Second-hand smoke gets in your eyes
Q: We purchased our condominium about three months ago. During the inspection, I kept noticing the smell of cigarette smoke in the living room and master bedroom. The sellers were not smokers, so I figured the next door neighbor must be a smoker. Our home inspector looked for openings in the walls where smoke might be getting in, but he didn’t find any. We keep smelling smoke, and sometimes it even burns my eyes. How can we find out where this is getting in, and what can we do to stop it?
A: Air movement from one condominium to another is unusual because the partition walls between condos are usually sealed and insulated for noise reduction. However, there are several possible ways that smoke from your neighbor’s unit could be invading your air space, so let’s consider some likely possibilities:
The partition walls between you and your neighbor probably have electrical outlets and switches, and these may not be adequately sealed to prevent airflow between living unit. This can be solved by installing weatherproof seals under the cover plates.
Gaps at the bottom edges of the partition walls are also potential paths for air movement. You can eliminate this by applying caulk where baseboards meet the subfloor. To do this properly, you may need to roll back some carpet.
Smoke entry may also occur at the chimney tops above the roof. In some condo buildings, fireplaces in adjoining living units are installed back to back, with the chimney flues emerging in pairs above the roofline. If the chimney caps are too close together, smoke from your neighbor’s chimney could be blown down your chimney on windy days. A height extension of one chimney could eliminate that possibility. To ensure proper installation, that would need to be done by a certified chimney sweep.
The attic is another path for possible smoke transmission. In older condo buildings, firewalls were not required to separate the attic space above one living unit from the attic spaces of its neighbors. Meanwhile, bathroom exhaust fans in some of these buildings were vented into the attic, even though venting to the exterior was required by code. When bathrooms are vented into a common attic space with no firewalls, the attic becomes an avenue for air circulation between dwellings. This enables smoke from one condo to penetrate into another, by way of the bathroom vents. If this condition exists in your building, the problem can be corrected by installing partition walls in the attic and vent ducts from the bathroom exhaust fans to the exterior of the building, as required.
If these suggestions fail to eliminate the smoke problem in your condo, on-site investigation by the United States Surgeon General or by a qualified building inspector would be option No. 5.