(tobacco) Smoke smell coming from under the floorboards.

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Hi everyone.

I'm having a great deal of trouble with this.

I live in a mid-terrace house in a 10 houses row. My house is one of the two middle ones, That means that our first floor bedrooms are slightly bigger as they go over the corridor that gives access to the right of way for the back gardens of the 10 houses.

It also means that the wall separating my bedrooms with the next door neighbor is sitting on top of wood joists over the corridor. These joists leave a gap between that wall and the plasterboard that constitutes the ceiling of that open corridor.

Previously, with the lady living there we had no problems whatsoever, but she swapped the property with her daughter and her boyfriend and they smoke inside the house.

Since then, we had this smoke smell in the first floor rooms coming from her side. I lifted the floor planks of the bedrooms and stuffed the voids between the gaps with loft insulation, even used polyfilla foam where I could (but I know it wasn't a perfect seal). It diminished the smell but didn't got rid of it.

My last attempt last winter was to put silicone sealant all over the skirting boards and gaps in the floor planks. It did work quite well, but this year has come back slightly and also the smell is far stronger in the second bedroom as I guess it has found it's way from the better draft proofed main bedroom.

Now my wife is pregnant and obviously she has developed a better sense of smell and this is driving her crazy.

The other property is managed by Town and Country and last year they sent someone to have a look. They only looked at theirs, not coming to ours to check the smell. They concluded that there is no problem, but obviously there is.

My last idea is to drill holes in the plasterboard of the corridor and put some ventilation grilles to see if the direction of the draft changes.

Any other ideas to finish with this problem. It is quite unpleasant and is ruining our lives at the moment.

Thanks.
 
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Get Town and Country back, it's their problem especially as the other half is pregnant.

You have a right to be protected from passive smoke in a rented property.

0845 873 1 321 or 01892 501480
 
Do you have open fireplaces and shared flues?

Is the warm smoky air from next door going up their fireplace, cooling, then falling down into your fireplace?
 
No, the chimney flues are in the opposite walls and the smell doesn't come from there. My chimney flues have a top cap in the chimney pot to allow the air to get out the flue and avoid those "puffs" of smoke coming in when the pressure is greater outside.

Anyway, I used the chimney when the other lady was in the house and didn't have that problem at all. No it is not the chimney definitely.

I am not rented, I own my house, it is them who are rented.
 
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I don't know for sure, but this is a thought. Try sealing the roof space hatch with foam strip (if you have one of course). Could be acting as a vent and pulling in the smell from under the floor. If it's a common roof space like it is in a lot of the older type of those properties you could be getting all sorts of weird airflows.
Your chimneys could be causing lower pressure in your property than next door as well. Having the right vents if you don't already might help.
 
Hi Dave, thanks for the post.
I do have a loft hatch but it is already insulated with foam.
I don't know about the chimneys and vents. What do you mean about chimney related vents?.
 
First off I'm no expert on airflow in buildings or anything like that (probably obvious :))
To get the smell into your house, it's a fair guess that the air pressure is very slightly lower in your house than in next door for some reason. Hence air from their house along with any smell is being "sucked" through any linked spaces or gaps between the houses.
This lower pressure, (and it will be miniscule) could be caused by something like your house being well sealed generally and having a chimney open to the room whether it is used or not. The answer to that one could be having a vent in the room where the fireplace is, if there isn't one already, to give the air to balance the pressure an "easier" way in straight from outside. To start with open the window in that room with the chimney a bit if possible and see if it's any better. Extractor fan(s) could also give a problem if the house has no vents to draw the air from.
Just ideas I'm afraid. Generally anything like this is very frustrating to try to solve. Good luck with it.
 

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