Any suggestions for removing (or at least minimizing) the residual smell from a house’s previous owner who was a cigarette smoker? The house only has one small area of carpet – most of the floors are hardwood, and no drapes or curtains were retained. Heat is forced air.
Thanks in advance.
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If it was a heavy smoker, you may be in for a lot of work. It took three applications of Krud Kutter on all the wall/ceiling/woodwork or any solid surface to remove our cigarette order. Krud Kutter was the best cleaning solvent we found, but make sure you use it BEFORE you prime and paint. You could see the tar leech from the walls with each application. We also removed all curtains, lampshades and carpet/carpet pads. Don't forget to clean light bulbs...they re-emit the order when on. Good Luck.
Jeff
It actually will dissipate by itself fairly quickly. Throw open the windows and ventilate as much as you can.
Having said that, washing helps. If there are particular rooms that are the worst or you have the most concern with (bedroom, closets, etc.) primer-sealers that are shellac based seal smoke odor very well.
Maybe a duct cleaning will help by removing the dust that may hold some of the odor.
If the home is unoccupied for the time being, this may help. http://www.odorxit.com/?order~CoGen#clo2
couple of things..
first I would use a deoderizer in every room like the glade stick up, it worked pretty good for me once..
another thing you can do is scrub the walls
or paint over everything..
That smoke is nasty stuff.
I have a customer with the problem in a condo. She stripped out all the carpet and pad-installed hardwood in all rooms, new cementboard and ceramic in the baths. Washed the walls and primed with Bins/all new paint. Woodwork, lights she kept, all windows-washed. Had duct cleaning company do their thing-vacuum and brush I believe. Installed new furnace filters.
Everything was WAY better till she turned on the AC. Stale odor (not near as bad) back.
Here's a short thread I started at Heatinghelp.com's The Wall.
Removing Cigarette Odor
This was a heavy long time smoke house. The nicotene film was everywhere (including the ductwork it seems).
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Lock cat in the room for three days.
you'll never notice the cigarette smoke again.
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Thanks to all for the suggestions. Locking the cat in the room seems the simplest...<g>
Is that what's known as the 10,000$ cat?
Nah - I'll let him have one for free
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