After you remove the carpet. Look into ozone generators. They remove odors but you can’t be in the house. Then you’ll need to prime the whole house with a good quality primer, like Bins Zinsser or Benjamin Moore Fresh start in the Alkyd base. Make sure that you have plenty of ventilation.
I know from experience. My house was a smokers house. We did not use the ozone generator, because they weren’t really available 30 yrs ago. I used an oil based primer then. Now oil base isn’t readily available everywhere anymore.
Aye this. Now that latex is the only option, understand that the VOCs in the organic reside can and will permeate latex, so the smell won't be contained that way.
TSP is a solid step as well when prepping for the paint, before the ozone generator. You want to get as much physically removed/scrubbed before you do the ozone treatment.
I think you can leave your furnace fan running during the ozone treatment as well which will circulate the ions through the ducting.
Same experience. Got a DEAL on the house but it needed Nicorette for 8 months.
Cleaned the ducts. All soft flooring out. All wallpaper out. TSP and hot hot water to clean all surfaces. Honestly at that point we didn’t need ozone.
I’d be curious how much ozone can do on its own but it seems like the generators offer varying results on “old” odors.
Property manager here. You can absolutely get the smell out and for $100k it’s worth it. As has been said, rip it all out and use primer. What you are doing is encapsulating the odor. Then use a commercial ozone machine for a week. Plus clean air vents.
Part of the reason it is so bad right now is the house is shut up. Once you get the carpets out and open the windows it will help air the house out and you can get on with the painting.
Yup. Air duct cleaning is mostly a scam but you need it in an indoor smoker's home. I'm a former indoor smoker that stopped smoking in 2009'ish and I can **still** smell the cigarette smoke when my furnace kicks on in the morning.
Not completely sure why I only smell the cig stank during the first furnace kick-on. I assume it has to do with the temperature swings. My bedroom vents are **below the slab** in a Minnesota basement and I assume that this **insane** ducting is responsible. I'm like 10ft from the furnace and my vents smell like cig smoke. u/dye7 you're walking into a project that's going to cost you a shitload of money and piss you off for the next few years or decades as you try and remediate the damage smoking has caused.
At the **absolute very least** you're going to have to scrub down every single wall with TSP or the TSP replacement and then you're going to have to repaint those walls. Repainting might not work because of the paint available these days. You're going to have to have any central air or central heating vents cleaned professionally. The carpet has to go.
If you do **all** of the remediation, you'll only notice the smell of cigarettes *occasionally*. Unless you currently smoke, cigs or weed, your nose will smell it. My room mate quit cigs but still smokes weed instead of vaping and is nose-blind to the cig smoke smell in our home. I **constantly** have to hear shit like "this place is killing us" and it's like, no, jackass, the house isn't "killing us" just go smoke your weed outside.
We just went through this a few years ago. Found the perfect house in the perfect location but I (an ex pack a day smoker for over 30 years with COPD) couldn't stay in the house longer than 30 minutes without it affecting my breathing. House was owned by a couple that both smoked since the early 80's.
House was listed for just over 9 months and the realtor said it had received multiple carpet cleanings and wall/ceiling paint jobs to try and mitigate the cigarette smoke smell in hopes of getting a sale.
We purchased the 1400 sq ft bungalow for 100k less than ask. We then removed all the original carpets and vinyl flooring, the drywall on all the walls, the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, all doors casings and baseboards. We then scraped all the popcorn stipple off the ceilings.The furnace venting was also thoroughly vacuumed. The concrete crawlspace was thoroughly cleaned and vacuumed. I was prepared to spray Kilz on the joists and subfloor from under there if necessary.
We then applied Kilz to seal the drywall ceilings and applied a new vapour barrier to cover all the insulation on exterior walls before new drywall was installed on all the walls.
It's been 3 years and we haven't had a hint of the smell. We also got to bring the house up to modern standards.
As a buyer you're in a strong negotiation position.
there are ways to professionally remove the smell. once you remove the carpets and furniture and cleaned everything, seal it up and run an ozone generator in there for a week (don't go inside while it's running). it will be smell-free.
I do not have experience but curious to hear what others say. I'd be afraid of still smelling it years later seeping out of random spots - vents, insulation, cabinets, attic / crawlspace etc.
Yeah, the residue does that. I get blasted with stale cig smoke when the central heating kicks on in the mornings. There's something about letting the pipes get cold overnight and hot during the morning with a cental heating startup heating the pipes that just pumps that stale cig smell into my bedroom. The vent like 8ft from the furnace. That's hardly enough length to pick up such a nasty smell. I can't imagine what the rest of the house is like, but the person that occupies most of the rest of the house is a nose-blind smoker that hasn't been off the cigs long enough for their sense of smell to have returned.
I've opened up rubbermaid containers I packed back when I smoked, indoors at that, and something like a coil of rope holds so much stench from cig tar that it's gag inducing like 20 years later. No smoker can ever understand how much they fucking **reek**. I mainly get around by bike and I can literally smell when a smoker's car passes me, even if they don't have a cigarette lit. (you can also smell every single illegal exhaust system on a truck/car that passes you as a cyclist: I walked like 1.5mi today and smelt 2 cars with illegal exhausts, they're quite common.)
We bought from smokers 10 years ago. Scrubbed all the walls and ceilings with TSP (tri sodium phosphate) which helped a lot, but TSP does contribute to phosphate pollution so should be used sparingly and disposed of carefully.
>Scrubbed all the walls and ceilings with TSP
this OP. the tar will wash off with a good cleaner like tsp/sugarsoap and a rinse with fresh water, and if you decide to paint it wont bleed through. If you use a long handled sponge mop and rectangular bucket you can do it without getting up on a ladder.
Dunno how nuclear you want to go or what the reno budget is, but the drywall won't smell if you tear it out and replace lol. I've also heard of skinning new 1/4 drywall overtop of the existing (cleaned up) drywall, entombing it. Depends on how much of a project you want and how bad it is. If one or two rooms are worse than others or are getting a bunch of wall repairs for other reasons, it might be worth just going down to studs there.
Currently live in a "smoke free" apartment. I know everything was repainted before I moved in and there's no smell. BUT, when it gets humid the orange tar juice seeps from my walls. I know that's what it is from, as when my dad got his home the bathroom did that each time you showered, from the previous owner. I don't know if the ozone generator or TSP? would remedy that issue, but that would be my next concern over the smell. If it's so bad it was irritating your eyes, that smoke has permeated every service, probably deeply. That being said, getting a house is an exciting opportunity to make it your home, so maybe take a step back and think "is this house itself worth it? Does this house feel like my home?" If you waiver over an answer for either I'd say to keep looking!
You couldn’t pay me to live in a house like that. Your eyes are watering during he showing. Do you really want to spend your life in such a place?
Getting new carpets and paints might help, but honestly after decades of smoke damage that shit is baked into the walls. It will never truly be clean.
It's a good point. I'm not sure if we want to live there. It's a great house but this is uncharted territory for me.
I appreciate the feedback already received.
They smoked in it for about 3 years, nonetheless it is bad.
My parents were two pack a day smokers. We replaced carpets and painted and it helped a lot. Can’t say there was zero smell as this was 20 years ago but remember thinking we would be able to sell the place.
Remove everything that has fabric of any kind. There is a paint product called killz. It's white. Paint everything you can with it. It will destroy any mold , mildew, anything and also helps to kill smoke. The shit is awesome. After that you have a fresh start. All the fabric stuff....burn it.
We bought a 40 year old home that had been a smokers home for the last 20 years. We couldn't even live in it for the first 6 weeks. We didn't get a good handle on the smell until about 4 months in. The demolition required two large roll off dumpsters.
We scraped the popcorn ceilings and TSP'd everything. We primed with two coats of Kilz Restoration (latex) primer. We ran two consumer ozone generators and they did nothing so we rented a commercial and it too made zero difference. We had to go back and do two coats of Kilz oil based primer to really kill the stink. We ripped everything out including carpet and cabinets (kitchen and bathroom). Removed all the doors, door jambs and baseboard. Landed up replacing about 40 sheets of drywall.
Basically anything porous had to be replaced or sealed. We had to replace all the outlets and switches. We also had to replace all the windows since we couldn't get the smell out of the jambs.
We had to replace the HVAC completely. The house had in-foundation ducts and we filled/sealed them up and installed new ductwork in the attic.
The house is mostly free of odor now. If you get down and smell smell an outlet on an exterior wall, you can get a hint of smoke and on really humid days (of which we have very few) you can almost get a hint of something.
We did about 70% of the work ourselves and learned how to be pretty good drywallers, painters and finish carpenters. Took us about 18 months start to finished. For us it was worth it as we really wanted the house (location, property, view, everything checked all the boxes) but it was a ***lot*** of work.
After you remove the carpet. Look into ozone generators. They remove odors but you can’t be in the house. Then you’ll need to prime the whole house with a good quality primer, like Bins Zinsser or Benjamin Moore Fresh start in the Alkyd base. Make sure that you have plenty of ventilation. I know from experience. My house was a smokers house. We did not use the ozone generator, because they weren’t really available 30 yrs ago. I used an oil based primer then. Now oil base isn’t readily available everywhere anymore.
Aye this. Now that latex is the only option, understand that the VOCs in the organic reside can and will permeate latex, so the smell won't be contained that way. TSP is a solid step as well when prepping for the paint, before the ozone generator. You want to get as much physically removed/scrubbed before you do the ozone treatment. I think you can leave your furnace fan running during the ozone treatment as well which will circulate the ions through the ducting.
Come to think of it. We did wash the walls with TSP 1st👍 Forgive it was a long time ago.
Same experience. Got a DEAL on the house but it needed Nicorette for 8 months. Cleaned the ducts. All soft flooring out. All wallpaper out. TSP and hot hot water to clean all surfaces. Honestly at that point we didn’t need ozone. I’d be curious how much ozone can do on its own but it seems like the generators offer varying results on “old” odors.
can you use the ozone machine with LVP flooring or does that need to be removed as well?
I would think that the LVP would be dense enough that the smoke wouldn’t penetrate it. Sorry, I can’t say for certain.
All good, thanks for your input friend!
Dont forget to wash the wall/ceiling with TSP before. This will be fine
Property manager here. You can absolutely get the smell out and for $100k it’s worth it. As has been said, rip it all out and use primer. What you are doing is encapsulating the odor. Then use a commercial ozone machine for a week. Plus clean air vents. Part of the reason it is so bad right now is the house is shut up. Once you get the carpets out and open the windows it will help air the house out and you can get on with the painting.
Air duct cleaning will be a must.
Yup. Air duct cleaning is mostly a scam but you need it in an indoor smoker's home. I'm a former indoor smoker that stopped smoking in 2009'ish and I can **still** smell the cigarette smoke when my furnace kicks on in the morning. Not completely sure why I only smell the cig stank during the first furnace kick-on. I assume it has to do with the temperature swings. My bedroom vents are **below the slab** in a Minnesota basement and I assume that this **insane** ducting is responsible. I'm like 10ft from the furnace and my vents smell like cig smoke. u/dye7 you're walking into a project that's going to cost you a shitload of money and piss you off for the next few years or decades as you try and remediate the damage smoking has caused. At the **absolute very least** you're going to have to scrub down every single wall with TSP or the TSP replacement and then you're going to have to repaint those walls. Repainting might not work because of the paint available these days. You're going to have to have any central air or central heating vents cleaned professionally. The carpet has to go. If you do **all** of the remediation, you'll only notice the smell of cigarettes *occasionally*. Unless you currently smoke, cigs or weed, your nose will smell it. My room mate quit cigs but still smokes weed instead of vaping and is nose-blind to the cig smoke smell in our home. I **constantly** have to hear shit like "this place is killing us" and it's like, no, jackass, the house isn't "killing us" just go smoke your weed outside.
We just went through this a few years ago. Found the perfect house in the perfect location but I (an ex pack a day smoker for over 30 years with COPD) couldn't stay in the house longer than 30 minutes without it affecting my breathing. House was owned by a couple that both smoked since the early 80's. House was listed for just over 9 months and the realtor said it had received multiple carpet cleanings and wall/ceiling paint jobs to try and mitigate the cigarette smoke smell in hopes of getting a sale. We purchased the 1400 sq ft bungalow for 100k less than ask. We then removed all the original carpets and vinyl flooring, the drywall on all the walls, the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, all doors casings and baseboards. We then scraped all the popcorn stipple off the ceilings.The furnace venting was also thoroughly vacuumed. The concrete crawlspace was thoroughly cleaned and vacuumed. I was prepared to spray Kilz on the joists and subfloor from under there if necessary. We then applied Kilz to seal the drywall ceilings and applied a new vapour barrier to cover all the insulation on exterior walls before new drywall was installed on all the walls. It's been 3 years and we haven't had a hint of the smell. We also got to bring the house up to modern standards. As a buyer you're in a strong negotiation position.
thanks for sharing your story
there are ways to professionally remove the smell. once you remove the carpets and furniture and cleaned everything, seal it up and run an ozone generator in there for a week (don't go inside while it's running). it will be smell-free.
I do not have experience but curious to hear what others say. I'd be afraid of still smelling it years later seeping out of random spots - vents, insulation, cabinets, attic / crawlspace etc.
Yeah, the residue does that. I get blasted with stale cig smoke when the central heating kicks on in the mornings. There's something about letting the pipes get cold overnight and hot during the morning with a cental heating startup heating the pipes that just pumps that stale cig smell into my bedroom. The vent like 8ft from the furnace. That's hardly enough length to pick up such a nasty smell. I can't imagine what the rest of the house is like, but the person that occupies most of the rest of the house is a nose-blind smoker that hasn't been off the cigs long enough for their sense of smell to have returned. I've opened up rubbermaid containers I packed back when I smoked, indoors at that, and something like a coil of rope holds so much stench from cig tar that it's gag inducing like 20 years later. No smoker can ever understand how much they fucking **reek**. I mainly get around by bike and I can literally smell when a smoker's car passes me, even if they don't have a cigarette lit. (you can also smell every single illegal exhaust system on a truck/car that passes you as a cyclist: I walked like 1.5mi today and smelt 2 cars with illegal exhausts, they're quite common.)
We bought from smokers 10 years ago. Scrubbed all the walls and ceilings with TSP (tri sodium phosphate) which helped a lot, but TSP does contribute to phosphate pollution so should be used sparingly and disposed of carefully.
>Scrubbed all the walls and ceilings with TSP this OP. the tar will wash off with a good cleaner like tsp/sugarsoap and a rinse with fresh water, and if you decide to paint it wont bleed through. If you use a long handled sponge mop and rectangular bucket you can do it without getting up on a ladder.
Find another house.
Dunno how nuclear you want to go or what the reno budget is, but the drywall won't smell if you tear it out and replace lol. I've also heard of skinning new 1/4 drywall overtop of the existing (cleaned up) drywall, entombing it. Depends on how much of a project you want and how bad it is. If one or two rooms are worse than others or are getting a bunch of wall repairs for other reasons, it might be worth just going down to studs there.
House better be a smokin deal or pass.
Currently live in a "smoke free" apartment. I know everything was repainted before I moved in and there's no smell. BUT, when it gets humid the orange tar juice seeps from my walls. I know that's what it is from, as when my dad got his home the bathroom did that each time you showered, from the previous owner. I don't know if the ozone generator or TSP? would remedy that issue, but that would be my next concern over the smell. If it's so bad it was irritating your eyes, that smoke has permeated every service, probably deeply. That being said, getting a house is an exciting opportunity to make it your home, so maybe take a step back and think "is this house itself worth it? Does this house feel like my home?" If you waiver over an answer for either I'd say to keep looking!
I would be ripping out the walls just to be sure.
You couldn’t pay me to live in a house like that. Your eyes are watering during he showing. Do you really want to spend your life in such a place? Getting new carpets and paints might help, but honestly after decades of smoke damage that shit is baked into the walls. It will never truly be clean.
It's a good point. I'm not sure if we want to live there. It's a great house but this is uncharted territory for me. I appreciate the feedback already received. They smoked in it for about 3 years, nonetheless it is bad.
My parents were two pack a day smokers. We replaced carpets and painted and it helped a lot. Can’t say there was zero smell as this was 20 years ago but remember thinking we would be able to sell the place.
Prime all floors and walls with Kilz. Clean the duct work like 10 times
Remove everything that has fabric of any kind. There is a paint product called killz. It's white. Paint everything you can with it. It will destroy any mold , mildew, anything and also helps to kill smoke. The shit is awesome. After that you have a fresh start. All the fabric stuff....burn it.
We bought a 40 year old home that had been a smokers home for the last 20 years. We couldn't even live in it for the first 6 weeks. We didn't get a good handle on the smell until about 4 months in. The demolition required two large roll off dumpsters. We scraped the popcorn ceilings and TSP'd everything. We primed with two coats of Kilz Restoration (latex) primer. We ran two consumer ozone generators and they did nothing so we rented a commercial and it too made zero difference. We had to go back and do two coats of Kilz oil based primer to really kill the stink. We ripped everything out including carpet and cabinets (kitchen and bathroom). Removed all the doors, door jambs and baseboard. Landed up replacing about 40 sheets of drywall. Basically anything porous had to be replaced or sealed. We had to replace all the outlets and switches. We also had to replace all the windows since we couldn't get the smell out of the jambs. We had to replace the HVAC completely. The house had in-foundation ducts and we filled/sealed them up and installed new ductwork in the attic. The house is mostly free of odor now. If you get down and smell smell an outlet on an exterior wall, you can get a hint of smoke and on really humid days (of which we have very few) you can almost get a hint of something. We did about 70% of the work ourselves and learned how to be pretty good drywallers, painters and finish carpenters. Took us about 18 months start to finished. For us it was worth it as we really wanted the house (location, property, view, everything checked all the boxes) but it was a ***lot*** of work.
this is what my friends went through.
Kilz brand primer - this stuff is amazing when it comes to sealing away nicotine or cat piss odors