Help!!! Smoke smell in my new place.

“I have moved into my new place, a condo, which I really like. There are lots and lots of reasons why it's great. However, there is one major problem. There are four units here sharing a common entrance and hall. Someone in one of the other three units is a smoker. I suspect the smoke smell is entering my place through the tiny spaces around the front door. Every time I smell it, my nasal passages totally flare up and I am stuffed up and sneezing.

So now what can I do about it? I thought I would look for some sort of rubber strip something or other to seal the perimeter of my door. But what else can I do to get protect myself from the smell? I absolutely detest it in my home.”

“i used to have the same prob when I was a student in a shared house (my that was 16 years ago)... i didn't have any money...student... so I rolled up a towel and put it along the bottom of the door...it blocked out quite a bit of the smoke”

“It could also be entering through a common vent used by everyone for the stove or such. If you are not smelling it in the hall I would suspect this. Try turning on the stove vent and see if the smell goes away...of course by then your sinuses are toast. If this works #&%!$ at your condo association.

Go to Lowe's or such and get some help with door sweeps and seals...you might have to replace your door and door frame if you have an older setup.

Looks like it is time to look for a new place to live.”

“get out now. your house is on fire”

“Ruby, get a cat but no litter box. Problem solved.”

“Read about them here....

http://www.jenesco.com/

Pictures and prices here......




http://www.jenesco.com/shop/index.php/cPath/32?osCsid=43b53f925dd7147dc58adcef942854b6”

“We had a similar problem.

Weatherstrip the door jamb and add a sweep to the inside of the door. If you don't want to do the sweep, perhaps a new threshhold that is a tad bit higher.”

“You can but carbon filters for your stove and other vents as well, they'll block some of the smell.”

“Shoot the smoker. QED.”

“What is QED??

Latin for WTF??”

“There shouldn’t be any common vent openings between units in a condo. To have such would be a violation of the building code unless your city has adopted some weird code.”

“Quod Erat Demonstrandum - that which was to be demonstrated”

“I knew that.”

“Thanks, professor”

“Do you not work at a library, MarkO?”

“I do indeed Foot, but somehow osmosis don't apply to Latin abbreviations, at least not today.”

“LOL, i had to read the thread title a few times...i kept reading it as Help(me)Smoke in My house"...i was thinking 420 was last month LOL”

“It seems its always 420 somewhere”

“I don't think there are any common vents. I am pretty sure it's the front door since the smell is greatly diminished when I am in my bedroom which is the furthest room from the main entrance. And the common area stinks. I'm still trying to figure out which other unit it's coming from.

I am going to look into those air cleaner thingies, Super Troll. Is reverse osmosis better than ionizers or HEPA filters? (I don't really know what I'm talking about. I just know a smattering of the terminology.)


Birch, very funny!!!”

“Some thresholds (under the door) are adjustable.
Do you have vents in the kitchen or bath that would suck air in through the door opening? Cracking a window might help.”

“dryer sheets do wonders to keep out the smoke.....lol.

Seriously though, have you thought about getting those plug-in things? That might help. I dunno.”

“Ruby, a few suggestions.

Something is sucking the bad air into your condo.

What I would do is try to minimize the negative air pressure inside your condo.

Bathroom vents - crack a window open a bit
Dryer vents - crack a window open a bit
Stove vent - crack a window open a bit

Notice a pattern here? ;-)

In this case, keeping a tight house is working against you and drawing the smoke into the condo.




Well crap, le subtil beat me to it! ;-)
Sorry le subtil, didn't see your post till too late.
last edited: 5/02/06 10:37:13 AM”