Cleaning an ex smokers house

I'd be redecorating the entire house not just cleaning it

A friend of mine bought a house like this and had to strip off the existing plaster and get all the walls replastered. They tried to deep clean it but couldn’t get rid of the strong smell.

Had this with my Fathers house when he died.
Bowls of white vinegar really get rid of the smell effectively - even the estate agent was amazed at the difference it made. Left several around while I was clearing the contents, smells were mostly gone within a week.
I may have had curtains cleaned or washed them, but definitely didn't replace carpets.

Had a buyer before the probate had come through, had to wait to exchange.

My dad was a very heavy smoker. When he died, I stripped out all the carpets, curtains etc. I had it professionally decorated - sealed and painted to stop the nicotine bleeding through, including wooden kitchen cupboards and then had it professionally cleaned. That seemed to do the job.

We bought a smokers house years ago but luckily he didn't smoke in the bedrooms - but we had to repaint the whole downstairs and as soon as we could afford it changed out the carpets - not sure windows open would have helped....

Smoke smell won't be removed with a plug in air freshener. It goes deep into walls and carpets and permeates everything.

I wouldn’t buy it.

That sounds grim. Nicotine GROWS!! And that smell with never fully go.

I’d change the carpets, paint the walls. Scrub skirt boards, throw out curtains and leave the windows open daily for weeks.

plug ins won’t do anything.

This.

I would wipe walls and skirting with sugar soap and open windows.
I wouldn’t re plaster just yet - wait and see how bad it is in a couple of months. But whatever you do, the smell could linger for years.

As a buyer I’d probably get new carpets or have them professionally cleaned, regardless of someone smoking. And the walls would likely be getting painted anyway, just because it’s nice to make the home your own when you move in.

If you bought a house (nice clean house) that someone heavily smoked inside...

A "nice clean house" which "someone heavily smoked inside"? Contradictory - if the house has been heavily smoked inside then it will need completely stripping out and redecorating. I'd prefer a house someone had died in and decomposed, to be honest.

We bought an ex smokers house but we ended up replastering the whole house, replacing all flooring and painting everywhere. I don't think just opening a window would have done it. It was all yellow and vile.

I wouldnt buy it in the first place

Personally I wouldnt buy it and when we were looking for houses we did discount properties that were clearly smokers houses

Unless you have the time and money to strip everything, I mean everything right back, that smell will linger, you cant get rid of it, skirting boards, flooring, even if laminate, paintwork, wallpaper, stair treads, window sills, coving, the list is endless

It will be a very tough job, opening a window wont be enough.

However I can smell smoke on something non porous if its been in a smokers house, plastics for example, some people wouldnt notice perhaps unless its a fabric.

We brought one like this, it stank, we knew it needed all of the work but a deep clean, stripped walls and replastered, new flooring and the smell did go, fairly quickly. Definitely within 6 months you wouldn’t have known. 3rd hand smoke aside but most houses older than 20 years will have been smoked in, a lot, previously.

Neither vote is right.

You have to get rid of all things that are material - curtains, blind, carpets.
You really also have to strip wallpaper off and redecorate.

Smoke is a bugger to get rid of.

Happened to me once .
I threw all carpets out .
Got my friends round.
We stripped all wall paper.
Washed every wall .. every bit of paint works... in fact everything.
Redecorated.
Got new carpets and flooring.
Then moved in with furniture/ beds/ clothes etc.
I wasn't having anything smell of smoke.

We didn’t buy the only smokers house we looked at. Too much work! Would definitely need at minimum a deep clean, strip out carpets, wallpaper, etc.

I'd have it professionally deep cleaned.

I dread when my next door neighbour sells for this exact reason - they are a heavy indoor smoker and have been for years, and the work involved in making that house habitable before/after it is sold will be a nightmare. The stench is so bad that I can smell it in my house the second they open their doors (I tend to keep my windows open) and her own windows are yellowed as is the entire inside of the house. The only way to deal with that is going to be to strip out almost everything (carpets, possibly woodwork like banister & skirting board), probably replaster walls and ceilings, seal & repaint them all to stop the stench seeping out, replace all the wooden window frames, and srcub and seal everything else like the kitchen units to within an inch of its life. And I wouldn't be surprised if even that doesn't do the trick. Smoke just sticks around forever, leaving windows open is going to do next to nothing.

You have to scrub and repaint.

I had to clean a grandparent’s house once. I used bottles of Flash bleach on every wall, ceiling and surface and left the windows and doors open for days.

Smokers with years of tar? Wouldn’t touch the house with a barge pole! My dad’s house reeked smoke when we have to clear it. Just moving papers felt as though I was having a cigarette. Smoke seeps into the fabric of the house, just gross 🤮

If it’s years of indoors smoking (like my grandmothers house) the walls and ceiling will be permeated with yellow stinky nicotine. I wouldn’t buy a house with that much damage in the first place. As above suggestion sugar soap, walls and ceilings, repaint, replace the carpets. Even then, it’s incredibly hard to get rid of.