TIL my neighbor's 'weird' habit of leaving her garage door open all day actually saved her from a gas leak

My neighbor down the street in Austin always keeps her garage door cracked open like 6 inches, even in winter. I thought she was just strange or forgot it. Then last week her carbon monoxide detector went off and the fire department said that open gap let enough air in to keep the gas from building up to dangerous levels. She told me she started doing it after a friend's family died from CO poisoning 10 years ago. Now I feel like the weird one for keeping mine sealed tight. Anybody else got neighbors with habits you judged that turned out smart?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_piper22d agoTop Commenter

My brother used to leave a window open in his basement bathroom year round and I thought he was just forgetful. Turns out he had a radon issue and that airflow helped keep the levels down until he got a proper system installed. Definitely makes me reconsider what I think of other people's habits.

charlienelson22d ago

Wow, that's actually pretty clever of your brother @the_piper. Most people don't realize radon is odorless and colorless, so you'd never know it's there without a test kit. I've seen a bunch of basements where just cracking a window made a real difference in the short term until they got a mitigation fan installed. Makes you wonder how many other weird habits are actually low-key solutions to invisible problems.