Smoke Odors Coming Through Parition Wall

[Marcus]

Hi,

I live in an old house (approx 200+ years old) that has a slight problem. My house used to be part of the outbuildingsof an ol Manor House. The building I live in used to be a dairy downstairs with servants quarters upstairs. The building has now been separated into two homes and the only way that you could get between the two is via the top floor - e doorway of which as now been sealed off with a partition wall.

Recently we have had a new neighbour move in and we know they smoke becase we are now getting cigarette smoke odors coming through the partition wall. The partition is only about a door width as this formed a hallway in the old servants quarters. The rest of the divide between my and my neighbours property is made up of a chimney breast and is very solid. The partition wall itself is pretty flimsy because we used to be able to hear our old neighbours arguing through the partition wall.

Does anyone have any sugestions as to how the insulation or divide in the partition wall can be improved to ensure that these odors don't come through? I know you can get sound insulation plasterboard etc but is there a similar sort of thing that will keep the odors out was well.

Are smoke odors between partition walls normally a problem or should I be looking for a more obvious cause? I do believe our old neighbour did some work remodelling the bathroom which is the room in his property that is against this partition wall. It is also possible that a portion of his kitchen comes under our stairs. Could odors come up from there and if so is there any way that I could insulate against the odors in that sitituation?

Sorry for the long post and all the details but any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Marcus

 

[Penners]

I suspect that this isn't going to be easy to sort out.

As with noise, you're going to have to try and block off any routes by which air can get through from your neighbour's property into yours. And these routes can be many - particularly in an old building which has been divided up.

1. Do you now what the arrangement of your floors is? If joists or boards run between the properties, these could cause air gaps that allow noise and smoke through.

2. The chimney could be to blame. If it serves both properties, are you sure that the two flues run independently right to the top, or do they merge somewhere, partway up? It's not impossible for the smoke to be going up one and down the other (particularly if you don't use it for fires).

3. A poor or deteriorated party studwork wall can have lots of little gaps and cracks in it, all of which will allow smoke and noise through. Under your stairs, is the wall on your side properly lined? In the bathroom, is your bath against the party wall? If so, could the wall lining have been skimped underneath the bath? These are the kinds of things you need to track down.

4. Do you and your neighbour have adjacent windows, allowing smoke and noise to travel out of his and into yours?

I'm afraid your only way forward is to start a systematic process of elimination. From your description, I think my first action would be to do something about the studwork wall between the two properties. Have a good look at it - if it is in a poor state, then see whether repair is possible, or whether you're best to add an additional skin to it on your side, with some insulation between the new skin and the old. Look for skimped areas of wall, as I've described above.

I would then start hunting for air gaps between the properties behind skirtings, under floorboards and along wall/ceiling joints. Remember - such gaps won't necessarily be straight through. They could be quite convoluted routes through, under or around the structural elements. And don't neglect the loft.

Your ideal target should be to eliminate any route by which air can travel between the two properties. This will have a beneficial effect on both the smoke and the noise transmission.

As I said above, you may have a long process of detailed detection ahead of you, but with determination you should be able to improve the situation.

 

[Manny]

One area that's always done roughly in a lot of new places and can lead to a massive increase in transmission of noise between adjacent buildings is the partition wall in the roof void. Not sure if this helps you but I thought I'd add it.

 

[Lime]

I have lived in property that suffered this problem.
Not nice I can tell you.
I was convinced that they cooked dog poo pie. :shock:

I found the semi-detached house had shared joists at the rear of the house and very porous brickwork wherever there was no plaster.
I took up all the floor boards near the wall with the shared joists and completely plastered around them and the underfloor brickwork.
I also had to fill the void between the stairs and the shared wall which was quite difficult to do. I used a very liquid plaster mix and injected it into the space.

After that, no more dog poo pie smell!

 

[middi]

Could't you threaten them with a few tapes telling their life story, unless they stop polluting the place.

 

[NT]

If they cook dog poo pies I suspect they may not care

NT