| A couple of weeks after last Christmas I received a phone call from a young man who told me he had a terrible smell in his apartment and could I come over as soon as possible and take a look. I am a building inspector so smells usually mean drains, mouldy basements and the odd rat or two. A little questioning and I started to build a case. Last summer Dany, his wife Lauren and baby moved into a newly renovated condominium apartment in the plateau Montreal area, their dream home. Everything about the place was perfect; or so it had seemed, until the start of the heating season when this odd acrid smell took over the apartment, getting worse by the day. It eventually got so bad that they had to flee and move in with some friends. This sounded like an interesting problem so I invited my colleague Paul to join me.
Here are the facts Any ideas yet what the problem might be? |
That’s the problem! The flue gases were migrating through the bricks of the chimney, and since the plaster had been removed on the inside, were entering the apartment. Flue gasses contain a lot of water vapour, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and few other compounds. Carbon monoxide being the most deadly of them all. Dany did the right thing in moving out it may have saved his and his families lives. We went outside and saw this huge moisture stain on the outside of the building. As one can see in the picture it extends from the ground up three stories to the top of the building.
Next step was to turn off the boiler and call the gas company. They came the next day and installed a liner. Since then the smell is going away and Dany, Lauren and baby we able to return home.
This article is brought to you by Mose Home Inspection
