Has anyone any tips on stopping smell seeping in from the adjoining property?

peter021072

If I could bump this thread again. 

There's a great deal of garlic getting though at the moment, and I've found a potential area of ingress where the garlic smell seems to persist most. This is below the kitchen bench near the kitchen floor where the central heating pump is situated against the adjoining wall. I could try to seal off this duct, but there are pipes going into it and I think the central heating electric motor needs some circulation air.  Unfortunately, this is what seems to be the main area of ingress, into the kitchen at least.

Above it is a duct housing for the soil stack or waste pipe (note the smell is not from inside the pipe, it is definitely garlic, not poo). This duct is open to the attic, so any smell which gets into the attic, and it does smell of garlic there, can filter down it into my kitchen. The lower part of the duct in the kitchen is shown in the boiler photo in one of my posts above where I've tried to seal up gaping holes with cotton wool!  There's also a gap of about 10mm between the entire adjoining wall and a sheet of plasterboard. So any holes in the this board could also allow the smell in from the attic.  

I placed the job on Mybuilder but only one company responded, so perhaps I need to add more detail and photos. 

The first photo is the square duct from the inside which also shows part of the adjoining wall and mortar.  The mortar seems to be crumbling and there's some small cracks in the blocks. I noticed some bits of mortar around the pump on the kitchen floor. Could the smell be getting through these cracks directly? 

This second photo is from the attic which consists of the same adjoining wall higher up. Note a brick has come out on the right so I've stuffed some cloth in as a temporary measure.  However, you can't see into the adjoining attic so I'm not convinced that's the ingress route, as the attic still smells of garlic.

So should I be be looking for a bricklayer to repair the mortar or Carpenter to block off the wall properly? If the entire wall needs doing it could be a massive job.

I'm still unsure of the full route. That is whether the smell gets in through the cracked mortar from the adjoining house directly, or indirectly via the attic.

peter021072

I've just had a further thought; if the garlic smell is getting through so is the moisture from their cooking and possibly their bathroom, especially since I'm downwind of that adjoining property.  Perhaps this explains the crumbling cement?

If it's the same on their side of the adjoining wall, that might be the best way to explain the problem as they might treat it more seriously and ensure all the moisture is exhausted above the roof.  There's little point in trying to block it if the root of the problem hasn't been removed.

Does anyone know the legal status of party walls, with regards to responsibility and house insurance?

markin

look on google maps for roof vents.

peter021072

Thanks Markin.  I understand connecting extractor fans to the outside using a duct is the best method to avoid condensation in the attic. Of course this is only going to stop the mortar cracking if the adjoined house to the South West does the same, so the moist air isn't pushed through the adjoining wall by the prevailing wind

Does a Bathroom Extractor Fan Have to Run to the Outside?