What to do if your neighours smoke weed
Although marijuana is now legal in Canada, it can be really bad if your neighbours are smoking weed inside their house.
Unbeknownst to many, smoke can travel anywhere and everywhere so long as it has space to seep through. This includes through windows or doors, electrical outlets, ceiling light fixtures, heating and ventilation systems and even cracks in walls, floors, and ceilings.
Believe me, I know all about it. I used to live in an old apartment that had plenty of neighbours who smoked. The smells from the hallway was so bad that it used to seep right through my front door.
Needless to say, if your rental unit is left improperly maintained, you can be at risk of second hand smoke. To save yourself from this, here are some things you can do today if your neighbor smokes weed.
Know your legal rights
Unfortunately, it is legal to smoke weed in private residences. At the moment, there are no laws that prohibits the use of cannabis, cigarettes, or e-cigarettes at home. So, while it can be upsetting that your neighbor is smoking indoors and is affecting your health, you cannot pursue legal actions against them.
Despite this, you are still well within your right to inform your landlord of this issue. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, disturbances caused by your smoking neighbor or other tenants is recognized as an infringement against your right to reasonable enjoyment of your rental unit.
By informing your landlord that your neighbor smokes weed inside their homes, the landlord is legally obliged to make the necessary repairs to ensure there is no more second-hand smoke coming through to your home.
Speak to your neighbours
Another way you can solve the problem is to simply talk to your neighbor about the problem.
Believe it or not, your neighbour probably does not know that their smoking is causing trouble for you and others. Like many, they probably don’t know that smells can travel through to other residences units or houses. So, it’s probably best to let them know.
You’ll find that they’re often very understanding, especially if you have a health condition that is worsening because of their actions.
Cheap and Affordable DIY Solutions
Perhaps talking to your neighbor isn’t an option, or perhaps you simply don’t want to wait for your landlord to fix the problem, there are a few things you can do right now to temporarily reduce the second-hand smoke intake.
Weatherstripping your door
Weatherstripping is cheap, easy, and anyone can do this. For me, I chose adhesive foams for the job because of their sponge-like material, which can squeeze into the tiniest gaps and expand to fill in the edges.
When I applied the weather strips, the first thing I did was use the palm of my hand and trace it along the edges of the door. Where I felt air blow through, I knew I needed to apply more padding in those areas.
Applying the wind strips is easy. Simply remove the seal at the back and tape it up against the edges of the door where air is blowing through.
When you finish applying it against the door, you can run your palm against the edges again to see if air still blows through. If it continues to blow through, you may need to apply another layer on top of the last.
In this video, you’ll see a step-to-step guide on how to drought proof your door using weather strips and door sweep.
Use a door sweep
After applying weatherstrips along the edges of the door, you may also want to use a door sweep to further block out the air from blowing through the bottom of the door. For this matter, Baining Door Draft Stopper did the job for me. Although there are many different brands out there, I personally like Baining’s silicone finish.
Since I am not a handy person, I liked that the silicone material was easy to cut through with an x-acto knife and therefore easy to fit against the length of the door. The adhesive glue on the back also meant that fitting it against my door was easy to do, as it did not involve any drilling or nailing.
In the past, I have used a metal draft stopper. Although the metal stopper was able to stop draft from coming through and aesthetically it looked very good, because it was made with metal, it was not easy to cut. In fact, I needed to ask a friend to saw off the extra material and also drill it through the door. But if you’re handy and don’t mind doing a little bit of sawing and drilling, I’d recommend buying the M-D Building Products 68254 commercial door sweep. It performed really well, it looked aesthetically pleasing, and it was very affordable.
Lastly, I’ve also tried using a twin draft guard to block out draft. The twin draft guard includes two circular foam strips that are tucked in between a long fabric case. By design, this draft guard is meant to be used underneath the front door, where you can easily slide it through the gap and have 1 foam piece against either sides of the door.
In theory, this sounds perfect, but for me since my front door had an additional wood plate on the ground, this twin draft guard made it near impossible to close the front door without slamming it shut with force. So rather than using it for the front door, I ended up using it on doors inside my unit, including the bedroom doors, bathroom doors, and closets, where the floor was flat and had no awkward additional wooden plates.
If you were to buy this product, I’d recommend using it indoors rather than for your front door. It was fairly cheap and extremely easy to apply.
Sources
Disclaimer
Hey Torontonians, I just want to let you know that I have posted a few affiliate links above. This means that if you make a purchase on Amazon, I can earn a small commission from it at no extra charge to you. I am not affiliated to any of the products or brands listed above, but my goal is to simply recommend to you products that I have either heard good things about them or have used it myself.
If you have any questions regarding the products, I would recommend reaching out to the above brands themselves for the most accurate and up to date product information.
