Buying a house owned by smokers...

Factual Questions
21

I’ll fourth or fifth the Kilz recommendation. We bought our house from heavy smokers and that stuff worked well for us. We washed the walls and then painted with two coats of Kilz.

We got rid of the carpets and some cloth-covered vertical blinds, plus all the nasty stinky curtains the previous owners left behind.

If you just paint with regular paint, the stains on walls can bleed through. I can’t remember if it’s the tar or nicotine stain, but something bleeds through.
vetbridge, I bought a car from a smoker last year. I’ll second the baking soda idea and throw in Febreze. Spray some Febreze in it, with the windows open and let it sit. It’s not overly-perfumey smelling, but does kill the smoke odor. My car just reeked and now it’s’s fine.

22

Ammonia in solution (but not of anything with chlorine in it.)

You want it strong enough so you think you’re wiping the walls with used baby’s diapers.

This has been proven on calculating machines when smoking was mandantory for accountants and jukeboxes in bars where smoking is still mandantory. Take something like a cheap window cleaner and add ammonia. An added benefit is that it is cheap.