We were looking at a house yesterday which on paper seemed to meet out needs. It is an older home zoned for decent schools with nice commutes. On the online listing, it looked like it needed some updating of things but overall seemed ok.
One of the big problems is that the house absolutely reeks of stale cigarette smoke. The off-white color to the walls was nicotine stains. The vents and returns were yellowed. The stench was overwhelming even with the A/C on. I quit smoking years ago and don’t usually mind cigarette smells, but this was nasty and overwhelming.
We aren’t planning on buying it anyhow, but it left me wondering. Can such a smell be remedied and how? Would you have to rip out the drywall and ducts? Or is there a simpler way to de-stinkify it?
Its a bit unusual, but I know of a company that has successfully treated (or claims to)hotel rooms that need to be converted to ‘non-smoking’. They bring in ozone generators and saturate the room, then let it clear, since ozone is not a very safe thing to breathe on a large basis.
Ozone is very reactive and breaks down the odor causing chemicals.
I make no claim of first hand knowledge/experience or safety. I’m a pretty skeptical scientific sort of person, but I’m currently comfortable with the concept that this does work.
Anything with a weak ammonia base will completely remove any trace of nicotine. The vents once used should stop smelling before too long. If it has carpets have the cleaner add some ammonia into his cleaner.
I’m a painting contractor and one of my clients is a real estate company. I can tell you that even after changing the carpet and drapes, priming the sub-floor and walls and repainting every paintable surface in the home and replacing flooring, some people still say they smell stale cigarette odor.
The company sometimes hires an outfit that employs an ozone generator to remove smoke odor. Another extremely pervasive odor is curry. They use the same company to remove that smell as well.
A problem as I understand it is that the smoke gets everywhere, including where you can’t see or reach. Homes are not air tight, so the smoke gets inside the walls, coating the inside of the cavities and any insulation. Later, air from inside those cavities comes into the living spaces.
Ozone might work, but I’d wonder how long it would take to get enough ozone into all the wall cavities, and do they wait long enough to get it all.
You have to remove and discard all upholstery, wash everything thoroughly and then do it again. Walls and ceiling have to be sealed with shellac; smoke and nicotine stains will bleed through latex and oil based paints. Hardwood floors may require refinishing. There is a system that hooks up to the HVAC system and runs sealer through all the duct work, as it will be full of smoke residue also. After all this the smoke smell may still be detectable as it will have saturated all the electrical boxes. Ozone definitely helps but it is used as a final treatment after everything has been cleaned.
For homes smoke damaged from fire we will strip the whole house down to framing and have the painter seal the whole business with shellac.
When my dad quit smoking in the house, they got new furniture, had the walls painted (the painter uses a special primer) and got the carpet cleaned. They also spent time washing down the kitchen cabinets and the big wooden furniture that stayed.
With how much smoking he did in a small area for so many years, I am very very surprised at how much it doesn’t smell. It doesn’t smell at all, to me. Especially surprised because they didn’t get new carpeting and it was still ok.
Now, I got their old furniture and had it cleaned and I still smell the smoke. But hey, free furniture.
I would start with painting (with a special primer) and carpets, and wipe down all the surfaces with ammonia. We used to use Windex on the walls in one of the smaller rooms.
My parents never had a professional come to do the ducts, dad just did a little cleaning near the vents. But it wouldn’t hurt, I guess.
ETA: I will say tho that my parents had the walls painted (with special primer) every few years, and the carpets cleaned, and generally kept a very clean house. They even got new carpet every 5 years or so. So even though it went through 40 years of smoke, it may not be as deep-down gross as other smokers’ homes who both smoke and don’t keep stuff tidy.
BTW the “special primer” is typically tinted shellac, such as this. I’ve also used it on subfloors over pet urine stains, before new carpet and pad is laid.
My handicapped mother smoked in her bedroom for 14 years. The walls were literally oozing with nicotine stains.
The short answers begs the question, what will qualify as clean to you? To remove all hint of odor is nearly impossible without a studs out refit of all drywall.
In our case, we laid down two coats of Kilz primer on every wall and the ceiling followed by two coats of color paint. The carpets still have some smell, but it is relatively marginal after running a carpet cleaner using laundry detergent as the cleaning agent.
The house is now pretty clean, but no house even a new house is devoid of all odors; that is unfortunately, a part of being alive in a stinky world.
I’m aways surprised at people saying that you can basically never get rid of the smoke smell. Do they think cigarettes have magical powers that other substances don’t?
Some stately homes in the UK are partially open to the public at some times of the year and entirely used by the family at other times. There might well be smoking going on in those rooms in the non-public times even now, but if not now, there definitely were a few years ago. They do not smell of smoke.
For all practical purposes, yes, you can get rid of much of the smell, but not all. To those who are really sensitive to it, the smell is still there. I have a coworker who can smell cigarette butts that are field stripped in my pocket.
The house had no furniture and no carpets having either hardwood floors on the main levels and tile on the basement level. The sellers removed all the drapes as well so the smell is just on the house itself.
My wife is pretty sensitive to smells, and the street was somewhat busy so I don’t think we would want to buy the house. The lot seems oddly laid out as well and doesn’t seem to take advantage of the size of it, but we didn’t look very well since the smell and traffic noise probably were enough to rule it out. I also think that the house is overpriced even without the smell issue as the not much really seems to have been done to the house since the 60s.
We do like older houses, and may run into the issue again. A friend of mine who buys and sells houses as a sideline said that if we were to buy it, to call an environmental clean up company, take their estimate, double it, and then reduce the purchase price of the home by that amount.
SciFiSam, do those houses have the windows closed all year round? This house had central air so the windows were probably never open. The walls were yellowed from smoking. When we saw it, the agent opened all the doors and cracked a window or two, but the smell was still pretty overpowering.
Stately homes had fireplaces with coal fires and chimneys. These need a draught to make them work so the smoke from the cigarettes, cigars, pipes and the coal, all went up the chimney. They also employed a team of workers to keep it clean, although back in the days of candles and gas lights, the ceilings were pretty grimy.
These days, of course, smoking is strictly prohibited.
I’ll second that. Good god, they’re horrible. You’ve just about tripled your reek factor when you carry those around. Why wouldn’t they reek? All the smoke from the cigarette that was inhaled passed through it, and after all, it’s called a FILTER.
People who play around with the butts, ‘field strip’ them, etc, just get more stink on their hands. The only thing worse is when someone carries a half-smoked cigarette around with them.
I had my house fill with smoke so thick I had to open all the windows,I had put a soup bone on to boil and even the bone burned away to ashes. I put a few sticks of cinnamon and whole cloves, opened all the cupboard doors etc. let the cloves and cinnamon boil for about a half hour, The smell was out of everything. and left a good mild smell like if someone was baking.
ZipperJJ mentioned this in passing, but it may have been missed. Speaking from bitter experience …
Getting the stink out of kitchen & bathroom cabinets is another major task. Depending on the finish, painting may not be practical. At which point it’s time to remove & replace them. All in all an expensive proposition.
Did you ever try the cinnamon and whole clove thing? It got rid of all the smell in my house and all closets and cupboards I did open all the doors and drawers so the clove ,cinnamon smell got to all places. Smoke at poured out all my windows, and if one went by they woulld have thought my house was on fire.
You’re talking about a one-time event. Everyone else is talking about years or decades of surface saturation. Boiling a few spices isn’t going to do the job.