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Original poster

Surely this is not normal...is it? (photos included)

21 replies

Emmmie · 13/02/2020 20:24

Hello All,

We live in a flat, third floor.

Every night at 7 pm we get this smoke wafting through the vent/hood located above the cooker. It smells like fried meat, but unlike any meat I have smelled before. The amount of smoke is abnormal.

What are your thoughts? We have contacted the landlord but so far nothing has been done 🙁

Surely this is not normal...is it? (photos included)

OP posts:

LIZS · 13/02/2020 20:27

Does the extractor work properly? Can you remove the grill on the hood and clean/replace the filter?

Original poster

Emmmie · 13/02/2020 20:33

Hi Lisz,
Thanks fir your reply💐

It does work well when we are cooking and it looks clean to me. Maybe this is an internal issue. I really don’t know what to do...it is annoying and we are considering moving just because of this.

OP posts:

Original poster

Emmmie · 13/02/2020 20:33

For*

OP posts:

Rollercoaster1920 · 13/02/2020 20:56

Are you using the extractor at 7? Or does it happen regardless? I wonder if your neighbours extractor is extracting to your flat!

TheGreatWave · 13/02/2020 22:49

Is it a ceiling fan or a wall fan?

Belleende · 13/02/2020 23:20

Sorry are you cooking and/or using the extractor at the times the smoke comes, or do you think it is coming from elsewhere?
Moving seems a bit drastic

Scarydinosaurs · 14/02/2020 06:30

That would worry me as a fire risk. Does it set your alarms off?

larrygrylls · 14/02/2020 06:33

Sounds like something out of Sweeney Todd! Does it smell of priest barbecued priest?

It must be coming from above flat, have a word with neighbour? Definitely not normal and would concern me.

anothermansmother · 14/02/2020 06:38

Do you live about a food outlet? If so it could be that all of the extractors have been linked via one flue and that as the top flat it's coming out of your rather than the top. Keep contacting your landlord.

Original poster

Emmmie · 14/02/2020 07:07

Hello all, thank you for your replies.

No, we do not live above a food outlet, although it does seem so at times, with the amount of smoke we get.

This does not happen when we are cooking, I use my cooker hood/extractor fan on medium regularly and it works well

No, it is not a ceiling fan.

When the neughbour's smoke wafts in, I put our exractor fan on highest. It takes a looong time to clear the smoke and the awful smell.

I hope I have replied to all of you. This is bizzare and it never happed until new neighbours moved in. We will be contacting the landlord and sending the video where there is so much smoke, it almost looks like there is a fire somewhere in the flat

OP posts:

CondeNasty · 14/02/2020 07:31

My best guess would be your hoods both connect to the same duct and the duct has a blockage somewhere causing it to follow the path of least resistance in to your flat. It will smell funny as the steam etc will be picking up what else is coating the walls of the vent. Getting a professional in to clean and check the ducts would be my first stop.

Have you spoken to the neighbours to see if they are having an issue? Do you both have the same landlord? If not it is likely the vent is shared and both are responsible for paying for cleaning.

Is it actually smoke or steam? If definitely smoke my concern would be fat etc coating the walls is burning off due to heat and could be a fire risk. Does your local fire station have an advice line? They may be able to put a rocket under your land lord to sort.

redwoodmazza · 14/02/2020 11:35

A few months after we had some appliances in our kitchen changed, we kept getting all our cooking smells from extractor hood into our bedroom! It transpired that the fitters had just pushed the venting hose for the extractor on and it had come off during use. The smells were travelling up inside the the wall of the kitchen and escaping through the floorboards in the bedroom. The fitters came back and secured it. Been OK ever since.
I think you need to get the ducting from the other flat checked. It could be escaping in the ceiling gap and finding a way out through into your flat.

filka · 14/02/2020 13:14

Since you are renting, it's 100% a landlord issue. Do you rent direct or through an agent? IMO this needs urgent attention, you should not put up with it for long.

It will be cheaper for the LL to fix this and keep you as a tenant, rather than to have the flat empty and losing rent. Remind him of that!

Scarydinosaurs · 14/02/2020 13:17

Have you asked your landlord to see their fire safety certificate? It sounds as if the ventilation isn’t working properly, and therefore a fire risk.

Most fire departments will do home safety checks for free- check with your county council and see if they will come and look at it if your landlord isn’t taking you seriously.

And video what happens so you can show them.

DrinkFeckArseGirls · 14/02/2020 13:29

I can help but I do get a strange smell of fried I guess meat in my bathroom! I started happening about a month ago. We’re a flat in the middle and none of the neighbours
have their kitchen where our bathroom is.

CharmingB · 14/02/2020 14:23

How intriguing! I hope you get to the bottom of it OP - I'm surprised your smoke alarm isn't going off regularly with that amount of smoke!

If I close our spare room door, when I go in to it the next day there's a vague smell of cigarette smoke. No idea why as no-one in our house smokes, we're detached and the neighbours on that side don't smoke either so it's not like it's wafting up from outside either.

We've lived there 8 years and I've only noticed it recently, it's very odd!

filka · 14/02/2020 17:48

With that much smoke, it occurs to me to ask...I suppose you do have a smoke/fire detector in your kitchen?

Original poster

Emmmie · 17/02/2020 23:16

Thanks for the answers everyone and I am sorry I did not reply for a few days. Funny enough, the smoke alarm is located not in the kitchen, but in the hallway, so it does not go off when the smoke starts wafting in.

Oh, we have the smell of cigarette smoke wafting in on daily basis, the smell of marijuana is also very regular, but the one that brings in the smoke is the fried meat smell. I sometimes wonder whether the neighbours are actually deep frying an entire pig.

Interesting point from a pp about the smell of fried meat coming into their bathroom. It makes me wonder whether anything else mimic a fried meat/fat smell?

We have emailed the landlord and sent them the video of the smoke we have filmed infiltrating the kitchen. I will let everyone know what happens next.

OP posts:

CharmingB · 18/02/2020 17:19

It's common for the smoke alarm to not be in the kitchen (thank god or mine would be going off regularly!).

If you think something's coming from a neighbour, I'd be tempted to let it go off every time and see if they come and complain about the noise! If it's that smokey in your flat, what on earth is it like in theirs?? If that's coming from an extractor pipe there must be more in their flat. My extractor is pretty rubbish so while it does get rid of some smoke, some still ends up in the kitchen. Follow your nose OP - wander the corridors during cooking time and see if you can ID which flat it's coming from!

P.S. I'm a better cook than I've made myself sound in this post. Honest!

Scarydinosaurs · 18/02/2020 17:31

Mine is in the hall and I regularly set it off with less smoke than that- is it working??

NachoNachoMan · 18/02/2020 18:01

The vents should be at least 30cm apart from each other, can you see outside how close they are from each other?

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