removing smoke smell from a house
 

Has anyone ever tried to get the smoke smell out of a house where people had been smoking indoors?

I've got a rental house and my tenants of 2.5 years are moving out. The big surprise for me is I found out they've been smoking inside (were not supposed to) and now I'll have to get rid of the smoke smell before I rent it out again.

My current plan is to wash down the walls, ceiling, and kitchen cabinets. Then if it's still around, paint over everything with Kilz and repaint over that.

Has anyone had to do this and if so, what did you do, was it successful? Is it better to hire a smoke remediation company, or are they going to do the same stuff and charge a bunch for it?

Success to me is walking into the house and not being able to tell it was smoked in. That may not be realistic though.

I'd burn it down & start over.

Open the windows.

I'm not very good with advice.

replace all carpet and re-paint all interior walls.

It really depends on the severity of it. If it is only slight, a fresh coat of paint and cleaning the carpets should be enough. If it's heavy the best way is to Kilz the walls and ceilings, then paint.

Yeah, if it's bad you'll probably need an odor sealing primer like Bug said. 2.5yrs could get bad if they were home a lot.

Forgot to mention, it's all hardwood so no carpet to worry about.

Renting to someone with no sense of smell might be a plan as well?

Along with everything else that was suggested, hire a company to do a thorough cleaning of your air ducts. Once they're done, spritz a new filter with a pleasant scent and install it.

:thumb: Even better and less expensive. As Bug say's with the Kilz and then paint.

Or just rent it to another smoker.

:thumb:

I'm hoping that once they clear all their stuff out it won't be too bad. I'm sure a lot of the smell is held in their furniture and other soft things. I don't think they smoked in their the entire 2.5 yrs either. The last time I was in the house before discovering the smoke was about a year ago and I didnt notice anything then.

10 gallons should do ya....

http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/3407/febreeze.jpg

Yeah, jokes aside I thought about that. Thing is, it seems like a lot of smokers don't actually smoke in their house.

beano.

I'm guessing with a good cleaning and a coat of paint it will be fine. The Kilz is only necessary in extreme cases, like when you can see white where the pictures were on the wall and it's Harvest Gold all around it.

At the end of the day, most people have two arms.

This was my first thought. ROFL

Show up before you show to renters

Spray a bunch of this shit
http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/h...9/DSC_0152.jpg

Have them sign the lease

Profit

Burn a aids tree and anti-freeze.

Hire a midget cleaning crew

Now theres some good advice, don't forget about the air ducts and air filter.

The ceiling should be golden brown

It's denver...

Was the not smoking in the lease? If so I would charge them for the cleaning.

...paint a faux fireplace on the wall.

Throw away or wash the curtains, if there are any.

Rent some Ozone machines, close the doors and windows, and let them run for as long as it takes.

I'm keeping the security deposit because they are breaking the lease so I have some money available for it, but I'm not going to get much more out of them. Nearly had to evict them, and getting any judgement against them would cost about as much as I'd get and be a huge pain in the ass.

I would start with cleaning the carpets and painting. See where you stand after that

Ah, that is a good suggestion. Probably should clean ducts anyway since I'm sure they didn't do anything like that on their own.

Fortunately no curtains, only the plastic mini blinds.

Rape the house with Kilz..

Take them down and wash them in the shower as well. Dust holds smoke smell.

I think everyone has covered it all.

1. Repaint everything

2. Clean ducts and change air filter

3. Throw out any furniture they left

4. Clean blinds and windows.

It should smell pretty "new" after the paint

Smoke a few bowls. Different, but better, smell.

If the mini blinds are really bad you might want to check and see what it would cost to just replace them before you waste your time trying to clean them. You should be able to find most standard sizes for around $5-7 each.

having tenants can really suck. I had straight up hoarders like on the TV show. + they smoked inside too. I'm still working on this shit.

Section 8?

Wait until one leaves you with a bunch of bedbugs. That's when the real fun begins.

I take miniblinds down to the car wash and blast them with a hand held. Gets years of dirt off.

Bring an aids infested, midget wearing only a jock strap and a clear raincoat to hold the blinds for you.

Nope, they were good tenants for a long time. Just fell on hard times back in November and couldn't keep up with the rent. It was kind of a surprise actually.

I agree, they may even be broken now after being used for 3 yrs. They were remarkably cheap when I bought them so it's not a big deal to just replace them.

I remember that thread. That sucks to deal with. I've learned a valuable lesson this time though. I'm going to check more frequently next time and collect a lot more upfront money. I think people will take better care of a place if they've already given a large deposit.

Thanks for the advice everyone, it is much appreciated!

If they are renting they will. It isn't theirs....

Also you will need to determine if the smoke permeated the hardwood floor sheen. Cigarette smoke lingers and can dull a hardwood floor and cabinetry. It will come clean but takes some elbow grease in severe cases. Did some of the in-laws house after my mother in-law quit. Floors and cabinets were coated in it. But she was a pack or two a day habit.

been there done that

LMAO

Damn that would suck

Free smallpox blankets for all delinquent tennants

This. Use a primer 1st.

Cut up a bunch of apples, clean any cloth curtains in the wash and use a bleach spray clean bottle on the walls

I used to work at SERVPRO.
They do fire and water damage "restoration", if you have one locally I would suggest checking with them.

For fire damages they scrub everything down and the use something along the lines of a scented atomizer to mask any remaining smell.
We used cinnamon for fire damages and mint for water damages. Those seemed to work best, respectively.
The "atomizer" was to get into any areas that couldn't be scrubbed.

wash the walls then wipe them down with odo ban before painting. you can rent an ozone generator, ozium is good stuff too. the only big thing that has been forgotten so far is the refrigerator coils. the dust on them will be coated in the smoke smell and then the fan spreads it to the house.

Interesting, is this kind of service priced in the hundreds of dollars or thousands? I'm likely going to pay someone to do the painting and/or Kilz sealing for me. Not sure what that's going to run, but my guess is about $500.

Kilz the walls and ceiling and repaint, place a strong odor neutralizer in an open bowl in the central air return. i don't remember what brand i used, but I can probably find out if you need me to...... or you can go to a H&A company and ask them. I flipped a house a few years ago that the lady that had lived there had smoked in for several years. Worst I have ever seen. I replaced the floor coverings as well. Fumigation is another option.

I had a unit open up a few months ago, turned out the guy was smoking in there. I clean the place up, did nothing special really. after about 3 weeks, the place didn't smell like smoke at all. the blinds are plastic and the floor is wood.

For Rent: Lovely 2 Bedroom on the lower East Side. No Pets. Children welcome and tenants without noses preferred.

Kilz

Good tenants wouldn't have been smoking in the house.

Ask them for an estimate.
When I worked there it depended on square footage. If you have several rentals, let them know, they may cut the price down in hopes of future business.
A lot of SERVPROs also offer duct cleaning. I believe most also offer carpet dying and possibly wood floor services.
If you were only looking for the atomizer services, it should be way under $500(200-250 would be my guess).
There may be additional advances(I worked there about 15 years ago).
Just make sure to let them know what you're looking for and ask them how effective they believe their work will be. The work I was doing was for actual fires. Tar and nicotine may be different, but they do know their stuff, in my opinion.

Open the windows

You could always rent to smokers and keep the tradition up.

Too bad they were not smoking the green stuff, that leaves a much better scent then cigarette smoke.

The best and only permanent way i know of is to rent an ozone machine and let it run 2-3 days inside property