Smoke smell from flat below - ok to put airtight membrane under carpet?

[Donsboig]

Hello,

I am in a converted Victorian house and when my downstairs neighbour smokes I get smoke smell coming up through the floor. I'm planning to put new carpets down and wondering if it is ok to put some sort of plastic sheeting down across the whole floor (and tuck it under skirting boards) before adding underlay and carpet?

I'm particularly wondering if it could cause damp issues? I'm hoping it would be ok because:

- I'm on the first floor, so under my floor is the neighbour's ceiling.
- I've been into the void under the floorboards and it's all dry as a bone.

But I'm aware damp stuff can be a bit counterintuitive.

Any thoughts welcome, thank you.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Sounds fine to me. Not ideal but totally understand why you'd want to do it. I'd shove the edge under the skirting, slice off any surplus and run a bead of silicone round the perimeter. Also ensure the top of the skirting is caulked to the wall before painting.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Fire/smoke risk?

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Alternatively you could seal between the floor boards with silicone and against the skirting.

 

[foxhole]

How do you know it’s coming thru the floor? Highly unlikely .

 

[Donsboig]

How do you know it’s coming thru the floor? Highly unlikely .

In the floor space there are electrical cables, some of which poke into the flat below via small holes, so I'm assuming the smoke comes up through those. Then it is only impeded by floorboards which have large gaps between them.

What other routes should I be considering?

 

[Donsboig]

Sounds fine to me. Not ideal but totally understand why you'd want to do it. I'd shove the edge under the skirting, slice off any surplus and run a bead of silicone round the perimeter. Also ensure the top of the skirting is caulked to the wall before painting.

thank you. What exactly is not ideal about it? Moisture not being able to move about freely?

 

[foxhole]

In the floor space there are electrical cables, some of which poke into the flat below via small holes, so I'm assuming the smoke comes up through those. Then it is only impeded by floorboards which have large gaps between them.

What other routes should I be considering?

Thru windows , should not be possible for smoke from below to enter if property complied with regulation.

 

[23vc]

Thru windows , should not be possible for smoke from below to enter if property complied with regulation.

Current regs maybe, but not your average Victorian place with downstairs having downlight holes or whatever, and a floor void then your floorboards…

 

[Donsboig]

Thru windows , should not be possible for smoke from below to enter if property complied with regulation.

As I understand it, it was shoddily converted in the 80s so it probably doesn't comply with regs.

I've done lots of sniffing at various locations in the room and I'm pretty certain it's not coming from outside. It's strongest at the floor level on the side of the room opposite from the window.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

It's the obvious route. I had a previous house where the ground floor was floorboards over a ventilated void. My problem was cold outside air blowing up through the gaps between the boards. I sealed all the gaps between them with flexible silicone sealant. I also sealed the bottoms of the skirtings around the perimeter. There were absolutely no ill effects and it worked brilliantly, made a vast difference to the room. After doing it you could actually hear a sucking noise when shutting the door, as it was airtight.

I'd argue that this way at least the timber is still breathing. If you put polythene over then moist air from the downstairs flat could get trapped against its underside against the floorboards then have nowhere to go. Plus you'll struggle to seal the edges.

Just buy a big box of sealant, squirt along each crack then use an old/cheap paint scraper to flatten it out into a surface. It doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it's flat.

Whatever you do, get rubber crumb underlay. It insulates, soundproofs and lasts vastly longer than the old foam stuff that flattens in a week then turns to powder in ten years.

 

[^woody^]

If cigarettes smoke can get through, then so can hot smoke from a fire, and it's a fire risk.

Ask the landlord for a type 3 or 4 fire safety risk assessment, and that will identify what needs to be sealed.

 

[RrogerD]

If it was me I'd find any way possible to not have my life dusrupted by the unsoicial and inconsiderate habits of another. It must be awful for you. Speak to the Landlord / Freeholder and try and stress your concerns re safety and fire risk. Get a cert from the doc saying that it effecting your health, asthma etc. Get the person out. It is also destroying the property.

Failing all of this, leave yourself.

Cigarette smoke is detectable no matter what. You'll do all this work and still smell it I promise you.

 

[Donsboig]

Thank you for your comments. Unfortunately I own the flat, and we the owners run the management of the building. I don't really want to open up a huge expensive piece of work where we're trying to seal all floors of the building.

I guess I will do my best with sealing and seeing where we get to.

I have seen other threads where people talk about installing a piv system, to try to get air flow going from outside -> my room -> downstairs room. Anyone got any experience of that working?

 

[RrogerD]

Thank you for your comments. Unfortunately I own the flat, and we the owners run the management of the building. I don't really want to open up a huge expensive piece of work where we're trying to seal all floors of the building.

I guess I will do my best with sealing and seeing where we get to.

I have seen other threads where people talk about installing a piv system, to try to get air flow going from outside -> my room -> downstairs room. Anyone got any experience of that working?

Good idea. I hadn't thought of that. I'd personally try that before lifting boards etc. I've been googling them myself in connection with reducing condensation and the reviews seem to have been very positive. I guess that cost and size and whether you instal yourself is a factor but it appears that B&Q sell them for £3-400 if you install yourself which is very reasonable I think.