Smell in my house from next door

Sallys_Savings

Sorry I'm not really sure where to put this, so if its the wrong place, please move, thanks.

We are getting a cigarette smoke smell from our next door neighbours (we're semi detached) in our house in two rooms. Mostly in the mornings and evenings. We are a non smoking family and can really smell it strongly in our bedroom and dining room. We have stained floorboards (original) in our bedroom so no carpet and a laminate in our dining room. I'm not sure if its coming through the floorboards, but that wouldnt explain the dining room?...sorry if it sounds odd but thats the only explanation we can think of. We've had our windows closed and the smell still comes through.

Any ideas?

and also next door is a council house so would they do anything to stop the smell?
I dont want to cause a fuss or anything but even when I have put smellies in the rooms I can still smell it.

celyn90

That's really random. Are these the two rooms closest to the partition wall? Could it be coming in via the roof space if there are gaps in the partition in the loft between the two houses? I guess you could phone the council and ask them.

ailuro2

You will have ventilation in your home aswell- no room is perfectly sealed.

It's strange and unusual that the smell is coming through- what's on the other side of the smelly rooms- is it where they smoke? They might be smoking outside and it's getting blown in your air vents.?

Have a look where your ventilation system is- ours are in our walls over the doors, but some homes have them lower down.

Do not, though, cover up any air vents if you find out this is where is stems from- add a baffle or ask your nieghbours to stand downwind of your vents.

Sallys_Savings

We have two other rooms on the adjoining wall and they dont smell. Its just the two that are next to their living room and their master bedroom that smell. Its horrible, in fact I can smell it now too
The other rooms in my house adjoin to their dining room and a childs room, so I'm guessing they dont smoke in there.

They do smoke outside in the garden (couple metres from our patio doors) in the summer so you can smell it then. But with all the windows etc open it soon disappears, The smell in the house at the moment just seems to linger.

We do have an air vent in our bedroom but not in the dining room. This is at the front of the house and they dont tend to smoke in the front garden (especially not in the winter) ....ahhhh its driving me mad.

I just feel that I'm being fussy and I couldnt stop them smoking in their own homes obviously, and really really dont want to cause a fuss.

blackwidowz

We are having this problem at the moment only it is from the coal fire.
I have 2 asmatics(i can never spell it) and we are all coughing.
the council are going to investigate.
Our chimney stack is no good so i don't know the solution.good luck with your problem.

trace_567

This obviously isn't a free solution, but you could try getting Air Purifiers for the rooms affected. Prices vary depending on what you buy. I can't promise it will work however as I don't have them myself.

You could of course go down the route of contacting the council, however i think this could prove difficult. I doubt the council will have any powers to do anything about it if its within their own home. All I think they can do really is speak to them about it. Also it could (not saying it will) cause tension between you and your neighbours. This really does depend on them of course. Or you could approach them yourself and mention it, and see if they are likely to do anything about it.

ailuro2

Hmmm, just a thought, I know a woman from DD's school who is having to get her walls sealed up because her neighbour had a house fire, and the smell of the smoke was still seeping through the walls. What are the adjoining walls made of- hers wer brick and plasterboard, and the way she spoke there was some coating to be painted onto the walls to seal the smell in..

djbd1973

I have the same problem. I did try putting a heavy sheet along the adjoining wall next to the skirting and that seemed to do the trick most times. I was contemplating lifting the floorboards and seeing if I can get to any gaps to spray expanding foam to try and seal any possible airflows. The problem is I don't know where it is coming from exactly and I am not an expert. I assumed there might be a small hole in the wall of my neighbours but when I have been in there I can't see anything untoward.

MissMotivation

blackwidowz wrote: »

We are having this problem at the moment only it is from the coal fire.
I have 2 asmatics(i can never spell it) and we are all coughing.
the council are going to investigate.
Our chimney stack is no good so i don't know the solution.good luck with your problem.

If the coal fire is yours to need to stop using it already, it could be that the chimney needs lining, this is really dangerous. If it is a neighbours house you need to go round on tell them immediately! It really is NOT safe to use if the fumes are leaking into the house!

Sorry to hijack the thread

pdh11

We live in a Victorian semi-detached house. We have new neighbours in the other semi attached to ours, and they smoke. We are getting tobacco smoke smell into our house like some other posts on this forum, and we need to do something about it quickly.

We believe it is coming through somewhere under the floorboards.

Has anyone successfully solved the problem?

We are planning to get a builder to take up some boards in the hallway and landing against the dividing wall to see what the wall is like underneath, and whether there is anything obvious to explain smoke coming through.

Gale_10

I am so amazed, I have this problem and its terrible.

The woman downstairs (who has given us lots of trouble - separate issue) smokes like a chimney and makes our house stink. I really hate it, and I worry about the effect of the cigarette smoke on my children. I have spoken to enviromental services about it, and they have taken an air sample for analysis but nothing has come back after three months or more. I don't believe they have sent it to the lab, because I was told it had to be witnesses - smelt - by people from the council. Its worse outside office hours and in fact the downstairs neighbour listens to our telephone conversations and makes sure there is no cigarette smoke smell when they come round. Since its worse in the kitchen and bathroom (I think the smoke travels up the pipes) its difficult to stay out of the kitchen all day until they come round. Its a real problem.

We are planning to go round and carefully remove the backs of all the kitchen cupboards and seal any gaps with expandable foam. We live in a council flat so we have to be careful, saying that the kitchen was put in by the tenants before us, its not really a council kitchen. If that works then we will stay put, but if it doesn't we are going to look for a mutual exchange.

Another solution I have seen whilst researching is some stuff called gapseal. If you google it there is a website and they send a free sample. If your floorboards are even it might be a good thing to try, on the website it actually mentions some people who tried it to get rid of cigarette smoke, and were successful.

All the best

Gale