Smoke smell in a home - best ways to get it out?

matt86m

matt86m

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Shopping for homes, I have come across 1 or 2 that had smokers in them.

1st thing, rip the carpet out (would do hard floors anyway) 2nd, wash the walls & prep for new paint. Before paint bring in an ozone machine and let that run for however long they recommend. Primer and paint walls and ceiling.

Any other ways I'm missing short of tearing out the drywall?

 
Our first house was a smoker.  Pretty much what you mentioned. I re-lined all the interiors of the cabinets, cleaned and restained the outside (was doing this anyway), and scrubbed the concrete after the carpet was removed.  No lingering smoke smell for us.  We did tear out a lot of drywall, but not all of it.  Ceilings were popcorn, so the house got skip-troweled and textured prior to paint.

 
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It's tough, especially on hot days.

All new paint and flooring are a must. Ceiling often times flat paint and absorbed holds the worse. Definitely clean and paint ceiling. 

Not sure on which window coverings you have but you may want to check that too. 

Have the HVAC system cleaned before the finish work is completed. 

 
I agree on getting the HVAC system cleaned.  I wouldn't worry about washing the walls so much or even going with a primer. BUT I would KILZ all the walls, ceilings baseboard, and doors. They have a latex and non latex version. Latex would be fine unless you want to drop a little extra coin for the non latex. On spray it's more toxic. Once dried you are good. Might even consider spraying the concrete floors if it's bad. Biggest concern would be the cabinetry.  If you are replacing them. Cool. If not, might consider KILZing them as well and getting them painted. See if they can KILZ the insides as that isn't typical on a repaint.

Or just start smoking...... I'm kidding....

Ps don't forget the garage...

 
Popcorn ceiling, wallpaper, carpet and cabinets are the places where the cigarette funk can live forever.. 

Worst smelling house we ever looked at was pet smells and one closet that smelled of rotten death, like corpse breath rancid bad... owner passed in the home, but the stank was concentrated in a single closet to master bedroom.

All I could picture was ‎Michael Hutchence, ‎David Carradine or Brooks Hatlen

 
the insulation in the attic and even the walls will hold the smell too.  when i was looking at houses in havasu one i looked at they had done new carpet, paint, etc and the house still reeked of smoke.

 
If you have time to wait, some big costco boxes of baking soda spread liberally on the floor. It absorbs odors pretty well if it has time to work. I bought a beautiful pecan bedroom set that was owned by smokers and I put a layer of baking soda in all of the drawers and let the furniture sit for over a month. The baking soda did the trick but took some time. 

 
The home my son bought a couple of years ago was owned by heavy smokers. They did all of the above, stripped the flooring, gutted the kitchen for new cabinets, scrubbed everything really good, then had a restoration company come in and clean the vents/ac unit and do their thing with the ozone machine. The ozone treatment was worth the cost, no hint of smoke when they were done. One of the other issues they pointed out were the yellow stains on the ceiling above the bed in the master and above the 2 chairs in the main room where the prior owners did most of the smoking. The yellow nicotine stains in the ceiling would bleed through the paint. They recommended priming those areas with Kilz (i think), wait a couple of days and see if the yellow would bleed through and keep applying the primer until it quit bleeding through.

 
Thanks for all the info. 1 house in particular, elderly couple lived there. Husband died, their 2 60+ year old sons moved in and lived there for a year. They were the smokers. She is in an assisted living home now and they are selling the house. So it was smoked in for a year by the 2 sons. 

We are going to pass on this one but good info if another one comes up.

 
1tonfun said:
The home my son bought a couple of years ago was owned by heavy smokers. They did all of the above, stripped the flooring, gutted the kitchen for new cabinets, scrubbed everything really good, then had a restoration company come in and clean the vents/ac unit and do their thing with the ozone machine. The ozone treatment was worth the cost, no hint of smoke when they were done. One of the other issues they pointed out were the yellow stains on the ceiling above the bed in the master and above the 2 chairs in the main room where the prior owners did most of the smoking. The yellow nicotine stains in the ceiling would bleed through the paint. They recommended priming those areas with Kilz (i think), wait a couple of days and see if the yellow would bleed through and keep applying the primer until it quit bleeding through.
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:vomit:

 
BIN(white pigmented shellac), the original-not 1-2-3, is about the best at odor blocking, and stain blocking. Better than Kilz and the alcohol smell will go away more quickly than the heavier solvent smell of Kilz.  Kilz 2, like 1-2-3 will be a waste of time and money.

Then, cook a lot of sauerkraut...

 
One word of caution on the "ozone cleaning".  Ozone is an oxidizer.  That means any ferrus metal will rust (nails, screws, nuts, cabinet hardware,  vents, etc. 

Also the beauty of ozone is it completely destroys anything organic.  Bugs, viruses, cloth, wood, curtains,  lungs, skin, etc.  

"Ambient levels" are not too bad for you, but do not use one of those air freshener ones in an occupied home.  

The industrial ones for a few hours or days, while everyone is out of the house is good for cleaning, but extended use is not.  

 
How about smoking some ribs in the house 2 or 3 times. Would pecan or apple wood smell better?

 
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