Help a Stoner Be a Good Neighbor
December 15, 2015 1:55 PM Subscribe
In search of the perfect towel for a very specific purpose: keeping odor out of my apartment’s hallway.
As a daily user of marijuana who lives in an apartment building, I want to be sure I’m being as courteous to my neighbors as possible, which means mitigating any odor escaping my apartment. (I don’t care if my apartment smells like weed, but I’d like to keep it out of the shared hallway.)
In addition to other strategies to reduce smell (I use a vaporizer, e.g.), I’ve been keeping a damp, rolled up towel at the bottom of my front door and I’d like to get some towels dedicated to this purpose. What kind should I get (cotton, microfiber, other)? I’d like something that I don’t have to wash every time I use it. My door is 33” wide (with a significant gap at the threshold), if that matters. Bonus points if I can buy them on Amazon.
If it matters: I'm in NYC, where a) marijuana is decriminalized, and b) I don't think any of my neighbors actually give a shit--I just want to be nice, especially given the frequency of my use.
As a daily user of marijuana who lives in an apartment building, I want to be sure I’m being as courteous to my neighbors as possible, which means mitigating any odor escaping my apartment. (I don’t care if my apartment smells like weed, but I’d like to keep it out of the shared hallway.)
In addition to other strategies to reduce smell (I use a vaporizer, e.g.), I’ve been keeping a damp, rolled up towel at the bottom of my front door and I’d like to get some towels dedicated to this purpose. What kind should I get (cotton, microfiber, other)? I’d like something that I don’t have to wash every time I use it. My door is 33” wide (with a significant gap at the threshold), if that matters. Bonus points if I can buy them on Amazon.
If it matters: I'm in NYC, where a) marijuana is decriminalized, and b) I don't think any of my neighbors actually give a shit--I just want to be nice, especially given the frequency of my use.
You want negative pressure so air is pulled in from the hallway and not blown out from your apartment.
Do you have a kitchen hood that pulls air out? Maybe a box fan pointed out an exterior window?
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:44 PM on December 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Do you have a kitchen hood that pulls air out? Maybe a box fan pointed out an exterior window?
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:44 PM on December 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Hahahahahahahahh a nyc kitchen with a read hood, that's a good one JoeZydeco.
Everyone I know uses the door draft stoppers linked in the first answer.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:54 PM on December 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
Everyone I know uses the door draft stoppers linked in the first answer.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:54 PM on December 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
Do you have a kitchen hood that pulls air out? Maybe a box fan pointed out an exterior window?
As your upstairs neighbor (now in NYC, previously in Rochester NY), I'd prefer that you not do this. My windows are open even in coldest winter because it's 85 degrees in my apartment otherwise.
So if you have upstairs, downstairs, or across the alley neighbors it'd probably be better to look for some sort of particulate filtering device for INSIDE the apartment, rather than blowing it outside where my fan will then suck it back in upstairs.
posted by Jahaza at 2:59 PM on December 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
As your upstairs neighbor (now in NYC, previously in Rochester NY), I'd prefer that you not do this. My windows are open even in coldest winter because it's 85 degrees in my apartment otherwise.
So if you have upstairs, downstairs, or across the alley neighbors it'd probably be better to look for some sort of particulate filtering device for INSIDE the apartment, rather than blowing it outside where my fan will then suck it back in upstairs.
posted by Jahaza at 2:59 PM on December 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
Your best bet really is to get the vaporiser vapor outdoors instead of letting it hang out in your apartment. Winter be damned, this means cracking a window and doing your best to direct everything out of it. If you have two windows, you can take advantage of a pressure differential with a strategically placed fan (JoeZydeco has the right idea).
Just holding the smell indoors won't do much for people who have a really sharp nose for weed--it's so pungent and distinct that it'll creep around door towels, heating duct covers, even plumbing fittings (I used to get wafts of weed smoke from an upstairs neighbor in DC who'd hide in his bathroom to smoke; it'd travel around the pipe fittings between our bathrooms).
I'd skip the damp step if you keep using a towel. Water vapor is a pretty good carrier for scent, much more so than drier air, so you may be inadvertently making the smell more detectable.
Draft stoppers (especially if it's real deal weather stripping) and heating register covers are good measures, though, and you're doing a nice thing. I've been living in a blissfully free-standing house in San Francisco for the last couple years and have been happy to never think about pissing off my neighbors with weed smell again.
Don't be fooled by air purifiers. Unless you're getting a wet stage (read: $$$$$$) model design for odor reduction, filters and purifiers won't do a thing for you.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:06 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Just holding the smell indoors won't do much for people who have a really sharp nose for weed--it's so pungent and distinct that it'll creep around door towels, heating duct covers, even plumbing fittings (I used to get wafts of weed smoke from an upstairs neighbor in DC who'd hide in his bathroom to smoke; it'd travel around the pipe fittings between our bathrooms).
I'd skip the damp step if you keep using a towel. Water vapor is a pretty good carrier for scent, much more so than drier air, so you may be inadvertently making the smell more detectable.
Draft stoppers (especially if it's real deal weather stripping) and heating register covers are good measures, though, and you're doing a nice thing. I've been living in a blissfully free-standing house in San Francisco for the last couple years and have been happy to never think about pissing off my neighbors with weed smell again.
Don't be fooled by air purifiers. Unless you're getting a wet stage (read: $$$$$$) model design for odor reduction, filters and purifiers won't do a thing for you.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:06 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
If you have any kind of fan you can turn on, like a bathroom exhaust, or can install a very small little fan in a window that pulls air out, your problem is solved without the draft stopper — so long as all other windows are shut tight. You could test this by turning on the fan, and holding something that produces smoke near the bottom of the door — cigarette, joint, incense stick, snuffed-out candle or match. You'll see that the smoke is pulled into the apartment, not into the hallway. In fact, if you do that test without the fan, you might find that the smoke is not going into the hallway anyway. In larger apartment buildings, there's often an automatic ventilation system that pulls air out of bathrooms — slowly, but enough to ensure that cooking odors and whatnot don't drift into hallways.
posted by beagle at 3:09 PM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by beagle at 3:09 PM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Since you use a vaporizer, you're already ahead of the game, although it's always a good idea to remember that if the vapor is milky or cloudy, it's not entirely vapor. I'm sure you know that, but it also impacts smell. Stop up the door using one of those draft blockers others have mentioned and set up a Vornado or similar fan near the door to circulate the air away from it. With a vaporizer, just dispersing the vapor is often enough on its own. That model might be too big but it's almost inaudible on low and moves a ton of air. If you can combine this with any sort of external draft, be it an open window or an exhaust fan or whatever, you will be even better off.
posted by feloniousmonk at 3:45 PM on December 15, 2015
posted by feloniousmonk at 3:45 PM on December 15, 2015
I'm not an apartment dweller, & I think the towel thing could work, but negative airflow is the way to be sure none of your apartment air exits into the hall.
Where I went to college, the dorms had access panels on the wall opposite the shower controls, for getting at the pipes. These panels were of course locked, but if they were opened there was immediately & noticeable negative airflow 'up' into some kind of utility shaft, which I can only assume exited the building somewhere 'up.' Does maybe your apartment have some kind of utility 'door?" Worth a look..
My friend told me this.
posted by bricksNmortar at 4:11 PM on December 15, 2015
Where I went to college, the dorms had access panels on the wall opposite the shower controls, for getting at the pipes. These panels were of course locked, but if they were opened there was immediately & noticeable negative airflow 'up' into some kind of utility shaft, which I can only assume exited the building somewhere 'up.' Does maybe your apartment have some kind of utility 'door?" Worth a look..
My friend told me this.
posted by bricksNmortar at 4:11 PM on December 15, 2015
You may be interested in making a sploof.
I have also added foam weatherstripping to my front door.
posted by rhizome at 4:23 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
I have also added foam weatherstripping to my front door.
posted by rhizome at 4:23 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
In college, I got a huge bulk amount (like, a couple of pounds) of sticky tac (the stuff you use to hang up posters in college dorm rooms) and rolled that into long strips/noodles about 2/3 inch thick in diameter. Those long noodles stick all around the door/doorframe crack to create a seal.
When done and the room is aired out, gently peel noodles from the doorframe crack and stick in the space between the doorframe and the wall (the noodle on the bottom goes above the one above the doorframe).
The bottom noodle gets crufty, but you can clean sticky tac by wadding it into a ball and repeatedly pull it apart, repeat until the cruft all falls out.
When the noodles get deformed, roll into a ball, (clean if necessary, as per above), and re-roll new noodles.
posted by porpoise at 4:47 PM on December 15, 2015
When done and the room is aired out, gently peel noodles from the doorframe crack and stick in the space between the doorframe and the wall (the noodle on the bottom goes above the one above the doorframe).
The bottom noodle gets crufty, but you can clean sticky tac by wadding it into a ball and repeatedly pull it apart, repeat until the cruft all falls out.
When the noodles get deformed, roll into a ball, (clean if necessary, as per above), and re-roll new noodles.
posted by porpoise at 4:47 PM on December 15, 2015
I find the sploof idea intriguing. It seems like capturing the smell at the source would be a good way to keep it in check. Can you exhale into a wet towel or activated charcoal or a bowl of cat litter or something?
posted by delight at 7:33 PM on December 15, 2015
posted by delight at 7:33 PM on December 15, 2015
Upon further investigation! (I don't have to use this stuff)
How to make a sploof that actually works (spoiler: activated charcoal!)
posted by rhizome at 7:49 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
How to make a sploof that actually works (spoiler: activated charcoal!)
posted by rhizome at 7:49 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Pick up a Smoke Buddy. It's like magic. The vaporizer + Smoke Buddy combo is like a weed invisibility cloak.
posted by slagheap at 11:29 PM on December 15, 2015
posted by slagheap at 11:29 PM on December 15, 2015
So if you have upstairs, downstairs, or across the alley neighbors it'd probably be better to look for some sort of particulate filtering device for INSIDE the apartment, rather than blowing it outside where my fan will then suck it back in upstairs.
I agree, especially if there are reasons to be low-key such as legality or landlord restrictions on smoking. The people two houses down either smoke in their kitchen or bathroom, because whenever they are smoking up the whole block smells strongly of weed. I don't think they have any idea it is so obvious, but it would be smarter (and more pleasant) if they instead used some kind of filter rather than just exhausting the smoke. If you aren't in the room smoking, a little bit of the smell goes a long way and not everyone enjoys the smell; just blocking the smell from going into the hallway isn't enough.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:48 AM on December 16, 2015
I agree, especially if there are reasons to be low-key such as legality or landlord restrictions on smoking. The people two houses down either smoke in their kitchen or bathroom, because whenever they are smoking up the whole block smells strongly of weed. I don't think they have any idea it is so obvious, but it would be smarter (and more pleasant) if they instead used some kind of filter rather than just exhausting the smoke. If you aren't in the room smoking, a little bit of the smell goes a long way and not everyone enjoys the smell; just blocking the smell from going into the hallway isn't enough.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:48 AM on December 16, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
Unless you really want to wet the towel, why not use a traditional draft stopper?
posted by sockermom at 2:09 PM on December 15, 2015