cleaning up after themselves.

If you can get it into a thin slurry, it will act as its own mild abrasive and can be pumped out with a trash pump or shop vac (if it's not too far down and you are sticking with soaps and not solvents). Then a quick rinse and you should be good. However, if the channel is leaky at all this is a recipe for a giant mess so it has to be water tight.

If it's too leaky, then I'd use a shop vac with particle filter covers over the main filter so it doesn't plug up and you just need to keep swaping filter covers as you plug them up.

 

[coachgeo]

In MHO I think the first thing you want to do is put a clean out under the floor,, yeah a PIA but you dont have a lot of options. Then if you can get on the roof after sealing everything you can off start with a chimney brush and rods and start scrubbing it down to the bottom where you need to put the clean out door and go from there,

Sorry I didn't explain well enough. This is the steps I had attemped to convey that I have already done them resulting in about 6 gallons of dry soot below the floor surface. Have also now finished install of clean out as well as the trap door for access. Just need to get out the 8 gallons of soot under there.

as far as disposial,...other wise there aint much to be done with it that i know of.

Thanks.... hope someone can come up with an idea on how to make getting out out from under house in by first turning it into clumps or something and not pile of dust that heads off into open air the second you disturb it.

 

[coachgeo]

If it's contained, I'd think a slurry/pump out processes would work....
If you can get it into a thin slurry, it will act as its own mild abrasive and can be pumped out with a trash pump or shop vac ...
If it's too leaky, then I'd use a shop vac with particle filter covers over the main filter so it doesn't plug up and you just need to keep swaping filter covers as you plug them up.

Slurry..... didn't think of that.

Keep it coming. Got a few days before I attack this step.

Would mixing it with cat litter help maybe? Just want to reduce dust to help it not be airborne during clean out.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Wet or damp sawdust. Mix it together. Damp cat litter or bentonite.

There was a product called dustban, or dustbane used to keep dust down on concrete surfaces. Its a sticky green powder.

 

[D2Cat]

Oh come on coach, just pour a couple of quarts of drained oil from your tractor...stir and remove.

 

[Diydave]

Shop vac outside, with a long hose, into the house. That's what the last chimney sweep did, last time we had it cleaned...