Removing Cigarette Smoke Smell (tenants, sale, price, construction)

[Newton126]

I'm in the market for a new home. We viewed a home on Saturday. It was great BUT the house smells like cigarette smoke. Why someone would smoke in a house that is for sale is beyond me. The house is all tile and hardwood so there are no carpets that would need to be cleaned/removed.

If I was confident that the smell could be removed, I'd make an offer. Does anyone know if businesses exist that specialize in cigarette smoke clean up? I've found businesses that clean up smoke from fires but I'm not sure if they do cigarette smoke.

I'd like to get estimates and work it in the offer.

Any opinions or past experiences would greatly help. Thanks.

[MikeJaquish]

Many of the firms that do fire recovery and reconstruction will work on cigarette smoke, too.
Just call, and they will tell you.

[QuilterChick]

It is difficult to eradicate smoke odors, and it often comes back. Ceilings are the biggest problem because the smoke rises. I had tenants once that smoked in an apartment building I owned (smoking was against the lease rules); and I had to get a man in to spray the ceilings with some sort of solution. It worked beautifully, was reasonable price, and totally removed not only the yellowing but the odor from all 5 rooms. Sorry, but I cannot recall what the chemical was.

Mike's suggestion of a fire and smoke recovery company is best at this point. Smoke odors are one of the worst adverse conditions in a home, right up there with water in the basement imho. There is also a paint that is currently marketed to eliminate smoke on the walls. Not sure how good that would be.

[TempesT68]

You'll have to ask if the people are smoking in there now, or have stopped and it's just embedded in everything. If the latter, it's a pretty big job to do. Everything needs to be scrubbed down, the ceilings, walls, fixtures, doors, every inch of the house. Re-painting may be necessary as well. If they were heavy smokers and never opened the windows, everything can be stuck in the heating ducts as well and would need to be cleaned out ,..etc.

[Newton126]

Thanks. This is definitely not something I would try to fix myself. I called one business and essentially every surface needs to be touched: walls, floors, ceilings, cabinets, air ducts. It doesn't sound cheap but as long as the process works, that's all I care about.

[Racelady88]

This is what hotels/motels use when they convert to non-smoking Powered by Google Docs This stuff works!

You mention that the house you are considering has all hard surface floors. Is there furniture or drapery? Those will hold the smell.

[Newton126]

Yes, there is furniture and drapery. The house is still occupied.

The furniture would be gone and drapery most likely removed before move in.

[DanteMazyck]

You will probably need to change the carpet in the unit as well as prime the walls with a sealer or blocker. Be sure to clean all of the fixtures and anywhere else there is a tar build up.

[AK-Cathy]

Everything needs to be scrubbed down, the ceilings, walls, fixtures, doors, every inch of the house. Re-painting may be necessary as well. If they were heavy smokers and never opened the windows, everything can be stuck in the heating ducts as well and would need to be cleaned out ,..etc.

The above is the best way to remove the residual film from the smoke. With the furnishings and their window treatments gone, the smell will be greatly reduced and you may be tempted to skip the heavy cleaning but when the house warms up, the smell will be released over and over again. You might also be surprised at how much the walls and cabinets brighten up after removing that dull brown/gray haze. You are way ahead of the game not having to pull up carpets so that's a plus.

My first house was a smokers house and because I was in my 20s I had the energy to deal with the heavy cleaning and repainting necessary to take care of the problem. Today I probably wouldn't bother with an offer (unless I really, really loved the house) or would reduce it by the amount that professional smoke removal would cost plus buffer should the service cost increase while you are in closing.

Good luck.

[BedfordResident1]

Both houses we have owned were previously smoker's houses. The smoke smell was relatively easily removed by painting the walls and ceilings, cleaning the woodwork and shampooing the carpets.

The pet odor, is another story. That smell never went away.