smoke smell in new house

[becks101]

alright, i take posession of my new house on friday, but the people who lived there smoked in it.... and you definatly can smell that they smoked in it..

how do i get the smell out???

[ShiDave]

Shampoo carpets, wash the walls. Repainting walls helps alot.

[schocker]

get one of those ozone or whatever machines for awhile that cleans the air.

[adam c]

your going to want to repaint the walls..
they would have turned yellow from the smoke

[Unknown303]

Walls and roof. And if the roof is stucco then I feel bad for you because repainting stucco is awful and makes removing it later really hard. But walls and roof are were it will collect the most.

[Nufy]

We used a product called TSP when we bought our first house.

We had to scrub the walls twice to get the smoke residue off them.

You will have to do this even if you wanna paint. The smoke residue sometimeswill prevent paint from sticking well.

Made a hell of a difference.

[3g4u]

You could just start smoking and skip the work. :D

[alloroc]

Wash the walls with a weak solution of TSP or diluted spray-nine then repaint. Get new carpets or clean them. Home depot has a spray smoke deodorizer DEP smoke spray can't remember the exact name but it is a large blackish bottle spray a good amount of that into a bucket of hot water (outside ... it is strong smelling stuff) then pur that into the rug doctor machine and use the usual rug doctor soap. When everything dries sprinkle baking soda everywhere and let it sit or get tracked in for a few days then vacuum that up.

Lastly - Ventilate Ventilate Ventilate

[revelations]

Dump the carpets completely... laminate changed the air in my condo (former owner smoked the green grass).

[Legless_Marine2]

While growing up, my father spent a few years doing fire restoration work.

I learned that smoke (including cigarette) is incredibly persistent. AFAICT, there's been great advice in the thread to date, including particulars on contemporary smoke-neutralizing chemicals. Here's my take:

1. Clean all exposed surfaces, or even better repaint with anti-odor paint. Shampoo carpets - Even better, replace.

2. Ozone, Ozone, Ozone. To do this right, you'll need to be away for a few days - But be aware that Ozone degrades rubber. TANSTAAFL.

3. Be tolerant and invest in potpurri - For someone with a sensitive nose, it may never be gone.


HTH

[tm88]

i hope these work....im sure they will.

Its just work you would rather not do in your new house, must have been a really nice place to purchase. Ive had clients walk in and walk out if chain smokers lived in the property

[ZorroAMG]

Hope the smoke doesn't ruin your $8000 persian carpets!

[Xtrema]

Boil some white vinegar, if that doesn't help, you'll probably have to repaint + new carpet.

[Whiley]

some good suggestions ^^^

the ozone machine (if proper one used) can make a noticeable difference, we use a $700+ ozone machine, which in 12-24 hours makes a formally smoking hotel room suited for non-smoker use

if there are window drapes, then wash them, dry clean or better toss & buy new ones, even the plastic blinds

carpets can be replaced if necessary (its always nice to have new fresh ones installed, or go laminate/hardwood) but getting a really good carpet shampoo will help a lot

one trick i learned from a cleaner/restorer, is before doing the carpet cleaning, is to sprinkle baking-soda evenly over the carpet, and leave it for 12-24 hours
it will absorb a lot of the smoke smell, and any that falls down under the carpet (to the underlay) will continue to absorb smells
it will not cause harm to anything, and cleans right up with the carpet cleaning

last, re-painting will make a big difference too, as you are basically sealing in the residual odor, by adding a new layer of paint
with latex you can do this in a standard 2 coats, after washing the walls, otherwise yes a primer coat is a good idea

be very careful of using any aggressive cleaners on the walls, like TSP as it should be well diluted, and will need to be thoroughly washed away before new paint can be applied, otherwise the paint will not adhere properly later on

painting ceilings can be done properly, the 2800 sq ft house i am finishing right now (for resale) was completely repainted, including vaulted ceilings
for textured ceiling its easiest to mask & spray it
it makes a big difference, as someone mentioned, the popcorn ceilings can & do absorb a lot of the smoke & smell

PM me if you're interested, i can get you use of the ozone machine, if that helps out



Originally posted by becks101
alright, i take posession of my new house on friday, but the people who lived there smoked in it.... and you definatly can smell that they smoked in it..

how do i get the smell out???

[becks101]

ok, its a newer house so its just a standard knock down ceiling,

i scrubed the walls with TSP (worked good), pathced all the small knicks, now i got to re-paint walls and ceiling, and yes looking at the ceiling its a definate yellow-white...

all the window coverings have been turfed, i will be getting new light fixtures (old ones just AWEFULLLL)

cleaned all the kitchen cabinets

definate improvment so far

[DJ_NAV]

i wonder how much you would have to smoke to get the smell into the walls and carpet. I smoke in my room like once a week.. but have been for the last 4-5 years... so maybe like 200 cigs in 4 years... Would it be noticable? Obviously I can't smell it. This is only in the room after my parents are sleeping..hehe.

[syeve]

Read most of these, sorry if it's already mentioned...change your furnace filter, then change it again in like a month.

[jonnycat]

I used to smoke in my apartment, and never really thought of it to be a big deal until I moved into a brand new town house. The smell of my clean clothes in the closet stunk so bad it burned my nose in the new house.

When we moved out we used Mr. Clean erasers, about 10 to get rid of all the residue of the walls. Hours of labour too.