To think that there must be SOME explanation for this??

[MrsFlannel]

I live in a flat....there are 4 in the block. Two on my floor including me and two on the bottom. There's a shared hallway with private gardens front and back.

Nobody in the building smokes...nobody has visitors who smokes and yet...we all keep smelling smoke in the communal hallway.

One neighbour accused me of smoking there...as the newest tenant she felt it was me...it wasn't.

I've been smelling it for the same period of time...about 1 month or so. It's lingering in the air...nobody can get into the building at all...we're all very conscious about locking doors and there's security lights.

There's no other buildings or areas where someone's smoking nearby...no alleyways or anything...the street is too far from the door for a passer by's smoke to come in...it's quite a strong smell.

What is it?

A few years ago my flatmate accused me of smoking. I wasn't bu't my hairdryer was never unplugged and it had started to overheat in the socket and it was causing that smoky smell. I only realised when it sizzled while the room was quiet. The socket was blackened. So it coukd be something like that but it depends if it is a smoke smell or a cigarette smell as the two are quite distinctive but my flatmate was just connecting the smoke with the smoking.

All lingering smells are vile.

My own dogs' included.
It's either a ghost or a secret smoker.

My brother-in-law posted something similar recently on his Facebook page. He couldn't work out why there was a lingering smell of tobacco smoke in his house, and being sentimental pult it down to visitations from his dead dad. I didn't have the heart to tell him that both his children puff away merrily any chance they get .

It reminds me of when I was visiting the home of a client who had recently had a stroke and been advised to stop smoking. He told me about how brilliant his wife had been, how supportive, she'd even stopped smoking too! The wife then came downstairs, stinking of fags, had clearly been having one in the bathroom.
I don't know whether he didn't have much of a sense of smell, or was just in denial. They then had a conversation about how much better they both felt since stopping

I can be walking through (say) a shopping mall and smell cigarette smoke. i reckon it comes off a smokers clothing - I can still smell it really clearly. Maybe someone who smokes had recently walked through the hall, OP.

Having said that, I went through a spell of smelling cigarette smoke in my sitting room - just a whiff. I think that might have been a nasal-memory (I used to smoke, 22 years ago!)

My nan and granddad used to have this. Their house used to stink of smoke and air freshener despite the fact that neither of them smoked.

Weirdly enough, my mum found a load of lighters in the bottom of me Nan's handbag when she was clearing it out after she'd died of lung cancer.

'Twas a mystery I tell thee

Dust on the light bulbs?

Is it cigarette smoke or just any old smoke? Obviously, if it's cigarette smoke, then someone is smoking. Do any of your flat mates have teenage children?

If it's just smoke you can smell, it could literally be anything.

I had this problem in my room at my parents house one time. I could smell burning but could never see any smoke. It turns out that my mum had stored away a bag of xmas decorations in a cubby hole next to a bare bulb. The bare bulb had melted the decorations.

Basically, you need to check anything electrical and anything touching anything electrical.

I would like to know why our stairs (in our own home) smell of poo every so often?

Like a public bathroom. Despite our toilet being downstairs?