Every so often a resident will have problems with cigarette smoke getting into their unit from a neighbor’s, often through the fire corridor or the bathroom/kitchen vent systems, or possibly the heating/cooling system. A resident is asking if anyone has found ways to block this problem. For people with asthma it’s more than just a minor inconvenience. Feel free to offer suggestions in the comments.
And for those people who do smoke, please consider using air filters or taking it outside for the sake of your neighbors.
On the lighter side, there are three festivals going on in town tomorrow for those of you who want to hold onto summer as long as you can: The Annual Fiddle and Banjo Fest from 10 to 6 at Boarding House Park, The Gurjar India Heritage Fest at Lowell Heritage State Park on Pawtucket Blvd. from noon to 6, and The Blues & Brews Fest (requires tickets) at JFK plaza.
Plus Western Ave Studios are having their monthly First Saturday Open Studios from noon to 5.
Positive ventilation can be helpful if vents are the problem, though that would make things worse if the source is a fire hallway or some other originating point. Try leaving bathroom fans (my units’ past problem, though I have better neighbors on the flue these days) on all day to see if it improves. The ktchen fan is another possibility. If it’s fire hallway smoke, please bust the perpetrator–that’s dangerous to us all if anything bad were to happen out there. You should be able to confirm smoke by stepping out you fire hallway access door and giving a sniff.
I have a chain smoker somewhere below my unit. I leave the bathroom doors slightly ajar and the fan on. You need to move air from the unit to the stack and out.
Also using gap filler foam try to seal holes in the walls bathroom and kitchen cabinets, closets, utility room/ closet.
The only way to completely stop it would be to open up the two utility chase walls and completely seal the floor inside that space. I did this in the kitchen side so no smoke comes in that way. I tried to do this on the bathroom side. This was not as successful.
A better bath and kitchen fan would also help.
We had a minor, intermittent problem for a while, only in our bedroom. We caulked the seam between the wood beam and the wall. Plus, we caulked all the holes in the wood beam. It helped a lot. If you haven’t already tried, I would rule out a neighborly conversation. Many smokers actually want to quitter cut down, and most people want to be considerate, so it could work.
I agree with Pete P. I used caulking in my upstairs cooling/heating unit. It made a big difference there. In the bathroom, it’s going to take more drastic measures.
This comment was received via e-mail:
“I personally have no answer to that problem; not sure there is one with the ventilation systems being common throughout the building. But I do have an addition to the problem.
Marijuana smoke odor. It STINKS! I realize it’s legal to be able to use the stuff now, but is there any way the condo association can BLOCK the use of the actual MJ cigarette. People have other ways to get the stuff into their systems without causing their neighbors’ units to smell awful.
Does anyone have a solution to THAT problem?”
Don’t bathroom vents connect to a central chimney that runs straight up all six floors? Every time our unit becomes a GanjaFest it’s only ever coming from the bathroom (which it sounds like is the case for most). It also seems unrealistic to ask residents to run fans continuously merely to keep others’ smoke out.
If we’re dealing with a central chimney anyone smoking in the bathroom with an auto-on fan is, coincidentally or not, sharing second hand smoke with five other units.
Without getting into lifestyle choices and preexisting conditions, perhaps we could all agree to simply not smoke in the two rooms that just happen to pull smoke into five other units above/below them?