AIBU to consider buying a house from smokers?

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Posting in here for traffic as keen to get a range of opinions, and maybe some advice from people who have done it.

I'm considering buying a house from an old couple. The house smells like they've smoked 50 a day in it for decades. I'd be doing work to it anyway, such as new capets, bathrooms etc. but some people have told me this won't be enough as it gets into floor boards and walls.

What do you think, AIBU?

We did this - we were gutting the house and had the whole thing replastered, still got a whiff of smoke occasionally for the next 5 years or so.

Our first house was from an ex-smoker which had been empty for some time. I think they only smoked downstairs and the house smelt, but not of the nasty 'active' smoker smell I associate with smoking (I absolutely hate the habit). There was a lot of yellowing.

The nicotine stains dripping off the ceiling when we steamed off the wallpaper were most unpleasant, BUT once done it was a good house for us for ten years.

I would expect the hassle associated with ridding the house of the stench to be reflected in the price.

Avoid unless you basically want a renovation project. My cousin did this, they never really got rid of the smell. It was genuinely unpleasant. They didn't replaster though (just sugar soap and stripping and repainting) so that probably would have helped I'm sure. However I remember discussing it with her there and she said, just kneel down and smell the floor boards (post sanding!) and it was horrible. Yes it absolutely gets into woodwork, everything.

They sold it after a few years. It had subsided a lot by then. But I wouldn't do it.

Not unreasonable at all. We bought our first house from smokers and they smoked cannabis. We ripped all the carpets up etc and the smell didn’t last long

We bought our current house from smokers (probate sale, so it obviously did them no good at all) and it did take some scrubbing to get rid of the tarry deposits and smell (And mixed with the grease in the kitchen it wasn't good) but within a month we had it scrubbed, decorated and re-carpeted and it is absolutely fine.

We certainly didn't have to replaster anything.

We also replastered to be fair so was basically like a new house

Oh and we did get the house much cheaper than the "done up and lovely ones" on the street.

You do the walls and ceilings with a sealant, after washing them down. Lots of sealant available, it is just like using emulsion and the nicotine doesn't come through, much much easier than lots of coats of emulsion and much more effective.

My last rental property had had previous occupants who smoked. The stuff seeped out of the wooden doors and the blinds whenever I cooked anything steamy. Revolting.

We bought one as a rental. Fucking hell it was a sod to get rid if. As a previous poster said, you have to gut everything. Strip all walls of any wallpaper even lining paper painted over. Even the light fittings we had to change as they had yellowed at stunk if it.

We didn't need to replanted except where needed due to coming away.

So if the intention is to gut it totally and do it at once you should be ok. If you do room by room it will just permeate through.

Pretty much every house I have ever lived in probably had 100 years of smokers living there, not to mention open fires, and I have never had an issue with lingering smoke smells. My house even has a "smoking room" (it's Victorian), which was probably well used in the past, and before we bought it was being used as a tiny boutique hotel, pre-smoking ban. It had a bar where smoking was allowed so I image there was a lot of smoke to be absorbed over the years.

It had new carpets and was repainted before we moved in, although many of the floors are original parquet/tile so they weren't replaced. There weren't any special cleaning measures. The walls were cleaned with sugar soap, as usual, but that was it.

Only if you plan to change pretty much everything. We moved into a house where a smoker had lived on the top floor. We ripped up the (fag burned) carpets and redecorated. We didn't use the bathroom in that part of the house for a couple of years. When we did we gave it a thorough clean but when it steamed up the wall tiles "bled" brown liquid🤮. It was disgusting. It did eventually stop though and there was no smell of smoke once we removed the carpets (I have the nose of a bloodhound so I am sure about this).

Painting and stripping carpets out won’t be enough.

You’ll,need to replaster and replace all internal doors and wood work. RIP up floors too.

DP tried for 2 years To get rid of smell and had to do this in the end.

I bought my first home off smokers (they’d lived in the house for 20 years). I repainted the whole house and replaced any carpets and it was completely fine.

We moved in to our house over 18 months ago and the previous occupant smoked in the attic room en-suite. We have repainted in there but not replaced the bathroom suite or tiles etc. I have scrubbed that bathroom from top to bottom many, many times and cannot get rid of the smell of cigarettes!! It's smells like stale ash and I have no idea how to get rid of it! Luckily it's just in the one room. Not sure if I could cope if all of the rooms smelled like this!

I'd buy it so long as the price reflected the amount of work that will need to be done in order to get rid of the smell

My sister did

It was vile we washed the walls down and realised there was a pattern on the wallpaper covered in nicotine!

Everything got stripped, all the light pendants needed changing it took a long time and a lot of work to finally clear the smell it gets everywhere!

This was a smokers house. The smell didn't linger for long after changing carpets and redecorating but you can't "just" paint anything. The nicoteen seeps through and all white woodwork, for example, turns yellow very quickly. We eventually solved it by using a stain block paint, designed for damp, as an undercoat but it's expensive and not particularly pleasant/easy to apply over large areas.

Oh yes, there was a stone fireplace, never did stop that smelling but it was horrible and we planned to remove it anyway.

No it's disgusting. Smokers always claim it doesn't stink/their clothes don't stink but they do. People just go along with it to be polite. It will be a nightmare to get rid of.

So how much does the smoking reduce the price? It must knock a significant % off.

Smokers always claim it doesn't stink/their clothes don't stink but they do. People just go along with it to be polite.

Very true. I can't believe smokers don't realise how unpleasant the smell is.

I wouldn’t be comfortable with it as second hand smoke lingers, but if you like the house then it’s definitely possible to get the smell and stains out. If you’re able to stay elsewhere while you air it out and re decorate then that would help a lot, but if its to move straight into I wouldn’t like it as it would then cling to your furniture and clothes.
We moved into a house that was empty, but the downstairs ceilings were brown from cigarette smoke. I scrubbed them all with sugar soap, bleached and aired the house out then gave the ceilings 3 coats of paint and you’d never guess now how gross it was.

We did, but there was a lot of work to get rid of the smells and stains. Definitely not just a case of opening the windows.

Apparently the previous owners smoked in the conservatory so in theory the rest of the house wasn't too bad. Despite trying various cleaning methods we did end up replacing all the carpets and threw out any blinds and things which had been left.

We found a steam cleaner was handy for hard floors and surfaces, and made a huge difference getting out gunk and dust from behind radiators.

We've got through a lot of stain stop on the ceiling, the first one we painted the yellow patches just kept comming back, no matter how much we sugar soaked before painting.

The conservatory however had to be pulled down, there was nothing we found that would clean it and stop it smelling, 6 months we had all the windows open.

Hi we purchased a house two years ago that belonged to a heavy smoker. The cupboards In the house still smell of smoke and weirdly when it rains my bedroom smells of smoke.
We had our hallway skimmed before moving in maybe that's helped a bit or maybe I've gone noise blind lol. It is difficult to get rid of totally but we were struggling to find a house the size we needed in our price range and this one although a bit stinky was the size and price that suited. So I would say if it the right house in other ways you can work round it new paint Carpets and loads of sugar soap xx good luck