Okay, we are renovating a house we just bought and the previous owner was a smoker.
How do I paint the ceilings? I asked the guy at RONA and he said “First you have to clean, then sand, then paint.”
This sounds like a TON of work…any advice? I may just bite the bullet and hire someone.
I used to clean acoustic ceiling in offices. Several places either allowed smoking or had smoking rooms and cleaning those was pretty nasty, even as a smoker myself. We used a solution of hydrogen peroxide and a mop, and just kept scrubbing until the stains came off. Not sure how well it would work on a porous surface though. Another way to do it would be to put lining paper up on the ceiling and then paint that.
First clean. Use a solution of TSP (trisodium phosphate) and water. It will remove greasy accumulations and also degloss. Use skin/eye protection, and avoid contact between the solution and aluminum. TSP is available in granular form at your supermarket, big boxes, and paint stores. Depending on the amount of crud to be removed, you may need more than one go at it.
Once the surface is clean, seal with any of the Kilz or BIN sealer/stainkiller products. My personal favorite is BIN 123, a white pigmented shellac. Fast dry, ammonia clean up, works well.
Good luck.
In my old apartment, someone painted over the bathroom ceiling without cleaning the smoke stains first. Eight years later I was still getting coffee colored drips leeching through the paint. You do need to clean and seal it before painting.
I was a property manager for years, we would always repaint the units before re-renting.
This post is the ONLY was to guarantee that you get rid of both the smell and the stains. Yes it’s time consuming and the Kilz/Bin is expensive, BUT failure to do this will result in both the smell and the stains that Swallowed My Cellphone described.
If you are not confident of doing the work, hire someone, but make sure they do these steps.
Good luck.
ps. excellent post danceswithcats
Thanks. My primary market is absentee landlord property maintenance and REO turnover. 
My dad is a heavy smoker, and he smokes a lot in the family room which has an un-vented gas fireplace, and it gets pretty nasty in there. My parents have the room painted every few years, ceiling too.
The last guy who was hired to paint did pretty much what danceswithcats says, except he didn’t wash first he just did a Kilz-type primer. I’ve never noticed any “bleed-through” of the smoke through the paint, but washing first with TSP is going to be the best sure-fire way to make sure your paint job is successful.
Also, we’ve had success cleaning their walls with Windex. I have success in my own home cleaning my smoky walls with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It must be the ammonia in those products that does the trick.
You want to paint the ceiling with tobacco smoke stains?
OK, first thing you gotta do is, create a lot of tobacco smoke. One option is to invite over a bunch of your friends who smoke, and have them stay there for a while smoking in your house. If you don’t know many people who smoke, you could gather a big group of random bums or punk rockers from the street and offer to buy them all a pack of cigarettes if they sit in your house and smoke them. If all else fails, go to a tobacconist and buy a large amount of bulk tobacco, put it in a metal pail in the middle of the room, and light it on fire. You might have to drop some charcoals in there for it to all stay lit.
Make sure your smoke detectors are turned off.
I didn’t know BIN123 was shellac based. As such it would be the primer of choice here, since shellac has long been touted for it’s ability to “seal in” odors.
The difference between Kilz and BIN is Kilz is oil based and BIN is shellac based. So it really comes down to what it is you are sealing and personal preference.
Could you explain what are Kilz/BIN sealer products, so that I could figure out what is the french equivalent of this stuff?
As FarmerChick mentioned, Kilz is oil based. Zinsser makes BIN and related products, but the names are similar, and can be confusing. BIN is white pigmented shellac, Bullseye 123 is an acrylic latex product, also available in deep tint formulation if the topcoat will be dark, Cover Stain is their oil based primer sealer, but they’ve also introduced a water based Cover Stain to eff with your mind, and there’s also an odorless water based primer sealer. The Zinsser website is here, with much more information. Dunno if their products are available in Europe.
I’ve tended to stick with BIN, because the results are dependable, although having tried some of their other products, I wasn’t disappointed. If you have any doubts, go to a paint store (not the paint department at a big box) and describe your exact situation. Those stores are typically staffed by people who know the whole product line well, and can give quality advice.
Here are the links to their websites. Mods if this is not allowed, I apologize in advance.
Kilz http://www.masterchem.com/
ETA: I see DWC has posted too. I prefer Kilz, just because. I have used both and they are excellent products.
Again, very good advice given, go check out the websites and your paint stores.
Sorry to bring this thread back to life, but I was wondering if cleaning is recommended before the removal of a popcorn ceiling? And if so what product is recommended?
No benefit in cleaning that which you’re going to remove, correct? If you’re querying in context to a full room refinishing, top down operations make the most sense.
Protect walls and floors, remove popcorn finish, clean walls, address and ceiling and wall plaster/drywall repairs, spot/full prime/stain seal as needed, and topcoat.
Thanks very much for your help. Just to clarify, the ceiling under the popcorn doesn’t need to be cleaned with the TSP solution you recommended? And is a oil or shellac based sealer preferable?
Based on watching my wife remove a popcorn texture from a ceiling, then reskimming with plaster, I’d imagine that cleaning would be irrelevant, as you’re going to be removing the better part of 1/8" of material anyway.
You might want to clean the surface after you’ve removed the popcorn, but that’d be more to remove any dust that was left over from the sanding.
Further cleaning shouldn’t be necessary. Which base you use is a matter of personal preference. I like the shellac base, but there are just as many folks who swear by oil base. Kinda like the age-old Ford, Chevy, Dodge arguments.