How to stop cigarette smoke coming through walls etc from neighbours?

[midas]

Hi
I live in a Victorian semi-detached house which was originally one property and I'm looking for advice on how can I stop cigarette smoke coming through the walls (or possible any other shared parts, loft, floorboards etc) as my neighbour is a very heavy chain smoker.

Thank You

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Windows first- do you keep them open? Chimneys- do you have any on the shared walls?
Loft- is there a wall dividing the loft between the house halves? Is it sealed (boarded) or bare brick? Any gaps above the wall or where purlins, rafters etc go through it?
Floors- need to lift a few boards and see whether the joists link the 2 halves and whether there are ventilation gaps in the subfloor (ground level).
That's a few starters...
When you say semi-detached do you mean someone has split the original detached house in two? If so there are very likely linked voids under the floors, poorly sealed partition walls etc etc. From a safety point of view there could be very little preventing smoke and fire spreading between the spaces.

EDIT Depending on what you find...if there are a few gaps then rockwool or pink (fireproof) expanding foam. If there's no wall in the loft then you & neighbour need to build one. If there are full linked voids then that may need more expertise to create the fire barrier that should exist between the 2 halves.

 

[midas]

Don't keep the windows open on that side as it seems to draw in more smoke from the neighbours
No chimneys on shared walls.
Haven't checked the loft yet
Yes it was originally one detached house that has been split in to two.

Thanks for your help

 

[oldbutnotdead]

If you're a non-smoker you may be able to localise the ingress.
If the smell comes and goes (it should reduce when neighbour is out) if you open your windows when they head out and close them when they come back it may help narrow the search area down)

 

[johnny2007]

If it is a semi detached you mast have a party wall.
That's where the smell comes from.
I'm afraid you won't be able to fully stop it.
Do all described by oldbutnotdead, but as said you'll still smell it.
A couple of people I know moved for this reason after even spending a fortune in moving their staircase and lining the party wall.
"Exotic" food is another smell that you can't stop coming through walls.

 

[BlueLoo]

How about feeding him an avalanche of cheap cigarettes through his letterbox. He can smoke himself to death much quicker, ending your problems.

Happy xmas, etc...

 

[conny]

If it is a semi detached you mast have a party wall.

As Liverpool City Council discovered a number of years ago. They had an estate built which consisted of a number of 3 storey flats with no barriers in the roof space. Each flat was linked by a 'communal' loft which was only discovered when police investigated a number of burglaries which didn't have any evidence of break ins. They alerted the council to their findings and the council drew up plans to partition them off. Unfortunately before the building works started there was a fire in one of the flats in one of the blocks. It literally spread like wildfire and destroyed the entire block in a matter of hours. Luckily nobody died but the rest of the estate who lived in the other blocks demanded to be re-housed immediately. As a stop gap, because you can't re-house a few hundred families at the drop of a hat, every flat was fitted with smoke alarms, all loft areas were cleared out and sprayed with some form of intumescent foam and all loft access points were sealed off. After the residents had been moved out, which took about 2 years, the estate was demolished. This would have been around the late 70's early 80's.

 

[RandomGrinch]

Each flat was linked by a 'communal' loft

Most of the Victorian terraces around me still have open lofts. The pics show my neighbours loft and the large gaps through to the rest of the terrace:

I have only recently had a firewall built.

This was partly due to some new neighbours who like to smoke something stronger than normal cigarettes

The wall has definitely improved the issue, but the rear 'extension' of the terrace has joists that meet on the party wall, with some large gaps in between the two properties.
So we still have a stench in the bathroom and mice getting in under the floorboards.

I am in the process of ripping out my bathroom just to fill all the gaps!

I may dislike the neighbours, but I hate mice!

 

[^woody^]

If you have smoke/ odour coming through, then the compartmentation is defective and so the fire compartmentation - which should be the concerning thing.

The cause is gaps, plain and simple. In the floor voids, wall edges, loft. Difficult to remedy, and requires lots of intrusive work.

However, use of a positive pressure fan may help. Alternatively, you could use environmental law to get the neighbour to sort out the problem one way or another. The local council could enforce this.

 

[RandomGrinch]

However, use of a positive pressure fan may help.

Nice idea

Perhaps?
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/VAPAHH.html

 

[conny]

I hate mice with a vengeance and my wife is horrified by them. When we moved here 6+ years ago the first thing I checked was the loft. Nice drop down extending ladder, celotex insulation between the rafters, 2 Velux windows and the floor boarded out in what looks like 18mm chipboard. Great, I thought, plenty of storage space but I will need to rig up a light before winter as it gets dark early. Put a lot of excess stuff up there in sealed boxes but never got round to putting a light in. Laying in bed one night and we hear scratching in the ceiling. Get up there the following morning to mice droppings and bits of chewed cardboard all over the place. Cleaned up and set about a dozen traps around various places plus installed 2 sonic protectors, (totally useless!), and within a few days had caught 6-7 Over the next couple of weeks we captured a few more in slowly dwindling numbers until we reached the point of going weeks without catching anything and then when we did catch any it was usually a solitary one. Haven't been up there in a long time so there are probably a few mummified corpses up there but they can stay there. May serve as a warning to others. Should say, all the ones we caught were chestnut brown with a white underbelly which, I believe, are field mice. As we live in the countryside it's not surprising.

 

[cdbe]

How old's the neighbour? Buy him a few packs of B&H for new year.

 

[bernardgreen]

However, use of a positive pressure fan may help

as mentioned that is a good idea

and a lot of cooking with powerful aromatic flavouring to tickle your neighbour's senses.

 

[conny]

as mentioned that is a good idea

and a lot of cooking with powerful aromatic flavouring to tickle your neighbour's senses.

Assuming her/she still has a sense of smell through all the fug in their house.