As my helper and I were applying Wood Tux to an IPE deck today I noticed that I smelled something burning. We stopped and looked at the house, around the house, looked into the woods behind the house, checked out the air conditioner and everywhere else we could think of, but we could not see any signs of any thing burning yet we kept smelling something that smelled like paper or a rag burning.
We were putting down the Wood Tux on four or five IPE boards at a time then we would go back after a few minutes and wipe the boards down with a rag. As the rags become saturated we tossed them over the side of the deck onto the pine needles next to the deck. My helper asked if I wanted him to gather the rags up and put them in a trash bag or in a box. I told him that could cause a spontaneous combustion and we would go around and pick up the rags and put them in a bucket of water as soon as we were finished and was cleaning up.
Well, that almost turned out to be a disaster. Still smelling something burning and standing almost on top of one of the saturated rags my helper reached down and picked up the rag. It turned out that it was smoldering underneath the bottom of it and burst into flames when the air hit it. Also the pine needles caught on fire when they were exposed to the air, but we quickly stomped them out.
I have heard of fires starting from oily rags, but I thought they had to be kind of heaped or piled up together in a trash can or plastic bag or something. The instructions on the side of the Wood Tux pail does say dispose of or put any saturated rags in a bucket of water, but I never thought about a single rag lying out in the open and especially within twenty minutes time could ignite like that. (Russel is probable saying I tried to tell you so)
Well, it didn't take us long to find a bucket and fill it with water to put our rags in and as soon as a rag become saturated we took it straight to the water bucket from then on.
The scariest thing to me is how easy it would be to have a real disaster if someone just tossed their rags in a trash can or bag and left it next to the house or even put the rags in their truck thinking they were going straight to the trash dump.
Taking that lesson learned today, we checked, double checked, and triple checked all around that house for any stain saturated rags that may have been missed before we left for the day.
As my helper and I were applying Wood Tux to an IPE deck today I noticed that I smelled something burning. We stopped and looked at the house, around the house, looked into the woods behind the house, checked out the air conditioner and everywhere else we could think of, but we could not see any signs of any thing burning yet we kept smelling something that smelled like paper or a rag burning.
We were putting down the Wood Tux on four or five IPE boards at a time then we would go back after a few minutes and wipe the boards down with a rag. As the rags become saturated we tossed them over the side of the deck onto the pine needles next to the deck. My helper asked if I wanted him to gather the rags up and put them in a trash bag or in a box. I told him that could cause a spontaneous combustion and we would go around and pick up the rags and put them in a bucket of water as soon as we were finished and was cleaning up.
Well, that almost turned out to be a disaster. Still smelling something burning and standing almost on top of one of the saturated rags my helper reached down and picked up the rag. It turned out that it was smoldering underneath the bottom of it and burst into flames when the air hit it. Also the pine needles caught on fire when they were exposed to the air, but we quickly stomped them out.
I have heard of fires starting from oily rags, but I thought they had to be kind of heaped or piled up together in a trash can or plastic bag or something. The instructions on the side of the Wood Tux pail does say dispose of or put any saturated rags in a bucket of water, but I never thought about a single rag lying out in the open and especially within twenty minutes time could ignite like that. (Russel is probable saying I tried to tell you so)
Well, it didn't take us long to find a bucket and fill it with water to put our rags in and as soon as a rag become saturated we took it straight to the water bucket from then on.
The scariest thing to me is how easy it would be to have a real disaster if someone just tossed their rags in a trash can or bag and left it next to the house or even put the rags in their truck thinking they were going straight to the trash dump.
Taking that lesson learned today, we checked, double checked, and triple checked all around that house for any stain saturated rags that may have been missed before we left for the day.
Share this post
Link to post
Share on other sites