I have been tasked with decorating a house that was previously inhabited by a long term very heavy smoker.

I assume I will need to remove all carpets/curtains/furnishings etc and bin them.

Will normal paint get rid of the stinking walls/ceilings/doors or do I need to use something else to stop the smell and stains coming back through?

I dont want to have to do it all again in a couple of months if the smell/marks seep through. Really not looking forward to doing this 🙁

Thanks for any product or technique advice anyone can give. Grateful.

we bought our house from a heavy smoker; to add to that, he’d painted the skirtings a really sh*tty shade of brown.

We got rid of all the carpets pretty damn quick, and any curtains that had been left, then whizzed round with new paint.

OK it took a few coats, but there’s nothing like the smell of gloss paint VOCs to get rid of the smell of fag ash.

we did eventually repaper the living room, but not because the nicotine stains came back – they didn’t

Sugar soap.

Bin all the soft furnishings, then strip and wash the walls. Seal the walls, then repaint.

over seven years ago i used to live in a hut i built in the parents garden (was cheaper than renting!) and after all these years it still smells of weed.

every time my mum goes out to it she will send me a text saying “still smells of wacky baccy”, which isn’t the most sutble way of saying it.

guess laying new carpets and removing any fabric stuff is the main thing. then remove the old wall paper with a steamer before giving the walls a decent coat of bleach (and then letting the place air for a bit.

It’s tar so hot water with detergent will remove most of it. Buy a 5 litre jerrycan of detergent from a janitorial supplier and chuck some meths into the bucket.

jam bo +1
Sugar soap.

Just take up smoking. Give it a week or so and you won’t notice

Sugar soap is prolly a better idea.

Sugar soap +n

We washed and scrubbed with sugar soap and painted over.

Made sod all difference. Removed the stains and diluted the smell- but it was stil there especially noticable when you had been away for a few days . Bloody horrible

We ended up stripping all the paper , removing all the woodwork and starting again.

Doesnt smell at all now.

Sugar soap.

+1 then paint, had great success and easier to try then wall paper stripping (initally), though or a proper redecoration I’d want any wall paper off 1st

Oil based undercoat will block all nicotine stains out from walls woodwork etc. Quicker and easier than sugar soap. If its wallpapered strip the walls if you can cope with the horrors that may be underneath. Soft furnishings are dead so bin the smelly lot of them.

Sugar soap is magic stuff. We had the same issue with a flat we moved into years ago. Sugar soaped the walls prior to painting worked a treat. All the windows were pvc and the sugar soap brought them all up like new as well.

Heavy smoker had my house before I bought it. Carpets up, floors sanded walls/skirtings/ceilings painted the work of a week during which time the windows were fully open. Absolutely no smell after and no stains leeching through 2 coats of crown bog standard paint.

Isn’t lemon juice good at getting rid of odours?

Perhaps clean surfaces with sugar soap and once they are ‘clean’, use a mix of warm water with lemon juice in to de-odourise? Dunno what proportions, but a Google search should throw something up.

Lemon juice? You’ll be squeezing a lot of lemons!

Sugar soap works by being strongly alkaline and saponifying the tars. We use something even stronger for cleaning the glass on the stove – it turns the fat in your skin to soap and makes your fingers slimy.

globalti – Member

Lemon juice? You’ll be squeezing a lot of lemons!

I imagine it works best diluted to some extent, rather than washing the walls down with a bucket of neat lemon juice.
Baking powder is good at eliminating odours too, I think.

globalti – Member

Sugar soap works by being strongly alkaline and saponifying the tars. We use something even stronger for cleaning the glass on the stove – it turns the fat in your skin to soap and makes your fingers slimy.

I hope you wear gloves?

Load of helpful stuff here, thanks folks.

Mention of oil based gloss – should I presume that water based glos stuff is useless in this situation?

Yup is the oil based stuff that works. Use undercoat so no shine and better base for your top coat. Quick and easy just ventalate well whilst doing it for the fumes. Use this method a lot at work.

Sugar soap again. You will be amazed at the colour of the water. I sugar soaped the ceilings in our old place. Afterwards I wondered if I really need to paint them. The smell will fade away after a few weeks of fresh air.