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Original poster

Cleaning an ex smokers house

32 replies

Borninabarn32 · 16/10/2024 16:06

Debate with DP. If you bought a house (nice clean house) that someone heavily smoked inside and it smelled of smoke would you clean it?

Shampoo the carpets, wipe/clean the walls/ceilings kind of thing

Or would you

just open the windows and plug an air freshener in? Maybe a heavy hovering(what ever he ment by that).

YANBU I'd clean the smoke out like kim and aggy.

YABU I'd just open windows and air out and cover the smell it will be gone in no time

OP posts:
spiderlight · 16/10/2024 16:13

Honestly, I wouldn't buy it unless I was planning to completely strip it out and start again. We've been in our house for 18 years, and the previous owners, who were all non-smokers, were here for 5 years before that. In our time here, we have changed virtually all the flooring, steamed off all the wallpaper and redecorated every wall and ceiling and all the woodwork, most of it twice, I'm a fresh air fiend and have windows open daily all year round, and we still occasionally come downstairs in the morning after the windows have been shut overnight to a very faint whiff of old smoke.

cardibach · 16/10/2024 16:12

I bought one. Replaced the carpets. Washed and repainted the walls. Just airing it won’t help.

Foldondottedline · 16/10/2024 16:11

Unfortunately the chemicals in smoke may still be harmful for years as they seep into surfaces and emit toxins. It's known as "third hand smoke".

GrumpyPanda · 16/10/2024 16:11

I'd go nuclear on it, asuming we're talking decades of heavy smoking. Tear out all carpets and wallpaper, wash the walls and apply a blocking primer before paint.

BaronessBomburst · 16/10/2024 16:11

We did buy an ex-smokers house and washed down the walls etc. We eventually repainted and recarpeted but it took a while.
The smell will linger. You won't get it out by opening windows as the tar sticks to everything. The radiators changed colour when we washed them........

WiddlinDiddlin · 16/10/2024 16:08

Sugar soap the walls/ceilings, rug doctor the carpets (or replace them!), wash any curtains, wash windows, window frames... everything.

Simply opening some doors and windows and squirting some Glade around won't remove traces of a smoker from inside a house. That nicotine staining and build up needs washing off.

Msmumm · 16/10/2024 16:08

I wouldn't buy it in the first place as the smell is so hard to get rid of and it makes me feel ill.
My SIL bought a smokers house and had to knock the off the plaster and skirtings and redo the whole lot to get rid of the smell as it had seeped into everything. It was disgusting.