Where does the smell get into the house?

andre_xs

Hi All,
we recently moved into a terraced house, and when the neighbours cook it smells horribly in our house. I'm now trying to find out where it comes from. I'm sure part of it somehow comes from the outside, but maybe also something from the inside?

From outside:
They don't have an kitchen extractor hood, but often have the kitchen window open during cooking. The smell then passes our house. Our kitchen door (right next to their kitchen) is old, and I'll put these foam things to stop draughts on the kitchen door tomorrow.

However, I'm worried about our combination boiler (a > 10 year old Ideal Isar). It has one vent in the outside wall to suck fresh air in and extract the used air. How "smell tight" are these? I'm worried that big part of the smell comes just from the boiler, because it sucks the stinky air in and burns it. Some of that stink may just go into the normal air of the house. Or is that unlikely to happen because they blow out 100% of the air they sucked in? I plan to box the boiler to reduce this...

It definitely also stinks heavily in the attic. We store a lot in the attic, incl. children's clothes. I wonder whether it is a good idea to close the ventilation on one side of the attic (to the back garden where the smell comes in) and just leave the other side (facing the street) open. Or whether the risk of condensation is too high then. At the moment, the attic is perfectly dry.

From inside:
It is weird, but the smell is in some places in the house where you wouldn't expect it. For instance, in the cupboard under the stairs which is closed off by a door (our and their stairs run identical in both houses, just the other side of the wall). Or in the master bedroom, which is facing actually the other neighbour (and has very good windows, really no chance for smell to come in there...). Virtually no smell in the bathroom, which is directly adjacent to the neighbours (in other words, the smell "skips" the bathroom).

So I was wondering whether the smell maybe (also) come through the floor of the first floor (ceiling of ground floor). Maybe the joists (or stairs floorboards?) run through to the neighbours and there are gaps? Then the smell can distribute and wonder around in the whole floor and may leak at certain points, creating a smell in that room /area. Or it comes down from the attic, but except for small holes for the cables of the ceiling lamps, the ceiling is tight (plasterboard). Will seal these small holes tomorrow as well...

I'm going to try stuff starting from tomorrow, so any tips are most appreciated!

I'm not that sensitive myself, but that smell is actually really disgusting, no idea what kind of meal they are preparing. Never smelled something like this before. Probably always the same kind of spices. My wife is more sensitive and goes mental. Also the kids complain and hate it...

Best wishes,
Andre

firefox1956

You may have a shared loft space.
Lots of terraced houses had have you had a look ??
It could be coming in through there ??
HTH

andre_xs

How do I check for that? Do you mean that there is no wall to the neighbours? We definitively have that (we make quite heavy use of the loft). Or do you mean that there are some gaps, e.g. at the joists or at the bottom/end of the roof (where the roof comes down and "touches" the attic floor, sorry, don't know how you'd call this...)

Gloomendoom

Your boiler should be totally sealed from the inside of the house. If it isn't, you've got more to worry about than stinky cooking.

MoneyMate

I'd but my money on either venting under the floor on the ground floor or wall cavities if installed. hope you find out as soon as possible.

andre_xs

Thanks for the replies. Venting under the ground floor? That's a concrete floor, so probably unlikely? (terraced house, ex council housing, build mid-1950ies).

"wall cavities" - do you mean unintended holes in the wall, or a cavity wall? We have a cavity wall on the walls facing to the outside (its insulated), but judging from the noise level we hear from the neighbours, the shared wall is not a cavity wall.

Boiler, ok, that's good news, makes life easier.

Best wishes,
Andre