Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Where There’s Smoke There’s Holes
I was trying to do some billing and the smoke was getting me down. After investigating, I thought it was time for a sealing project update. It’s quite a puzzle.
I have done some additional sealing with foam spray in the cabinets, including around the water pipes, where there were non-obvious opening under flanges that weren’t flush with the floor. Then we had clear indications that it was coming strong into the office around the heat pipe.
I filled around the heat pipes and it was like turning a valve.
However, the smoking seems to vary. For instance, he’s been here all day, or his car has, but it didn’t get really bad until a guest visited them. Then it subsided after the guest left. Then it got bad again, apparently around the time the guy on the 3rd floor got home. At least, that’s what seemed to have changed.
When it bloomed again, I turned off the air purifiers and closed the office door. It got no worse in the office, even better, but the kitchen remained bad. Apparently what was in the office a while ago was coming mainly from the kitchen.
Checking the kitchen as best I could, it appears the big weakness is behind or under the dishwasher. If we could completely seal around the dishwasher where it peeks out among the cabinets, it seems most of the remaining smoke source would be gone.
That’s not practical, so I am probably going to have to pull the dishwasher out, or arrange to have the landlord do it, in order to solve the majority of the remaining smoke problem.