Buying a house previously owned by a heavy smoker?

zagubov

Used to work in a college that taught an HNC in cleaning. Really specialist high-level course, covered everything including safety gear and prcodures for high danger carcinogens/radioactive waste, none of which should be done by amateurs.

JuanBallOfWimbledon

Thanks for all the help and advice - it’s all greatly appreciated! We’re feeling more confident that it’s something we can definitely deal with now. 

For the few posters who mentioned it, I understand the questions over the price, but there is absolutely nothing I can see or find that would indicate a reason for the price being so reasonable. It’s only 2 streets from where we currently live, so we’re very familiar with the area. It’s been up for sale for a while, we didn’t view initially because there were only 2 photos on Rightmove, which is usually not a great sign. We just got to a point where we thought ‘why not, we’ve viewed everything else!’, and I’m so glad we did. The agent said the smell and stained walls etc was putting people off, but I’m still surprised it’s not sold so far. As I said, we’ll be having a survey to be on the safe side. Cheers guys. 

csgohan4

+1 Zinnser, I use some of their range and you get what you pay for 

2bFrank

We bought a property that was owned by a heavy smoker. It was horrible, you could never get rid of the smell. We had to knock back the plaster to the wall, replace ceilings and new floor boards, just to get rid of the smell (we replaced the kitchen and bathroom anyways). we still get a whiff of it now and again but its a lot better now.

Hope you got a good discount OP.

JuanBallOfWimbledon

2bFrank said:

We bought a property that was owned by a heavy smoker. It was horrible, you could never get rid of the smell. We had to knock back the plaster to the wall, replace ceilings and new floor boards, just to get rid of the smell (we replaced the kitchen and bathroom anyways). we still get a whiff of it now and again but its a lot better now.

Hope you got a good discount OP.

Well, we went in really cheeky with an offer £38k (about 20%) below asking, which they rejected. Upped it another £8k and they accepted immediately. I’d say that was a decent discount?

Anyanka1

Updates when ready, please.

Ally_E.

Laura Melhuish Sprague documented renovating a house where a heavy smoker lived, that yellow walls colour is all nicotine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOSNP3kMIhA

They cleaned the walls and ceilings with special solution, used zinsser primer to seal it off and painted. It was hard work, but their house looks amazing now and no plastering unless necessary due to blown plaster or moving walls.