Kerosene smell.

[Tony 7247]

Hi. I know this topic's been covered here and elsewhere but my situation is a little different from the norm so thought I'd pick the brains of the good folk on DIYnot to see if anyone can give some idea.

I moved into my house on March 7th at the tail end of 'the beast from the east'. The house had been empty for 5 months with the oil fired heating on 24/7. I visited the house several times prior to moving in and the boiler, which is old and rusty and located in the attached garage, worked perfectly well with no bad smells whatsoever. Fast forward to moving in day and the house stank of fumes and the air in the garage was so thick you could cut it with a knife. An engineer was called who found a very slight leak on a flexi pipe which was replaced, no drips just a thin coating of oil on the pipe. No kero had leaked onto the floor, it appears it was burned off hence the fumes. The fumes from the garage appeared to have tracked the pipework into the cavity walls and from there into the living room which is adjacent (entering via the gap between skirting and oak flooring). The garage and boiler, which is being replaced in a couple of weeks, were soon 100% fume free but the house still isn't. The smell in the house faded and more or less disappeared once the central heating was turned off but it's back again although much reduced now that the sun's out and warming the wall up. I know that fumes from spilled kero can last an absolute age but does anyone know how long the smell from burned fumes that have permeated a cavity wall might last? I'm hoping the answer's 'not much longer' but I have a nasty feeling it'll be something else. Many thanks.

 

[oilboffin]

It may well be the fumes have traveled along into the house have a whiff where the ch pipes come into the house and put vinegar down as a deoderant if you smell it vinegar is an old remedy and
it does work.Bob

 

[dilalio]

And then you can post on another forum, asking how to get rid of the smell of vinegar!

 

[oilhead]

If the smell persists in the cavity, then in my own experience, it is never down to just fumes. Some kero must have permeated the cavity and soaked into the brickwork/blocks or woodwork. It needs a thorough check of the suspected passage any contamination has taken, paying particular attention to anything absorbent. Are you absolutely sure there was no liquid fuel on the floor?

 

[Tony 7247]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. Yes I'm absolutely sure there was no liquid fuel on the floor. The boiler wasn't running on the day I moved in as the previous owner had let the tank run dry, the boiler stopped firing up a day or two before I moved in. When I first examined the boiler there was a slight damp patch on the brickwork behind the boiler which I initially thought must have been fuel but the engineer discovered it was a water leak, a diagnosis that I believe is supported by the water pressure in the tank slowly and constantly dropping and needing topping up and the fact that the damp patch completely disappeared within a day or so of the boiler being fired up from the radiant heat produced.

 

[oilboffin]

The smell of vinegar will go after a while but let's face it vinegar is not a bad smell.Bob

 

[dilalio]

The smell of vinegar will go after a while but let's face it vinegar is not a bad smell.Bob

I love it. SWMBO doesn’t.

 

[oilboffin]

Ha ha ha I remember my uncle a smashing fella bought a gallon of vinegar to get rid of an oil smell in the cellar of a country house we were working at was on his way down the stairs slipped the top was off the gallon container he landed at the bottom covered in vinegar spilt it all over the cellar
got rid of the oil smell and his van stank for two weeks,still makes me laugh when I think of it he really was a great chap still miss him.Bob

 

[RigidRaider]

It's not kerosine, it's a heavier fraction so it will take longer to evaporate than kerosine, which is quite volatile. Think of diesel fuel spilled on the garage forecourt; it will eventually evaporate leaving a waxy deposit but in cold weather it takes a long time. Heavy oil is also very smelly but the smell can be masked successfully with heavy fruity perfumes so you might have some success if you buy a couple of those stinky American Yankee candles in jars, preferable something like blackcurrant or fruits of the forest. Believe it or not, hundreds of tons of heavy fruity perfumes are sold to oil companies in the Far East to reduce the smell of two-stroke oil, which consumers buy for their beloved motorcycles, thinking less smell means better quality.

The diesel smell is a problem in European apartment buildings where the heating is by burning mazout or heavy oil and a few drops leak onto the floor in the boiler room. If the smell persists through the warm summer my money is on you having a small leak somewhere.

 

[Tony 7247]

Hi folks.

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated. The problem has been resolved and I thought you might be interested as to what caused the stink.

First of all due to me being unfamiliar with oil fired heating I misidentified the smell. It wasn't raw kerosene it was burned (partially burned?) kerosene fumes. When the old boiler was removed the engineer found that the previous owner had had a recent problem with the vent pipe which had been 'fixed' by plastering mastic around all the joints. The mastic wasn't old, it was quite fresh. The 'fix' failed and the boiler was venting mostly to the outside world but also partially into the wall cavity. A new Grant vortex was fitted and the stink instantly diminished. The new boiler's been running for just 2 days and the smell is now virtually undetectable in fact I can only find faint traces of it if I get on my hands and knees and snort a nostril full of air from the gap between skirting board and flooring which was where the smell was entering the house. So it's problem solved.

Thanks once again.