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Took a look at a potential new house yesterday. We went to see it knowing it needed a lot of work, but weren't prepared for it absolutely stinking if cigarettes smoke, everywhere. It's definitely not just someone having a sly puff now and again, all the bedrooms have clearly had smokers in them for a long time.
How easy is it to get rid of cigarettes smell like that? Presumably it's soaked into the plaster? Google brings up some tips but nothing on the sort of industrial level I think is required here. Worst fear would be we buy it, do all the cleaning and decorating to rid it, then find the smell starts seeping out the walls again a few months later.
SOft furnishings (carpets, curtains etc) are not going to be worth keeping. Steam cleaning the walls before you decorate should work well, as will using an undercoat specifically for stains, otherwise the nicotine will bleed through. Apart from that it shouldnt be noticable once you have redecorated.
(source: previous owners were massive smokers - the ceilings above their favourite chairs were yellowy brown, where the rest was white. Tops of walls were 4 shades darker than the bottom).
We used this which got rid of the yellow/brown tinge permanently on the ceilings:
https://www.polycell.co.uk/product/polycell-one-coat-stain-stop/
Total bitch to apply because it's mega thick.
We tried the sugar soap thing and it didn't work, but maybe we didn't do it thoroughly enough.
Obviously you'll be getting rid of all soft furnishings/carpets, which will help. Any wallpaper will need to be stripped. Sugar soap, shellac-based primer then paint over. Should get rid of any tenacious fug. 🙂
SOft furnishings (carpets, curtains etc) are not going to be worth keeping.
They've all been stripped out already, would hate to have smelt it before they were!
As above, get rid of anything made of 'soft', really rub down all woodwork (not just scratch it, take the top coat off), strip all wallpaper. Prime, undercoat and a couple of top coats on the woodwork. For walls and ceilings, stain block plus several layers of emulsion even if you're papering over. Flooring - pick something that provides a 'seal' over existing floorboards (ie don't sand the boards and varnish, fit an engineered floor), make sure floor edges are well sealed too - especially in bedrooms where they might have air coming from ceiling void of rooms below.
I'd budget for a new kitchen too.
we had this.
there was always an undertone of it once the paint dried until the day we had the hallway and the bedrooms skimmed.
we ended up replacing All the woodwork/doors as well , taking off all the wallpaper , all the carpets , all the laminate and underlay.
When steaming the wallpaper off the nicotine was literally leaching out and running down the walls. it was absolutely vomit inducing. We steamed the paper off, removed the woodwork , steamed the walls , Sugar soaped the walls then skimmed and painted them before putting in new woodwork.
Basically everything - Looking back the previous owners were second tennents in a 1950s built house their kids were in their 40s and were born here. IT had a long time to get into the fabric
Remove all the plaster and start again.
Nuke the entire site form orbit, its the only way to be sure.
Sounds like a nightmare. When I bought a house, one on my shortlist looked good - went for a viewing and the whole place stank of smoke. Crossed off the list.
Throw away all the soft stuff, wash walls with bleach, then sugar soap, then seal them. It'll get better. Be prepared to replace all the light switches and light fittings too.
I bought my first car off a chain-smoker. It reeked of smoke for a couple of weeks, but it faded and just smelt like farts after that.
dust the room with bicarbonate of soda like it's shake and vac. Leave it for a day or two. or make a solution for washing down walls etc
Be prepared to replace all the light switches and light fittings too
yep we did that too..... they looked ok at first but were clearly very yellow when compared directly to some new ones - of course to an extent that happens in uv light but these were alot more like the old bakelite yellow once you got them in the natural light
When steaming the wallpaper off the nicotine was literally leaching out and running down the walls.
I had yellow streaks coming down my arm at one point.
This was a long time ago, but we didn't have to do anything as nuclear as replacing doors etc.
Couple of coats of ceiling paint, strip walls and repaint, new carpets and a good airing.
The in-laws house used to reek of it - FIL was a heavy smoker (used to have to ditch out clothes and get a shower after visiting them. Anyway, given FIL passed away 4 years ago, the house doesn't really smell. Certainly bin all soft furnishings and use stain sealants and repaint and deep clean the lot. You'll probably find all sorts of fittings need replacing too - curtain rails etc, unless you use elbow grease to get them cleaned up. Nicotine gets everywhere - it's gross.
If you really love the house, you might be able to see past the smell. We wrote off a few houses when we first started looking at houses - the house wasn't worth the work.
Had a car once that smelt of smoke. Bars of soap and coffee granules soak up the smell apparently. It worked for us.
The biggest problem is the yellow soaking through.
Once decorated a pub I worked in. When we took down the pictures that were secured to the walls I was amazed to see the original white colour surrounded by dirty brown yellow stains from smoking. We painted the walls yellow and just embraced it. The whole place smelt like a used ashtray.
Personally, unless it's a steal or you plan to re plaster it all I'd avoid it
Lock some cats in it for a week and lets see whether fags beats cat urine
We needed our place to be rewired, so we just budgeted for everything to be skimmed again.
Getting it back down to original plaster in preparation was no fun...
Our old house was like that when we moved in, it was disgusting, made me feel ill when we were clearing it out, and I used to smoke!! It was a repo though, so was a bargain and worth the effort.
We didn't have to re skim all the walls though, some did get skimmed, but mostly we just removed all carpets and wall paper and thoroughly cleaned all surfaces, and then once decorated it didn't smell any more.
We did replace all light fittings and switches and all wood work was sanded down as well though.
My nan's house stank of smoke after she died. Weirdly I noticed it a lot less when she was alive?!
Anyway, my dad and I spent weeks sorting it out before it was sold, cleaning carpets, washing curtains, sugar soaping walls, etc.
Then it turned out the buyers were both heavy smokers 🙄
Lock some cats in it for a week and lets see whether fags beats cat urine
Our old house the previous owners had a house cat that lived in the kitchen and dining room.
In 5 years we never entirely got rid of the cat piss smell.
Yeah, had this with my first house too. I ended up steaming the wallpaper off and the walls were running with brown, nicotine/tar liquid. It was vile and I was a smoker at the time.
I think I ended up getting rid of all of the carpets and curtains and all of the wallpaper, then re-painting.
Elbow grease, sugar soap and plenty of hot water. Zinsser BIN primer/sealer is great at sealing in smells and stains but is expensive if used in bulk.
All these tales of yellow gunk oozing out of walls, makes you wonder what their innards must have been like.
All the smokers I've ever known, none of them ever did it inside their homes. I bought a car once whose previous owner was a smoker, took maybe six months for the smell to dissipate. Why would you do that to your things?
Buy the house a donner kebab per room, and leave them in place for a week or so. The stale cigarette stench will then be the least of your worries 🙂
Take up smoking ?
Strip out everything you can, sugar soap & steam clean anything you can't.
When we bought our place it stank of cigarettes, urine & dog.
We stripped it, cleaned it and let it air for a week before cleaning it again and letting it air for another week.
All the floors were bleached and we did a rewire which changed the sockets etc.
The plus point of the stench was nobody else wanted the place so we got it for well under market value😃
All these tales of yellow gunk oozing out of walls, makes you wonder what their innards must have been like.
As someone who is viewing houses at the minute, we've been lucky that none of them have been lived in by smokers (or if they have, they've smoked outside). I know from friends though that the solutions such as nuking from orbit or slightly less drastic, stripping the walls and replastering them whilst also replacing literally everything else is the best bet.
the ceilings above their favourite chairs were yellowy brown, where the rest was white. Tops of walls were 4 shades darker than the bottom
Fagnolia.
I had yellow streaks coming down my arm at one point.
This was a long time ago, but we didn’t have to do anything as nuclear as replacing doors etc.
Couple of coats of ceiling paint, strip walls and repaint, new carpets and a good airing.
I've been there. We had all the wall skimmed but I stripped loads of paper first - the shitty air coming of the steamed walls was rank. We didn't get the ceilings done and tried to paint over it but it was just coming through. In the end we were washing the ceilings with soapy water as it is very soluble and comes of in water no problem.
One of the bedrooms in my place was thick with nicotine when I bought it - sugar soaping the artex was fun - as a non smoker, taking on a massive dose of nicotine through your skin is no fun at all. Once cleaned and painted it was no problem at all. And years on the artex is all plastered over with no issues to report
but it faded and just smelt like farts after that.
You need to replace the seats to get rid of that.
Sew frozen prawns into the curtains, problem solved in a week or so. 😆
A rental that I moved in to a few years back absolutely reeked of smoke. Yellow walls and all.
Some strategically placed bowls of coffee beans genuinely did both mask and absorb/replace the smell.
Worth a punt whilst you're arranging for repainting/plastering and so on. It'll make life much nicer.
A pot head owned my house before me, only really affected the living room but it stank. All the soft furnishing weren't part of the sale anyway so it was just the carpet I had to deal with. I think 4 or 5 carpet shampooings and the windows open for long periods got rid of most of it, could still smell it a bit for the first few months but not enough that it was a problem. I can't say I ever noticed any smell from the walls.