Fags smell from next door

[AndersonC]

Right this is a pain in the proverbial............

Brief history:-

Moved into house last august, ripped out all carpets. Had to remove all GF skirtings to enable DPC to be injected too. Lots of old render falling off etc and pointing on walls pretty crumbly. Gaps formed between bricks of party wall, esp where skirtings were nailed into bits of wood between bricks.

Now over the last few weeks when I have come home from work the hall and stairs smell of cigarette smoke. The only place that this can be coming from is next door (they are both avid fans of tobacco), and is worse when one of them has been at home for a few hours.

The only solution I can think of is to go mad with the pointing trowel and fill every last gap between the bricks with mortar, then re-plaster/render the walls to put a barrier up. Has anyone else experienced something like this?

Thanks for any input

 

[nstreet]

Check the party wall in the loft also. In our last house, there were lots of large gaps and we could actually talk to the neighbours if we were both in the loft at the same time. I once lived a a row of terraces and that had no divisions between the lofts!.

 

[JohnD]

You could also try an expanding foam.

Try round the staitcases (if adjoining) where timber may have been built into the brickwork both sides.

If you have fireplaces adjoining there is sometimes only a single brick between them, and liable to be cracked from heat.

 

[Nige F]

Yeah, one of my neighbours had a colostomy bag

 

[JohnD]

It might help if you can alter the ventilation, so it comes in from the windy side of your house, and preferably also on the ground floor, with the upper windows shut. (In hot weather I leave my loft hatch open, and get quite a strong flow of air sucked upwards through the house).

Some buildings have a "positive ventilation" system so that a fan blows fresh air in from the top, and if there are any draughts, the air from the house goes out only. Of course it doesn't work if you have open windows or doors.

Do you think Fag-ash Lil and Smokey Joe like their windows open?

 

[cailin]

I have the same problem!! My boys bedroom window has to be left open at times with the smell of fags from next door. Some nights it's terrible. Is there anything legally that I can do about it?? I'm afraid it's somehow damaging my kids health.

I do know 'her next door' has done some major works out there, judging by the noise at all hours too.

 

[sxhall]

Hi,

You say you have ripped up the carpets, in older houses there are airbricks/gaps in brickwork between the houses under the floor.

If you have no carpets down the smell will most likely be carrying through there. You can't block theses gaps as the airflow is required to prevent damp. All you can do is to put down some flooring!

Hope this helps.

Sxhall

 

[con1_uk]

Just finished bricking up my gaps in the loft. We could always smell what next door was cooking and I'm glad they dont smoke or I think we could have fell out.

Can you not share the cost of securing both homes? This is a fire hazard as well as a smell hazard.

I feel a lot better now I have secured our loft as you could have easily walked along the whole row of terraced houses.

Its all a bit mad really because you spend a fortune on locks on the doors and windows then leave the loft open to anyone.

 

[AndersonC]

Luckily the loft is partitioned off so there's no worries of that.

I think the post about the air bricks is a good pointer. I will be removing and replacing a lot of the upstairs floorboards so will be able to establish the condition of these airbricks if they are there.

Also, the comment about flooring is helpful - the lack of carpets makes a hell of a difference to the level of draughts etc. Once we get round to it the floors will all be completely covered.

As luck would have it though - they have separated and he has bought her out of the house! So when she leaves that may reduce the amount of smoking going on in the house.

Thanks all for your assistance

 

[cailin]

Lucky you! Both my neighbours smoke and their adult kids frequently visit, they are smokers too. It wasn't bad until she took up her carpets, we had ours up a year or so before her. Would wooden/laminate flooring help??

 

[AndersonC]

I guess any type of flooring would help, but unfortunately as I am doing a full internal renovation I am not going to be shelling out the £'s on any floor covering until the place is ready for it.

Oh well I'll keep the windows open and mortar up what gaps I can find for now.