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I have just gone through this same situation, I thought that once the PO removed the furniture everything would be better. You would be amazed at where that tar accumulates. Check your windows, my windows were covered with a thick yellow sticky film that was from smoking. Also, if you have any wood surfaces (baseboards, window trim, doors, etc.) I would recommend removing and replacing all of them. As stated, check your outlets and switches, as well as fans, light fixtures and bulbs.
Here is what I did:
Ducts cleaned and replaced (barely did anything for the smell but they were DIRTY and stained yellow)
Sand and refinish all hardwood floors (~90% of flooring in house)
remove and replace all wood trim, interior doors (be sure to vaccum all spaces where wall and floor meet)
Remove all ceiling fans
remove all ventilation fans
Replace all old windows and/or screens
Wash all walls with TSP + Odoban, prime and paint all surfaces
Remove and replace all appliances (range, microwave, DW, W/D)
Clean dryer vent
replace front door
remove all switchplates and outlet covers, vaccum inside and replace all switches and outlets
vaccum refrigerator coils if not getting a new one
Im sure there's more but the key thing is that you have to get rid of most of the stuff in the house that nicotine is attracted to. Just after doing the floors and sealing the grain I noticed a remarkable difference in the smell. After removing all of the wood surfaces it was even better. After replacing all of the trim and doors, and painting I can not smell it at all. The one thing I have left to do is replace a few more windows, as sometimes I get a whiff if the window is open and a breeze comes in, as the smoke smell is still in the screens.
It's amazing how smoke can permeate absolutely everything. My father-in-law is a heavy smoker, mainly in the basement "man cave" of their house, but after 25 years of it, the whole entire house reeks of smoke. It knocks you down as soon as you walk in. And it doesn't even smell like "fresh" cigarette smoke, it smells like a dirty ash tray. The funny/sad thing is that my MIL is a meticulous housekeeper, AND my FIL is a clean freak!!! The house is spotless, but the smell is in everything. The caulk around the bathroom showers are stained with nicotine; the window blinds; the wood trim; absolutely everything. And their house is very, very nice and located on a lake. they're getting older and are thinking about selling and moving back closer to the city to be close to doctors, hospitals & family. But they will never be able to sell their house as it is unless another smoker buys it. I truly think it would take gutting the house down to the studs to get rid of all the smoke smell in their home.
I once bought a house that was a fixer upper and the previous owners were heavy heavy smokers. We're talking tar streaks on the walls bad. I washed every single surface down, primed and painted all walls and trim, and then replaced the carpets. It completely eliminated the smell. I think some people are going way too far to get rid of the smell. It's not that hard. One thing to note, the cleaning and then priming of the walls is key.
Hi! What ended up happening? I am in the exact same boat!! We have been in our house almost 2 years and I can tell the smell is starting to come back.
It was gone. We also had all of the exact same things done. Duct cleaning, new filters, replaced outlet covers and remodeled the whole house putting down tile. I cannot figure out what is going on. Did you find a solution?
Hi! What ended up happening? I am in the exact same boat!! We have been in our house almost 2 years and I can tell the smell is starting to come back.
It was gone. We also had all of the exact same things done. Duct cleaning, new filters, replaced outlet covers and remodeled the whole house putting down tile. I cannot figure out what is going on. Did you find a solution?
It's been a while, but I wanted to update in case anyone else with this problem stumbles to this thread. Our smoke problem is mostly gone now - I do catch whiffs in my clothes every now and then (rarely), and when we were gone for a week and came back to stagnant air, I could smell it. However, we don't notice any smoke smells day to day and I think it is vastly improved. Here's what we did:
1) Ozone machine: This, by far, had the biggest effect. Really happy we did it.
2) Sealed off remaining holes: We had a few random holes in the wall (e.g. behind the dryer, behind the fridge) that we could access and seal.
3) Plastic plug protectors and Glade plug-ins: Probably had negligible effect.
There's probably more we can do, but we are busy (and tired of doing things for our little condo) and satisfied enough with the results. My concern initially after we used the ozone machine was that the smoky smell would slowly leach out again (wherever it was coming from) and we would end up back to square one. However, 4 months later and our house still smells good. If one day it comes to having to rent an ozone machine again, I would have no issue with it.
Thanks for getting back with results.
Have never tried an ozone machine, but will keep this on the list.
I think one of the biggest items missed by most, which I stumbled upon by sheer accident myself with our fixer-upper - the EVAP coil in your hvac! Guaranteed smoke went through those little fins and set up shop. If you have a split system (compressor outside, EVAP coil and furnace inside), it’s a relatively easy fix. YouTube how to wash your coil for instructions, but it’s basically getting a $10 pump sprayer, gaining access to the coil via taking off a few bolts, and carefully washing down the coil with a specific coil cleaner solution. This also fixes the sweaty sock stink too. I did this two years ago, made a HUGE difference in both odor and operational effectiveness of our systems. I then added a Honeywell surface UV light to the system that shines down on the coil to prevent any more mold from coming back.
I can tell you with absolute honesty, no exaggeration - this took a then 17 year old home that was owned by a smoker and wife who loved those glade candles, to smelling like new construction. And we’re two years from that point, and it STILL smells like a new home when you come walking in. Those UV lights are worth every penny and I will guarantee you that I will always have one in my system going forward!
My folks live in SW FL, travel during the summer, dad smokes a pipe in the garage. The high humidity and occasional smoke drift into the house, makes it stinky. I put one of these Honeywell lights into their system a year ago, inserted right across the top of the Evap coil. Today, it too being a 20 year old house, smells fresh, clean and new as well. When they’d return to the house in early fall and start up the system for the first time, it’d stink so bad they would have to open the windows for days (mold growth on the coil). This past year, none of that happened, fired right up and smelled clean and fresh!
You have to remove every bit of the tar paste that coats everything in a smoker's house. Not paint it over - remove it.
Where you have not painted over the tar and you have a relatively hard surface, we had decent luck using Dow Corning scrubbing bubbles. Spray it on the walls and ceiling, it foams up brown, scrub it off, repeat until it is not brown anymore. If you have painted over the tar, or if you are not up to hours upon hours of repeated treating and scrubbing, pull the drywall and replace it.
Insulation inside your walls may be a problem. We were lucky in that we did not have any. There is not way to clean it, so if that is the source of the odor, you will need to remove and replace it. If you are replacing all the drywall anyway, that will make replacing the insulation pretty easy.
Did you get rid of the curtains? Carpeting/rugs? Anything that is soft that was there when the smoker lived there needs to be removed. Hard surfaces can be cleaned, but you have to clean them over and over and over and over.
Your ducts will need to be scrubbed, hard and repeatedly.
Odor maskers do nothing long term. This includes ozone. Also, Ozone generators can be awful if you have people with asthma.
I lived in a apartment that previously had a heavy smoke for years. I could put my nose a foot from any wall and smell a very acrid, vile odor......much like that of an ashtray.
I scrubbed the walls in that apartment 3 or 4 times and still had yellow, stinky juice oooooozing out of the walls for the whole time I was there. It got much better, especially when I bought 3 used
air-cleaners and ran then constantly. But when it got hot, it started stinking and my stomach started getting nauseated..........I'm going to assume there was a higher level of outgassing from the disgusting filth embedded in the walls when it got hot, YUCK.
As I mentioned in another thread with a similar subject matter, we are about to start prepping my ex wifes home because she bought a new place and the old place has been subjected to her years of smoking in it. We plan on doing the following:
1) Scrubbing down everything with a solution of warm water and TSP...…...walls, closets, cabinets, etc. That should remove the surface yellowing from the smoke.
2) Painting everything with Kilz primer to seal in the odor.
3) Painting the walls with paint once that is done.
4) Cleaning all of the carpets, maybe twice or so.
Hopefully, that will get it to the point where the odor will be gone or minimized. Smoking is about the filthiest habit anyone could have.
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