Neighbour's wood boiler fumes in our house

ariba10

Dust Yes. Smell No.

FreeBear

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Next time you see someone delivering a sack of coal, ask them if they could open the sack then poke your head in and have a sniff.

Old fashioned house coal as opposed to the compressed nuggets do have a distinctive smell. It is a sort of heavy tarry odour that is more apparent when the lumps break up. That said, even the compressed nuggets have a slight smell about them.

littlerock

Coal delivered in quantity to a cellar does indeed smell. It smell like wet soot.

littlerock

I will talk to neighbour again but I don't think there is a carbon monoxide risk as my detector has not gone off. I think he may have one, his son installed it. I know his son installed a smoke alarm.

The problem is that when he wants to ignore something he just denies point blank it exists. It would definitely be easier if I could produce a report showing there are fumes in my house as he will just deny there are any in his. Would asking the chimney sweep to investigate be any use?

ariba10

littlerock wrote: »

Coal delivered in quantity to a cellar does indeed smell. It smell like wet soot.

.


In all probability it is the Dust from the cellar you can smell.

unforeseen

There is a definite smell of sulphur from Welsh Steam Coal. Even more so when lit.

ariba10

The complaint was about the smell of bulk coal when delivered .

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And how many times a year will that happen?

DaftyDuck

ariba10 wrote: »

The complaint was about the smell of bulk coal when delivered .

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And how many times a year will that happen?

No, that's NOT what the OP is noting. He's is talking about :

"... There has been an overwhelming smell of acrid wood smoke in our hall and front room...."

Mind you, if you can't smell the aromatic hydrocarbons released by coal, you might not be able to tell the difference...

ariba10

littlerock wrote: »

:beer:



They used to have coal delivered to the cellar every winter and we could always tell because our house smelt of coal for a few days. He also has a large stock pile of wood he used to burn on the Aga but now I suppose it goes on their fire.

There is no mention of burning coal.

DaftyDuck

Look, ariba, they aren't burning coal now, they appear to be burning wood. The smell from the burning wood is somehow crossing from neighbour's house to OPs house, and is causing a nuisance. It's the smell of burning wood the OP reports ...... That smell might be indicative of a serious problem, and needs sorting quite urgently. Fire risk, carbon monoxide risk, general nuisance. Take your pick.

But, like all the other posters on here, aside from you, I agree coal does smell. Sure, coal dust does, but so does coal. It's full of volatile compounds, so it's not surprising it burns. And smells!

Hang on while I sniff. Yep, delicious rich tarry, tea odour, bit like old linctus. That bucket smells good. Now, the other one has some smokeless briquettes in.... That smells very different, more acrid, a little peppery. The basket of beech and oak logs smells best, cut them myself, and they have a rich waxy, melon-sugar-retsina smell. Delicious. A reverse Jilly Golden.

Now, coal smoke smells different but I'll let Clive James explain.....:D

OP... Invite neighbours round. Consider Environmental Health if no progress, or find a local HETAS sweep to advise.