Next door neighbor smoking and is stinking the bedroom out - is there anything I can say to her?

[threebikesmcginty]

[QUOTE 846256"]
I know someone who works in the building industry. The internal areas which seperate rooms in houses built nowadays are not made of bricks but of plaster boards nailed to wooden supports which are then taped and joined.
[/quote]

That's right, in some trad built and in timber frame buildings it's layers of plasterboard on a timber frame for party walls and the gap in filled with insulation too, they have to meet fire and sound regulations.

 

[MarkF]

I'm surprised at how much blame and responsibility is apportioned to the smoker. The problem does not lie with the smokers' actions but with the construction of the houses.

The 'victims' first need to identify how the smoke is making its way into their homes and then take measures to prevent the ingress.

Personally in such circumstances I would no more consider asking my neighbour to solve the problem than I would expect them to ask me should the roles be reversed.

What's happened to taking personal responsibility for solving one's own problems?

Agree with all that.

I've never smoked and I'd find it upsetting if I was in the same position, but the only thing you can ask her to do is to "Stop smoking" and that is not right. As has been said, lift the floorboards and get into the loft/ceiling space, use expanding foam and seal the gaps, neutraliser should take care of anything that may still get through. I did this when a neighbours "weed" habit began to stink my bathroom out from her adjoining bedroom, it worked.

 

[ColinJ]

I did this when a neighbours "weed" habit began to stink my bathroom out from her adjoining bedroom

Er, that probably meant that your "bathroom" habits had also been stinking out her adjoining bedroom! (Mind you, she was probably too stoned to notice! )

 

[cyberknight]

I'd be very surprised if the dividing wall is plasterboard.

Probably single breezeblock with plasterboard, our walls are like that and our nieghbour has kids under 14 that are left till 1.30 am or so when the parents go out on the piss.
The kids run riot screaming ,swearing and making lots of noise.As shes works for the cops we are screwed as we had the house valued and we cant afford to move and as its down a private drive if we raise a formal complaint she knows who sent it.

Looking at getting insulating plasterboard at maybe £200 a wall for materials , i just lose maybe 4 cm off each wall then i have to skim and re do the skirting .
Pity its a nice house otherwise .....

 

[asterix]

Tell her she is setting your smoke alarm off. You do have a smoke alarm, I trust? Cooking sausages sets ours off - it's a good way to test them but not to cook sausages.

(I know exactly how you feel - I used to live next door to a smoker like that.)

 

[Canardly]

A technical fix would be to have a positive pressure system installed (usually via a fan at top of the stairs) so that migration into yours doesn't occur.

 

[dellzeqq]

I'd be more concerned about air paths from one house to the next. That's not supposed to happen, although houses of a certain vintage divided by masonry (brick or block) walls sometimes suffered because the bricklayers didn't fill the mortar joints in the floor zones.

My advice to rabbitfood is to start looking for those air paths, which might compromise the fire compartmentation between the houses.

 

[Davidc]

My advice to rabbitfood is to start looking for those air paths, which might compromise the fire compartmentation between the houses.

Particularly as she's a smoker and therefore much more likely than a non smoker to set fire to hers!

Tobacco smoke is so noticeable that it is a nuicance even when the barriers and leakage meet normal test standards, as my mother's flat demonstrates well. The positive pressure solution does work though.

A very good friend of mine, a mathematician, used to work in research into tobacco and health. Her results, this bit never actually published, were that prolonged exposure at the concentration needed for it to be smelt would cause health damage. As a result of doing the tobacco work she wouldn't even sit in a pub garden if anyone was smoking there, she considered it dangerous. She wouldn't let her children go into any house where any of the occupants smoked. Not paranoia or any wierd views, just understanding the evidence she worked with.

 

[661-Pete]

Re: smoke getting through partitions.

Some 15 years ago, long before current legislation kicked in, my employers had a 'smoking-only-in-canteen' policy. Fair enough - at the time. Made the canteen a no-go area for us non-smokers, but wtf?

My office happened to be right next to the canteen. And yes! the smoke permeated up through the canteen ceiling panels, across the void, and down through the ceiling panels in our own office. I complained. Several of my co-workers complained likewise. Eventually the company 'did something' about it. Sent builders to set impermeable sheets vertically, in the void, between canteen and office. But even that didn't sort the problem - completely.

How glad I was when we all moved to new premises in 1997, and the Company decreed that henceforth it shall be non-smoking throughout. How much pleasanter my working environment! And even more pleased when the whole principle got backed up in Government legislation. The pro-smoking whingers may whinge all they like. I'm just glad to be done with whingeing.

 

[snailracer]

I would question whether the basic ventilation in the OP's rooms was adequate - surely there can't be that much airflow across the party wall/roofspace?

 

[steve52]

is it a new problem? smoke from her room is unlikely to travel to urs unless theres a constrution fault, the othe possibility is that someone has been smokeing in urs?

 

[byegad]

News to me. Based on my personal experience, I would put the figure at no more than 40-50%.

I disagree.
I'd say 99% of smokers don't car about effects on others and 1% do.

 

[Zoiders]

Just the level of hysterical xenophobia being displayed towards smokers in some of the posts is an indicator that this is just an enablement thread.

Mid terrace there is no earthly way the smell is making it in from next door.

Have you tried writing an angry letter to the daily mail in green ink about the filthy working class types bringing down the house prices in your newly gentrified postcode?

 

[Zoiders]

So the OP's lying in order to make an anti-smoking thread?

Possibly being over sensitive.

Power of suggestion and all that.

Note how quickly people were to jump on the bandwagon and make the claims that all smokers inflict it upon others.

In that climate of hysteria are we supposed to be suprised when people become hyper sensitive to just the sight of someone smoking?

 

[Garz]

I actually suffer from this too, the wife and me sometimes notice this (next door has two rather large smoking NHS nightmares). The other odd thing we smell is 'garlic night'. They must order the local grease family meal (for two) and it stinks!

I was thinking of A) having a word, B) expanding foam type option C) looking into environmental health also.

I'm actually happy that someone else experiences this which is sad I know.