getting rid of cigarette smell

Better_Days

Funny you should say that about the bathrooms GolfFoxtrot. Even after cleaning our tiles ran yellow condensation after a shower. You wouldn't think tiles would absorb so much nicotine and tar. Or maybe it was just difficult to get off. Not nice.

Recently re-tiled thank goodness. The bathroom had black tiles :eek: so it was a good excuse, but tiles and a tiler don't come cheap.

GolfFoxtrot

Better_Days wrote: »

Funny you should say that about the bathrooms GolfFoxtrot. Even after cleaning our tiles ran yellow condensation after a shower. You wouldn't think tiles would absorb so much nicotine and tar. Or maybe it was just difficult to get off. Not nice.

Ours is a bit like that, I've even tried a steam cleaner. It's not as bad as it was when we moved in but it's not great either. As there's no money left in the pot me and the OH will just have to live with it for a while.

moneyistooshorttomention

I've had a smell problem in the house I recently bought from a (deceased) smoker.

It's been helped a lot by the fact I intended to replaster and get new floorcoverings throughout anyway and chucked the curtains virtually as soon as I moved in.

I've taken up suggestions to air and air again and that has helped a lot. I've put little dishes with bicarbonate of soda in in the worst rooms and that has helped.

One surprising thought to me was to change all the lightbulbs. I had read that these so-called eco lightbulbs can emit a bad smell anyway on the one hand. On the other hand that lightbulbs can get a "coating" of smoke. Cue for me changing every lightbulb in the place and I think that has helped too.

I got a faint whiff in the kitchen yesterday and wondered how on earth that could be, as the kitchen has even had a new floor. Ah....it's still got some of the previous owners' tiles - so maybe that's why. That thought hadn't occurred to me. If I catch a whiff again I'll give them a darn hard scrub.

Another thing I found helped was to make up some "Thieves Oil". It's an aromatherapy remedy for smelly houses and I duly mixed-up a blend of the several different aromatherapy oils they mentioned, diluted appropriately with water and put it in one of those spray bottles and have given the house a couple of good sprays of that. You can easily google for the recipe for that.

CLAPTON

kaya wrote: »

Easy peasey , you need to buy yourself an ozone generator (usually used by folk who grow their own medication indoors) . But you need to put it on a timer and go out for a few hours whilst its on, adding a fan will help blow it about a bit , the clean smell after a thunderstorm is actually ozone , unstable oxygen the clings to anything organic (like smells ) and goes pop and destroys them , you need to remain out of the room you used it in for an hour after it's turned off as well , get a real one not a £30 air fresher job from amazon and it will banish all and any smells from your home forever

do bear in mind that ozone is a poison and is harmful to health

anyone with any lung type problems should avoid coming into contact with ozone.

xylophone

Get rid of the carpets and curtains. Arrange deep clean.

And prepare properly before repainting. http://www.raymunn.co.uk/more/blog/painting-and-decorating-tips/item/38-remove-nicotine-stain

propertyman

apart from decoration any good janitorial supplier has odourkiller cleaners for this and cleaners to remove nicotine
.

I_have_spoken

I bought a house from a smoker, luckily the lounge was fitted with laminate.

Just washed down with sugar soap, installed my curtains, put down my carpet, let it properly air and left a couple of those infusers with sticks in the top about. After 3 weeks, I couldn't notice any ciggie smell.

pinkshoes

The house had those diffuser stick things in every room, but still stank!

Are you allowed to get it cleaned between exchange and completion? The house is currently empty...

moneyistooshorttomention

pinkshoes wrote: »

The house had those diffuser stick things in every room, but still stank!

Are you allowed to get it cleaned between exchange and completion? The house is currently empty...

I have my doubts, as usual advice is not to let buyers in in between exchange and completion just in case....eg there have been a few buyers who've started doing work on the house in advance of it being theirs:eek:

I guess its worth asking, as this is an instance of where its the vendors "fault" that it needs deep cleaning.

On the other hand, you could put in an offer conditional on it being deep-cleaned prior to Completion (which is what I would tend to do personally now I'm aware of scale of smell problems from smokers.

Kazza_Monkey

Our house we have bought in April this year stank to high heaven. Combination of cigarettes, dog and urine. The only solution to get rid of the smells completely was the strip the walls wash them down thoroughly with sugar soap take out any blinds curtains or anything fabric including carpet and underlay. Our 5 bed house has taken 6 weekends but doesn't stink at all anymore. It was very hard work though.