hello,,,i recently bought a property which was built around 1900,,,i painted a room out and lifted the carpets and sanded the floorboards so i could live in that room while i renovated the rest of the rooms etc,,,the room i painted out was wall papered and had been used by the previous owner as a smoking room,,,the walls and ceiling were brown as you can imagine,,,ive never seen anything like it,,,as i was in a bit of a hurry to get a room ready i didnt remove the paper and just painted over it in white emulsion,,,anyway ive been getting terrible headaches and sore throats,,,and theres sometimes this sickly sour smell and taste in my throat,,,has anyone else had any experiences like this??? i read somewhere it could be dog wee soaked into the pine boards or could it just be the nicotine chemicals coming through the paper???,,,its only this one room the rest of the house is fine......
sour sickly taste and smell in room,,,nicotine stains or wee
- Thread starter sonofrob
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Yeah, it's called "having a cold".
Have you got a gas fire in there, or any other gas appliances?
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Very helpful. Prat.
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no mate no gas appliances,,,only a boiler in the cellar and ive had that checked out,,,boilers been off last three days or so as its been so warm here,,,its either dog wee soaked into the pine floorboards or the nicotine stained walls i reckon,,,defo not a cold this has been going on for months......
It is very probably the nicotine coming through the paint. Possibly the solvents in the paint released more of the chemicals in the wall.
Scrubbing the walls with something like sugar soap is the minimum and then seal before painting. Faced with a similar problem a person near here had to re-plaster to remove all traces.
Scrubbing the walls with something like sugar soap is the minimum and then seal before painting. Faced with a similar problem a person near here had to re-plaster to remove all traces.
Something dead under the floorboards IMO.
Nothing to do with smoking.
Nothing to do with smoking.
Is there a fire place that was used for an open fire ? Damp soot can create a potent irritating odour and / or fumes . A badly installed gas fire ( when the flames are yellowish ) can create a lot of soot in the chimney.
nothing under the floorboards mate ive been under there and theres nothing suspect,,,there is however a massive fireplace that was blocked up with a steel plate and sealed with mastick untill i opened it up to take a look inside months ago,,,ill seal it back up and see if the headaches stop......
I assume you've tried sleeping in other rooms to see if that clears your ailments?
i blocked the fireplace back up a couple of days ago and smell has completely dissapeared thank god,,,it has been the damp soot all along,,,i looked up the chimney and seen some wool insulation someone had pushed up there in the past,,,plus there is no rain cap on the pots at the top so you can imagine,,,the headaches ive had over the last 5 month or so have been unreal,,,plus synus problems and blurry vision,,,i didnt know what to think......
looks as if the chimney was the source?
it was mentioned that there was / is no rain cap on the chimney pot? this has possibly allowed rain water to get into the flue. And there is the possibility that in a blocked off Flue Condensation will occur, combine the last two and there could well be or have been a lot of moisture in the flue.
When any fossil fuel is burned, oil, gas Coal Timber the combustion process in the flue gas produces / has produced Sulphur, the gas from combustion rises up the flue and some of the Sulphur precipitates out to settle on the Flue lining.
Now a storm can occur, depending on the quantity of available water / moisture on the inner surfaces of the Flue, the water / moisture combines with the Sulphur and produces a very weak Sulphuric Acid.
If there was a down draft when the fire place was opened up you may, and I stress May have been exposed to a large volume of low levels of weak Sulphuric Acid.
The smell and symptom may tie together correctly?
Ken
it was mentioned that there was / is no rain cap on the chimney pot? this has possibly allowed rain water to get into the flue. And there is the possibility that in a blocked off Flue Condensation will occur, combine the last two and there could well be or have been a lot of moisture in the flue.
When any fossil fuel is burned, oil, gas Coal Timber the combustion process in the flue gas produces / has produced Sulphur, the gas from combustion rises up the flue and some of the Sulphur precipitates out to settle on the Flue lining.
Now a storm can occur, depending on the quantity of available water / moisture on the inner surfaces of the Flue, the water / moisture combines with the Sulphur and produces a very weak Sulphuric Acid.
If there was a down draft when the fire place was opened up you may, and I stress May have been exposed to a large volume of low levels of weak Sulphuric Acid.
The smell and symptom may tie together correctly?
Ken
Swept first but it must remain ventilated. 
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