messy hearth

[jeff_t]

Oh, and like jeff, our youngest dog loves to grab pieces of kindling, small splits, and pieces of bark and turn them into mulch ALLLLL over the house.
No matter how diligent I am, my wife is less so, so we sweep at least once/day too. Nice having vinyl/linoleum floors. :coolsmile:

He has the big dogs doing it sometimes, too

We just ripped up all the carpet in the living room/hallway. Going hardwood or engineered hardwood when I find a screaming deal. There is an auction in the downriver Detroit area couple of times a year that I can get building materials dirt cheap. Friend bought 1100 sq ft of snap together engineered hardwood for $1.70. Kinda enjoy sweeping the plywood subfloor at the moment, instead of dragging the vacuum out every day.

 

[firebroad]

My problem with bits of wood, sawdust, pine needles, leaves, grass, etc. is not that I am a clean freak (okay, I admit it I am), but that the cat seems to find these to be gourmet treats. Darn cat won't eat anything but dry cat food, disdains fish, meat and canned food, but will go after a scrap of outside debris like a junkie. Then throws it up on the nice clean floor/furniture, of course. Stupid critter.

 

[firefighterjake]

I have a small dust pan and broom for the small messes of ash, wood chips, etc. on the hearth and nearby floor . . . a nearby carpet however requires the vacuum which my wife says I don't use enough in the winter time for her German tastes as there are always a few woodchips on it from when I bring in the wood.

As Shari mentioned my biggest mess is when I dump my ash pan and it is too full and the excess spills on to the hearth . . . or when I open the front door to clean the glass and the ash spills on to the lip. It may sound really stupid, but since winning the Loveless Ash Vac this clean up job has become wicked easy though . . . now with the ash vac I use the crevice tool to clean up the spillage on the hearth and on the ash lips and then I switch to the horsehair brush and do a quick sweep of the hearth itself instead of sweeping everything up. Honestly, I probably would have never bought an ash vacuum (they are pricey), but now that I've had one and have used it I can say that I would be tempted to buy another one if this ever dies since it has cut my clean up time in half.

 

[Fredo]

I am constantly cleaning my Hearth area. Wether I am opening stove door to add splits, rake embers or clean ashes I keep my dust pan and broom handy. I don't mind cleaning, it keeps me from getting LazyBoy Butt! :lol:

Fredo

 

[Wade A.]

+1 to the comments about keeping the regular vac away from ANYWHERE around the hearth. THAT is a recipe to burn your house down toot-sweet. If you can't help yourself, immediately put it out in the yard away from structures and animals. Better to lose a vacuum than your house or life. Really. It is that dangerous. One small ember is all it takes. Can you really vouch for everything that gets sucked up in a millisecond into your intake? There is no better firestarting medium than what is contained in the average vacuum cleaner bag. Oh, and you have cyclonic wind speeds to really get things cooking. The other day, my fire had been out for a day, and I hadn't even opened the door in 24 hours. Even so, after cleaning up the hearth, I immediately took the vacuum ouside and sat it in driveway for about 4 hours, until I felt assured, but I could have still been wrong, and I knew it. I envy those with ember vacs, but it is not in the budget.


Come to think of it.....I might just start using dust bunnies for firestarters. Hmmmmm.

 

[Excavator]

OK GUYS, I don't want you all to think I keep shop vac in same room and clean up any thing hot. As you can see in this pic, I have a messy hearth LOL.

I only clean up with mini shop vac when stove is cold and I clean the glass inside and this is not very often when it is cold and I depend on the heat.
Look at my messy hearth
(broken image removed)

 

[lopiliberty]

That's one of the main reason we bought a rainbow just in case we would happen to suck up a hot ember, the water would put it out. Only to find out your not supposed to suck up ashes in it. I actually had hot embers fall out of the stove on time, bounce when they hit the rock hearth and landed on the rug. Just by luck i had the rainbow sitting near by and I sucked up the glowing hot embers(not ash) even thought your not supposed to and the water put them out.

 

[billb3]

A little whisk broom and a piece of chipboard or newspaper works good enough for me.

I have grabbed the snow shovel and the two foot wide garage broom when a certain somebody has made a rude comment about how messy I can be sometimes.

 

[Ratherbfishin]

When my wife gets home from work I'll ask her how she keeps it clean.

Later:
Frank

Man what's wrong with you guy's..that's funny right there. Gave me a good chuckle. Thanks, Monkey. Guess cuz a few female species are on the site now everyone has to put on their boy scout uniform! LOL

Steve

 

[Ash_403]

OK GUYS, I don't want you all to think I keep shop vac in same room and clean up any thing hot. As you can see in this pic, I have a messy hearth LOL.

I only clean up with mini shop vac when stove is cold and I clean the glass inside and this is not very often when it is cold and I depend on the heat.

I figured that. I do the same. Nothing hot ever comes near the Shop-Vac. It never would. I wouldn't have it over there and running if that was even remotely possible. (This is about a once a week thing.)

Cheers

 

[pen]

Regarding the shop-vac:

My stove was out for a couple of days when I turned the shop vac into a flame thrower cleaning up after the end of year stove cleaning. When i say 5-6 foot flames out the back, it could have actually been more, you should have seen the wife's old cat move. When I saw her tearing away was the first indication I had I'd created a really dangerous situation inside my home.

Just don't use it.

pen

 

[Jags]

Just don't use it.

pen

I will say that I do use it, BUT - the stove has been out for weeks/months at that point. Even a Blake king is not capable of holding hot coals for that long. :lol:

 

[Ash_403]

Regarding the shop-vac:

My stove was out for a couple of days when I turned the shop vac into a flame thrower cleaning up after the end of year stove cleaning. When i say 5-6 foot flames out the back, it could have actually been more, you should have seen the wife's old cat move. When I saw her tearing away was the first indication I had I'd created a really dangerous situation inside my home.

Just don't use it.

pen

Wow. What were you doing, cleaning out the firebox with it?

I use mine to vacuum a little around my wood box/holder. No hot coals would ever get there. If they did, I'd have a bigger problem. (Sleep walking, too drunk to remember, careless ghosts messing with my stove, or a combination of all of the above.)
The broom and shovel are used right near the stove.

 

[eclecticcottage]

I should have mentioned I use the dustbuster for the wood chip mess, and wipe down the ash mess with a damp cloth. If I sweep the ash, it just gets it into the grout and makes me crazy anyway, so it's easier to wipe it down then wash the cloth later. I do shovel the ash lip mess back into the stove with the hearth shovel.