Smells coming from other flat - can we do anything? Bit embarrassing

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Once a day our hallway smells really awful. I don't like to say it, but I think it is from the neighbouring flat where our lovely neighbour has a colostomy bag she changes at that time. We can smell her cooking through the floor as well, just there, very strongly so I think it is fairly likely that the smell is travelling.

I don't know what to do about it, obviously I would never say a word as she's wonderful and I love her to bits, plus she puts up with our noise and so on.

But it isn't very nice - I'm starting to dread it and also am concerned that other people visiting can smell it and think it is caused by us, iyswim.

Bit desperate as to how we can minimise it. It's better than cigarette smoke, which would be truly awful - so I am glad of that!

Has anyone successfully blocked smells within a property, and if so, how? I should say the floorboards are currently awaiting carpet/flooring, so perhaps that might help?

Thanks if you got this far.

Bump

Have you tried that dettol spray? It's quite expensive but I find it gets rid of poo smell really (I live in the country and I have a child with serious continence issues)

It's this one
www.waitrose.com/shop/DisplayProductFlyout?productId=39320&source=sho_&utm_source=google%2Bshopping&utm_medium=organic%2Bgs&utm_campaign=google%2Bshopping&gclid=CIuWqNCn-sQCFcuWtAodl2IAuA&gclsrc=aw.ds

I'd try and keep your flat well ventilated too, which will help

Thank you so much, I will try it - it almost smells like she is already using something to try and cover the smell but it doesn't really work, it just mixes with it.

I will buy some of this and give it a go - thanks again.

Poor lady. Being ill is hard :( I'm sure she's glad she has you as an understanding neighbour

Striking matches works with normal horrible bathroom smells - it can take 3 or 4 for a particularly bad one but it does kill the smell & no artificial cover-up 'perfume' on top.

you need to waft them around & generate a bit of smoke from them.

Worth a try anyway.

Agreeing about striking matches, and the right candle (posh enough for a present) would make a difference too.
I'm surprised (a)the smell is so bad and (b) there's only one bag change per day, as thousands of people manage without neighbours noticing.
I'd ask a plumber for advice, maybe have drains checked?

Thank you for the suggestions. We are lucky to have her, not the other way round - three noisy children here, she is very quiet and elderly and says she loves to hear the children. Could not ask for anyone nicer.

Em, the floorboards are old, it's an old house and we always smell the cooking so I don't think it's unlikely to be coming from downstairs - though it surprises me too that it would travel in that way.

It may not be from her flat at all - it could be something else, but I am stumped as it is usually first thing in the morning when I know she is awake, I might have just woken up and no one has used the toilet as the children are asleep. Also it isn't near our bathroom. We live in an old house which was divided into flats so it was never a separate build, just a conversion.

I cannot think of anything else it could be. It may be more than once a day, I am just noticing it first thing but it probably has happened at other times and I haven't been keeping tabs iyswim. It was only today I thought to try and see if it could be that, and from googling it looks as if it is plausible.

She would be so very upset if I said anything so I will just put up with it, also if it isn't her then it would be awful to make out I thought it was.

Striking matches is a good idea - thank you. And I will try that spray.

In our house, if someone opens the bathroom window to help clear the smell it tends to blow it downstairs, so we all get to share it It could be that she is opening her window & that's blowing it through to you?

We lived in a Victorian terrace; when the floorboards were bare you could definitely smell the cellar below the living room (slightly damp/mouldy) and cold air wafted up too.

Definitely decent flooring will help, might want to try this stuff as well in any visible gaps, it's easy to fit, it's essentially a small piece of flexible plastic you squeeze into the space. No gluing involved.