Horribly cooking smells semi detached

My son used to get the smell of cannabis through the walls of their semi from the house next door. Not very pleasant when you’ve got a small child. They’ve since moved !

When my mums neighbours had a fag in their extension it used to seep through the air brick in her larder.

DD had a problem when the smell of next door's cigarette smoke kept getting in to her bedroom.

Thankfully the floor boards were parallel with the party wall so she took a couple up and then used builder's foam to fill any gaps where the joists went into the party wall. She did the same in the loft. The ground floor was solid so no problem there.

Anyway it worked and the smell disappeared.

Thanks will try that

I love the smell of garlic, makes me hungry.
I’m no help whatsoever, sorry OP.

Talking of smells, I live in a block of flats with a communal entrance. You can always tell who was the last person to walk down the passage by the smell they leave behind them.

My top floor of my house absolutely reeks of next doors cigarettes smoke even when I have the windows open it hangs in there Stale cigarette smoke is the worst but I have to grin and bear it

At work we get cannabis often floating in

Talking of smells, I live in a block of flats with a communal entrance. You can always tell who was the last person to walk down the passage by the smell they leave behind them.

Maybe youre a "super smell recogniser" like the super facial recognisers the police use?

(Sorry for Tangent OP)

I love the whiffs of cooking smells coming from different homes in the early evening it makes me imagine cosy scenes

BUT if the level of draught between the 2 houses is that extreme that you feel like youre in their kitchen when they cook I would worry about 2 things: the speed in which a fire/smoke would spread between the houses. Being semi SHOULD buy next door time to get out but not if there are significant gaps.

And 2, less importantly, insulation

So I would get it seriously looked at. As another poster said the "weak link" is usually between ceiling and floor so some degree of disruption may be needed to get to the root of it and fix it properly

Oh dear, we cook a lot of onions and garlic. We roasted a whole bulb of garlic a few days ago and I had an appointment with the hairdresser next morning. I apologised and she said she couldn't smell anything but she had eaten an Indian meal the night before!

I dont think what you cook is a problem Liz46. Its more that if the OP feels as if shes in the same room as her neighbour because the smells are that strong, that might indicate structural issues IMO

Our neighbours tend to fry an awful lots and in the sumer when the windows are open it drifts into my house, especialy my bedroom and lingers on my curtains. So now I have learn to 'sniff' out the first traces of the chip pan or frying pan going on and dash upstairs to close the windows!!!!