I have one of those fireplaces with the little hatch in the middle for ashes. The ashes fall down into an unfinished area below the fireplace floor. The door to the outside of the chimney is far enough off the ground that it’s pretty much impossible to get all of the ashes out. In fact, the guy who had the house before me apparently never cleaned the damn thing out and there’s a couple of feet of ash down there.
My problem is that whenever it’s warm and humid, the “burnt ash” smell comes back up into the house. We’re currently solving the problem by keeping a big ass candle in the fireplace and lighting whenever the smell gets bad. Is there anything I can do to more permantly address the problem (other than cleaning out the ash because I really don’t think I can do that with a major hassle/effort - possibly involving vacuuming it out)? Lye? Sand? Anything?