Blocking Smell from Next Door

bonzairob · 24 September 2015 at 11:09PM

So, I live in a 2-bedroom mid-terrace; we moved in about 18 months ago. First house, my wife had a good feeling about this one.

As it turns out, as well as being terribly noisy, the young family next door on the end also cook terrible-smelling food and apparently have their extraction fan pumping straight into the space between floor and ceiling. Their cooking smells, and often cigarette smoke, floods our bathroom every day. I could deal with it, but my wife has severe anxiety, is receiving treatment, but needs a safe place. That next door can "get" her, just remind her that they exist, is a big issue.

Here's a floor plan, our house on the left. As a new user i can't show you the link, so add a slash where there's a space in the middle: i.imgur.com 6e9NgKE.jpg

Marked in red are the areas where we both have joists going into the party wall, so where there's air gaps. At the front (bottom of the pic) there's not such an issue, we never smell anything in that little cupboard in the bedroom. It fills up our bathroom and leaks into the kitchen below.

Now, I've had the bath out, and filled around the joists with fire-retardant expanding foam. I've done the same in the two cupboards. Imagine my surprise (!) upon lifting the floorboards under the bath, to discover that there were bricks missing around two of the joists, and that I could see clear through into their house... well, I stuffed some paper in towards the back of the holes and filled them right up.

i.imgur.com XDpjsSa.png

And that seemed to do the trick... at first. A few days after the back went back in, their smells have started coming again. Not as strong as before, but still noticeable. The only real change I made was cutting off some of those ectoplasmic lumps so that I could get the floorboard back down - nothing that exposed a hole... I tried blowing air through an offcut of foam and even with a ping-pong-ball-sized piece, it was very difficult to get air to go through.

I've filled around every joist and found any missing bricks. What should I do now? Current plan is to haul the bath back out, cut down the foam to wall level, and then try to seal it all up with PVA.

Is it even possible that it's still these neighbours, or is it time to start filling the joists on the other side of the house? We'd ruled out our other neighbour, but given all the missing bricks it could be possible. Even after this foam, there's a noticeable breeze coming down from the light fixtures in the kitchen.

All advice appreciated.

Doozergirl · 25 September 2015 at 6:43AM

How about telling them their extractor isn't doing anything?

If there are holes between you and them it is also a fire risk. You should be bricking where bricks are missing and using mortar. Not paper and expanding foam.

Norman_Castle · 25 September 2015 at 12:06PM

and apparently have their extraction fan pumping straight into the space between floor and ceiling.

How do you know?. If it is and forcing air into your home environmental health may be able to help.

bonzairob · 26 September 2015 at 7:43PM

Talking to them is always difficult - they were playing very loud music all last year, refused to stop, ewe had to go to the council about it. And there's a fence between our gardens that needs repairing or replacing; they think we own it, but the land registry says we own the other one, and they don't own any of their fences. So I'd rather not speak to them if I can avoid it, especially as it makes my wife even more anxious. Unfortunately so does contacting Environmental Health again, since they handled the noise complaints too, but I'm not sure what they could do about this.

I used foam because I wanted to make sure it sealed every nook and cranny... I'll use mortar if I have to do the other wall. For the foam I've done I think I'm going to try cutting it all back to the walls/joists and then sealing it with PVA. Is there a better sealant to use for that? Or should I just cut it all out and mortar it...?