On 3/7/2012 8:55 AM, Steven Bornfeld wrote:
On 3/7/2012 7:29 AM, Norminn wrote:
On 3/6/2012 9:50 PM, Vic Smith wrote:
On Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:08:41 -0500, Steven Bornfeld
wrote:

I write in hope of some serious answers. I know this general issue has
come up before, and wading through the incredulous and the trolls doing
a search yields nothing that seems likely to work. Maybe there is
nothing; if not, so be it.
We just moved into our new home after over 7 months of renovations. The
problem is cigarette smoke from one of our neighbors.
This is an attached house, with a party wall (concrete). (attached on
the other side too, separate construction, not a problem.
When the walls were open, I was not aware of any plumbing coming
directly from the smoking neighbor. There are cabinets mounted in our
kitchen on the party wall. Holes were cut in the cabinet backs to
accommodate some drainage and steam pipes (ours), and there is an
opening around our plumbing which we will seal off. We don't know what
might be the best way to do this, and I have no idea if it will work
(though the cigarette smoke is strongest in these cabinets.
This does appear to be coming through the walls--somehow, and not
through vents to the outside. This is old construction (c. 1940).
There is no question that there is cigarette smoke. It's not nearly as
big a problem for me (my sense of smell was never the same since
organic
chemistry), but my wife is very upset.
I'm quite sure I have no legal recourse, and in any case wouldn't
expect
my neighbor to modify his smoking on my behalf. Really just interested
to know if anyone has dealt with some mechanical means of dealing with
this problem that was effective.

TIA,
Steve

Since you can't smell it, I'd try to confirm there is actually a
smell. You wife's smell might be off.
If she's a rabid anti-smoker, just seeing somebody smoking downwind
and 100 yards away can cause her to smell cigarette smoke,
You got good advice except for that omission.
I'd go for positive pressure first.
If that doesn't do it, the smell is old stuff that hasn't been sealed.
Or in her olfactory imagination.

--Vic



Entirely possible by the OP's description....being "very upset" at a
faint odor of smoke leans toward obsession. I smell smoke most of the
time, in the evening....neighborhood fireplace?....nobody else here can
smell it. I understand folks who hate cig. smoke, but why not the same
obsession about fireplaces, wood stoves and indust. pollution? Wood
burning gives off more carcinogens than 2nd hand cig. smoke.

Actually, we had fireplaces (really small Heatilator fireplace) in our
apartment. We seldom used it (I would actually be surprised if it's
legal to use in NYC), but others in the building did. And we frequently
had strong fireplace smells coming into our apartment from elsewhere in
the building. The fireplaces were very temperamental--you had to really
heat up the flue before starting the fire, or the stack of cold air
would push the smoke down and out into the living room.
By the way, here is a photo of the building with my apartment--with Al
Pacino standing in front:

http://www.google.com/url?source=img...tf2fL0JpePdCZA



The building was used as the bank building in "Dog Day Afternoon". At
the time it was an ink factory; it was turned into condo apartments in
the late 1980s.
I didn't know about the building's history until after I'd moved in in
1993.
They do a lot of filming in our area, which can be a real pain. Today
they're doing filming near us for the HBO series "Boardwalk
Empire"--which doesn't make much sense to me because there is no
boardwalk around. However, Steve Buscemi lives pretty nearby.

Steve


my daughter lives in the west village on hudson. they're always tieing
up the streets for filming.