Neighbours log burner

[billybeep]

NDN have an older log burner and use it all winter Oct-and it bloody stinks.
Mainly when they turn it on..so it's the opposite side of their 4 bed detached but when we open the hall window on the opposite side of our detached, it smells like something is on fire on our house.
Cant open any windows and our bathroom faces their house so it gets mouldy.
I can't cope with not hanging the washing out but am fed up of not being able to open a window for months.
Last year we kept quiet and bought a dehumidifier but it costs a fortune and makes DD 4 cough. She can't play in garden as it smells so much.
They are aware it smells as she jokingly said to me her DD gets fed up of their kids clothes smelling of smoke when they go round there/ surely that's not right as my DSis has one and you can't smell it and their bathroom windows are open all day.
AIBU to speak to them and say it's affecting us? They have gas central heating and plenty of money too so need for it.

Our whole street has log burners. Usually new ones are supposed to have low particle emissions, but I worry about them. That said, you can slightly smell them outside when it's very cold and there's lots going at once, but it's never an overpowering smell in our own house.

It's a row of old pre-Victorian cottages, and you can't get permission to remove the fireplaces as they're of historic interest, so I imagine it won't change. The houses are built around them. We have two in our downstairs area, and then "empty" fireplaces around upstairs, too.

Thankfully I talked DH into getting a radiator fitted instead...

You commented that for certain areas and power cuts. There will be jobsworths who decide "your property is not rural enough" or "there was only 2 power cuts, so under the new regs you are not allowed a woodburner or open fire", all because others say something should be banned.

I think I and others have read the thread. The OP needs to speak to her neighbours and take it from there.

My neighbour smokes 60 a day. My house used to stink like Satan's arsehole.
A friend said the smell comes through the drains which I thought was rubbish but I thought I'll try anything and put all the plugs in the sink drainage holes and lo and behold I can't smell the smoke any more.
Worth a try?

Sounds like they don't have a proper chimney liner or it's in desperate need of a sweep. Or they're burning stuff they shouldn't be- sweetie wrappers etc?

You can't tell when ours is on at all. Unless the wood is damp and then you can see a little smoke but still not smell it.

I would definitely mention it from a safety point of view. Unswept chimneys cause fires. I'd lie and say I had a friend round who works in the industry and they said I had to talk to you as something was clearly wrong.

This sounds like a nuisance in tort law. I’d ask in legal if I were you. It sounds like they need a new, fuel efficient burner.

Op, go and chat to them. Tell them the smell in your house is very strong and ask them if they have had their chimney swept. Also whether they had the chimney properly lined?

Approach it as a 'concern for their safety'. Unswept chimneys are prone to chimney fires and most house insurance is invalid if a working flue has not been swept in the last 24 months.

Also, bear in mind, they cannot do anything about it if they don't know it is causing you a problem.

I'd only contact the council as a last resort. If you are in a smokeless zone, they may act but if you are in a rural area, you are unlikely to get much joy. Some people prefer log burners because wood is not a fossil fuel, unlike gas, and therefore contributes less to climate change.

Sooner they're banned the better. Unless it's your only heat source option and you're away from neighbours, it's totally anti-social. The council enforcing existing regulations would be a good place to start.

It really shouldn't smell. We have one in our home and there is no smell off it other than when we open the door to refuel it. And even then it's a brief few seconds.

@billybeep

given you've just quietly seethed all this time, they're likely to assume it doesn't bother you.

NOW (as you can't go back in time) is the time to go and tell them how it's affecting you & tell them they need to get it 'serviced' and to check they're burning the correct wood.

Your DH would rather pay excessive bills, not be able to air your house, have damp, have a pissed off wife than TALK to a neighbour in case they get upset? What a hero.🙄🙄

Have another heat source, but it is reliant on water, which can freeze - does that mean wood burners and open fires cannot be used?

Banning is not the answer - the majority of people who use them, burn seasoned wood, get their chimney swept as required and are not anti-social, irrespective of being close to a neighbour or not.

Reliant on water? Do you mean just bog standard central heating or do you have some other, far more unreliable, water based heating system?

Not on mains water, so yes reliant on water actually being available.

Someone I knew was a chippy so had no end of wood rubbish he burnt in his.

He had Environmental Health round to sort him as he was burning painted/treated wood.

So talk to The Council

Also of course it may not have building regs approval

There are laws in the uk for wood burner emissions you can make a complaint and the local will fine them if emissions too high, the laws surrounding them are due to get even stricter in the near future.

My neighbours had one installed last year. I can always smell when it is on, and the cat comes in from the garden stinking.

You are right to be concerned. It's not just the awful smell it's the level of particulates the burner is producing is harmful. The really new ones like from Esse scrub it mostly all out. Older ones don't. Plus you need to use the correct fuel.

Your DH is wrong and you should talk to them about how it is affecting your home and health.

You could go to the council? As it is affecting your right to enjoy your property.

I am sure that any rules would be set reasonably sensible after taking all factors into account. But in any case, your argument is a very weak argument, as you could potentially use it to get rid of any regulation or limitation.

"Requiring people to have a blue badge to use a disabled parking space is unfair. After all, disability is so subjective and can be hard to measure, and there is the risk that a few people in marginal situations might feel hard-done-by. Let's remove the requirement and let people decide if they think they are entitled to a space or not."

Concern about a few difficult "edge cases" grumping that they feel they are just on the wrong side of a rule, has to be weighed against the overwhelming harm caused by the fact that tons of not-remotely-eligible people are going to be parking out all the disabled parking spaces, meaning people who really need them won't be able to use them.

The growth of woodburners in urban areas has caused the toxic air pollution they create to double in a decade. We need to do something about this. It is shortening lives, triggering heart attacks and strokes, increasing the risk of things like Alzheimers and Parkinsons, not to mention the stink. Can we all please have a bit more worry and concern for those who are developing preventable diseases as a result of this stuff?

If you don't like the idea of any restrictions, period, just because you don't like the idea of having rules about this kind of thing, then I suggest you direct your anger at those who have made the coming crackdowns necessary by "taking the piss." If woodburning had remained a niche rural thing that you get in farmhouses and low-density villages, causing few issues and being done for understandable reasons, then nobody would have seen the need for any particular rules. The trouble is that very large numbers of people in suburbs and urban areas have taken these things up and started using them in the past 20 years, causing health and pollution problems that are increasingly hard to ignore, and prompting the calls for a crackdown. Be mad at those people, not the people who want there to be some rules because they are worried about their families' health.

Wood burning air pollution in UK has doubled in a decade | Air pollution | The Guardian

Most people around here have one. Different woods give off different smells. Depends what they are burning. It is cheaper for us as we have a good stock of wood we have cut ourselves even though we have central heating. Shouldn't be stinky but rather a smoky smell

@GreenTeaLikesMe I do not have any anger at all, I just do not think banning wood burners is a good idea. Those people who are against them in urban areas have recourse to bring complaints against any issues with the owners/users/local councils/environment agency all of which negate the need for a ban.

Articles from the Guardian only give one side of a story.

Contact the council. I would not raise it with the NDN, as they must be aware and you may want to contact the council anyway after speaking to them - and them doing nothing - but now they will know who reported them!

I believe that in some council areas this is highly illegal. And quite right too. I believe in people having the freedom to pollute their own homes - but not those of others.

If you want to burn toxic rubbish... buy a house with land in the middle of nowhere.

Yeah but the council does nothing even in so called clean air zones

Stinks of wood burners round here. Bloody things should be banned in urban areas.

Yeah I don't really buy this idea that log burners don't smell if you're doing it right. There must be a lot of people doing it wrong round my way!

Banning woodburner does not make any sense. The last bad winter we had, we had a three day power cut that took out everyones central heating switches. The only warm houses in the village were those with log burner. We had our elderly neighbours to stay until power was restored.

But they can be regulated, properly serviced and owners educated on what constitutes appropriate fuel.

The council being inept is not a reason to ban wood burners - it is a reflection on the council, not those who have woodburners!