Some Primer on Wood... can I burn it?

[ClydesdaleBurner]

Hi Guys,

Well another burning season is upon us. I'm pretty excited. Just fired up the stove tonight for the first time this season. This past summer I did a basement finishing project. The best part was all the scrap wood I have leftover. Bits and pieces of 2x4 that work so well on start up fires. I also have a lot of trim work that was primed, not painted, only primer. Mostly latex primer with some oil primer. Anyway my question is if I put in a few pieces every now and then is that a bad thing? I put a few on tonight and saw the primer kind of bubble as it got hot then it burned. Was just curious about this.

Thanks and happy burning!

 

[Corey]

Probably not the end of the world, but kind of like dumping used oil down a storm drain IMHO. You personally won't notice anything and one person doing it won't make a huge amount of difference - but if 'everybody' starts doing it, pretty soon everything is mucked up. The flip side is while lead is long gone from paints, mercury is still sometimes used as a mildewcide / fungicide. Hard to say without looking up the specific MSDS of the product.

 

[heppm01]

You could always sand the primer off and inhale it directly.

 

[CarbonNeutral]

You could always sand the primer off and inhale it directly.

I laughed, but seriously don't do it, just chuck it away. If you have to, go find some non-pressure treated pallets instead.

 

[firefighterjake]

Would primed and/or painted wood burn in a woodstove? Sure. Quite well I would imagine?

Should you burn primed and/or painted wood in a woodstove? Probably not. 1) For the environmental aspects -- it's hard to be a stealth woodburner when the smoke is black. 2) You don't have a cat stove, but supposedly this is not good for the cats . . . and I figure it can't be good in the long term for even non-cat stoves, the flue, etc. and 3) while your woodstove will not suddenly explode, you will not turn bald overnight and your palms will not become hairy (that only happens if you burn pine in your woodstove ) most manufactuers say that burning primed/painted wood is verboten . . .