Opions please

[steve J]

My sugar house has a painted wood floor and doubles as a storage shed for my ATV. Well the ethanol gas apparently raised hell with the carberator on the ATV causeing the needle valve to stick partially open and weeped gas onto my floor. I have cleaned the floor with a bio degratable degresser but wonder what the potential for fire could be with a hot evaporator in there now. MY evaporator is placed on large wood stove mats and it does not drop ash to the floor but rather holds it in a storage area about 6 inches off the floor. This is a new rig for me and it does have air under and my understanding is that less ash accumulates? My thought was to maybe add a layer of rectangular patio brick .

[C.Wilcox]

The highly volatile components of the gasoline will have long since evaporated by next syrup season so it's unlikely that you'll have to worry about vapors, but you'll probably see a stain from the remaining residue. If you're still concerned about it though I would just lay out a couple of layers of cement board with overlapping seams or a layer of tin sheeting to keep any potential ashes from contacting it. Might be overkill, but there's nothing like peace of mind.

[Bucket Head]

No such thing as overkill here. Cover as much of the floor as you can. It does'nt matter if its stained or not, you just can't be too carefull dealing with a wooden floor. As for the gas leaking out on you, always shut the fuel off. Old cars, tractors, wheelers, lawn equipment, whatever- if it has a shut-off on it get in the habit of using it. I have put shut-offs on many things that did'nt have one originally. Even before ethanol ruins your inlet needle tip, a small piece of grit, sand, rust, etc. will keep the fuel flowing. Also, its a good idea to shut the fuel off on the item when your transporting it.

Steve