Aroma under floorboards 3 July 2018 at 7:22PM edited 11 July 2018 at 2:26PM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 10 replies 2K views

Legacy_user

Terraced Victorian town house with suspended wooden floorboards
Smell underneath floorboards

VfM4meplse

I have no technical knowledge here but can offer unending sympathy. I find other people's smells unbearable _pale_

elsien

I get cigarette smoke coming through which I find more noticeable than cooking smells. Just in the kitchen though, not in other parts of the house.

elsien

Not coming through the floor in mine though as the kitchen has a solid floor.
What sort of pong is it? Cooking smell by the front door seems a bit odd.

JohnB47

ajak81 wrote: »

Terraced Victorian town house with suspended wooden floorboards
Is it common for cooking smells to travel through the air brick network from adjacent houses
Anybody experienced this and how many houses can smells travel through

I'm not sure what you mean by "air brick network". My house has air bricks on the external walls.

It is possible that you have gaps in the walls, between the houses, around the floor joists. Or, like an old house we lived in, the roof voids could be fairly open, allowing smells to travel up, across and down.

Perhaps, over time, you could investigate which rooms become smelly first or strongest. Also, go into the loft as soon as you experience the smell and check there.

missile

Lucky you don't have my neighbour. I have cannabis smell wafting in from below. It is foul :mad:

PasturesNew

If you think you've got it tough, I know of one next to (and a bit downhill of) an old churchyard - with a 4' void under the wooden floorboards they lifted it once to find it was flooded .... and you can only guess what some of that liquid might've contained!

missile

ajak81 wrote: »

That's quite a heavy pungent smell that's quite overpowering. Do you know how the smell is getting through? Is it finding it's way from the flat below directly to you and is it in the hallway or not?

Are they smoking it or growing it because growing the plant can produce aromas that are so strong it often causes them to be discovered

The smell is very strong outside their property on the landing and in the lift.

Smells will come though wherever there is a tiny gap:

• Through the floor
• Up the wall cavity
• Though the window vents

They are quite brazen about it, even had a plant growing on their window sill.
The male is a university drop out. Never done a days work for 4+ years, but has a brand new car - who says crime does not pay?

JohnB47

ajak81 wrote: »

well there are air bricks to outside but I'm fairly certain there's airbricks on my party walls.

OK, I've learnt something. I've never heard of that.

Ownerofawreck

Air brick in party wall seems unusual. In my old house we used to get an unbearable at times stink of ciggies. Also used to get it in garden on neighbours side of house if they opened their windows. When I had the walls skimmed the smell disappeared, plasterer said the smell was seeping through the cracks in the plaster on both sides of party wall, also said that sounds could travel through the cracks too.
My air bricks were all on outside walls (Semi) and under the DPC but approx 5 ins above path/flower beds. Was told that they should never be blocked as need air flow to protect suspended floor. Incidentally, neighbour had rats under her floor one time, not pleasant.

coffeehound

One way to combat this is to install a 'positive input' fan to force fresh air into your home, thereby pushing smells back the way they came.

One of the commercial PIVs that fit in the landing ceiling should help. In a rental or flat, you could fit a fan into an open window aperture using e.g. plywood board cut to fit, with a fan set into it.

I have done this in an upstairs studio that got too hot and filled with humidity and cooking smells from below.

Running extract fans will make things worse by actively pulling air in from any gaps. Similarly, make sure to only open windows facing the direction of the prevailing wind, and not on the leeward side of the building.

You can then send some pongs back the other way.