AIBU to consider buying a house from smokers?

[vivaladivagigi]

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?

@Yarboosucks

"It gets into the floorboards and the walls" - what utter tosh and poppycock! What do you think is going to happen? That aged fag smoke will seep out and get you during the night?

It may not come and get you but it's fucking disgusting.

We bought a second hand set of drawers once, beautiful old piece of furniture. When it arrived it was absolutely stinking. We kept it for many years but couldn't put a thing in it due to the smoke stench.

I would never buy a house from a (n obvious) smoker

@Yarboosucksmade me lol

OP give it a good blow out, paint, maybe plaster over. Obviously get rid of carpets, curtains etc

We did- bought a house from heavy smokers. I spent many grim hours sugar soaping down the artex ceilings with yellow water running down my arms- then we plasterboarded the ceilings and got them skimmed. Ditto the walls were all washed down then skimmed. All carpets disposed of and all fitted furniture binned. New skirting boards etc. It doesn’t smell at all- strangely enough, neither does the kitchen which wasn’t replaced. I just cleaned and re cleaned the cupboards etc . I’d say it’s doable, but you’d probably struggle to get rid of the smell without replastering.

I would only consider buying if you had the budget to gut the place to get the stench out

We had a smoking room at work, once smoking inside was banned it was changed into an office. Several years later it became my office. Whenever it was warm and the door was closed it smelt of smoke....

@Yarboosucks

"It gets into the floorboards and the walls" - what utter tosh and poppycock! What do you think is going to happen? That aged fag smoke will seep out and get you during the night?

Actually, yeah. No joke. It’s really hard to get rid of the nicotine as it will have literally infused the very frame of the house. It’s a nightmare to completely get rid of.

I had a boss who bought a smokers house. He said never again. He spent a whole winter opening the windows and threw out absolutely everything he could. Like others have said even after painting and wall papering it was still a nightmare. On top of that his dc wouldn't stay there because it's was so smelly.
That went on for months. I wouldn't necessarily say no completely but his tale certainly makes me think twice about whether or not I would bother with all the extra work.

I think you could do a coat of paint with stain block on it, then it would be ok. Chuck our carpets and existing floor coverings and replace things like curtain rails, or clean them thoroughly.

If it’s heavy indoor smoking over many years sugar soap and bleach won’t be enough, it seeps into the plaster and woodwork, so you will need to either replace both or use specialist nicotine stain removers and blockers. You will also need to remove anything exposed to smoke that can Or trap absorb odours, so carpets, shelves etc. If you’re going to completely renovate the house then it wouldn’t put me off as long as it’s reflected in the price.

Hi OP

We bought a house with a vile smell - think animals and smoke

We gutted the whole house - ripped out everything - right down to the electrics

We replastered everywhere- nothing smells now

If you have the budget to do that I would go for it

We did because we couldn't get the house size we wanted without doing all that

When my mum moved into a care home 3 years ago, she'd smoked like a chimney in her home for about 25 years (I got her onto vaping, which helped us a lot) but that's another story. We attacked the walls with sugar soap, and it took about a week just to do one room with a couple of coats of paint after we'd scrubbed and scrubbed and put new carpets in. Three years on, no one who knew my mum can detect the smell of smoke and they are amazed given what it was like. BUT it was a load of horrible work and this was just a flat, not a whole house.

I think pubs sometimes do still smell of stale smoke in certain weather conditions. My house is over 100 years old so people will certainly have smoked in it; it doesn't smell, but that's probably because the whole house was re-plastered and renovated in the decade before we bought it.

I don't think I'd buy it unless it was a total renovation project anyway. I feel similarly about cat/dog smells, but at least cat pee doesn't get into every pore of the building in the way smoke does.

I think there’s a large dose of imagination in some of these stories. A psychological effect where you’re expecting to smell smoke so you do. My mum was on 40 a day in her flat for around 10 years. Then she gave up. The rooms were painted over time but just with regular prep, no replastering or anything. She didn’t do anything different after that, than just regular cleaning and airing. The smell went and it didn’t take that long. Some of these homes sound like they were never cleaned properly and that’s the issue. When my mum smoked indoors she would regularly clean her pvc window frames, that kind of thing so they weren’t all yellow and thick with tar. It’s not totally a smoking problem, it’s also hygiene while smoking.

I wouldn't. But then I can't stand the smell of old smoke (or new smoke). You can get it out of the curtains and carpets, by replacing them. But it won't come out of the floors or walls for a long time.

Our last home was a smoker's home. I washed all the walls down myself (six months pregnant) with sugar soap twice and hired a carpet cleaner to clean the carpets. I still remember the water in the bucket being the most awful grimy yellow.

We decorated a few rooms very quickly and never noticed the smell again.

Yeah don’t do it...I never got rid of the smell of smoke from my first flat...lived there for four years and when I sold it, loads of viewers gave feedback that it smelled of smoke 😳 I’ve never smoked. I kind of got used to it but if I had been on holiday for a couple of weeks, I’d notice it as soon as I opened the door. I’m sure it was in the plaster of the walls and ceiling.

I wouldn't. Smoke damage is a real thing.

There's rooms in my house we haven't redone yet that still smell of smoke. You don't notice it for ages and then one day the smell is there again. We are redoing the house. The newly done rooms seem OK.

When we bought our current house we bought from non-smokers who’s lives there 20+ years. the ceiling was bastarding artex and when we scraped that off there was 3 layers of thick fancy embossed wallpaper up there underneath it...needless to say once we started soaking it to scrape it off, it released all the tar...seriously...I had 40 year old tar pouring down my arms...so grim!

Don’t be put off, but be prepared to work hard and spent money to get rid of the stain and smell. There is a paint called Zinsser BIN - it is expensive, but is the only thing that will cover the smell and stain and stop the stain seeping through other emulsion. We had to sugar soap every surface before painting every wall and ceiling. When were steaming off the woodchip wallpaper the nicotine was running down the walls. We had to redo the bathroom ceiling with more BIN paint because when people had a shower the steam caused the nicotine stain to seep through. Utterly gross and would put anyone off smoking, but we bought a house we could never have afforded otherwise so it was totally worth it.

My current house (rented) had a couple who were smokers before us.

I could smell it when we did the viewing but can't now that the landlord repainted and recarpeted before we move in - saying that the walls/ceilings weren't tar stained so I presume that they either weren't there very long or only smoked in the kitchen or something.

Can't honestly say that it would stop me buying a house that was perfect in every other way

I am a non smoker and very sensitive to smoke smell. Our house we bought from an old man who smoked like a chimney. We pulled up all the carpets first, then painted walls with the odour paint stuff. Several coats on celilings and walls and we didnt use the back bedroom for 6 months while it aired out as that was his main place to smoke. It definitely doesn't smell of smoke anymore. I still wish we hadn't bought it, but not because of the smoke

My flat had a smoker in it. I didn't realise how bad until we took ownership as somehow didn't notice so much when viewing . We had planned to revamp it and so took up the carpets and reskimmed then painted all the walls and painted the ceiling. There is zero smell now. The work I did was definitely all planned anyway but I did have to change the glass light fittings as they had a yellow ting to them.

New carpets and curtains. Redecorate (for which you'll be washing ceilings and stripping wallpaper before repainting) clean windows , wash down tiles, paintwork. There will be nothing left to smell of smoking.

Talk about stripping the plaster and replastring is ridiculous; you'll be sealing the old plaster with either pait or wallpaper,

The house I bought had been owned by a couple who smoked like chimneys & fried whatever they cooked, I will never forget my mum scraping layers of nicotine stained fat off the walls & floors, we went through gallons of sugar soap & boiling water, it came off in rolls, it had soaked in the stair carpet & welded it to the stairs, I spent most of the first week going to the DIY shop for more stuff to get it cleaned up, the whole kitchen had to be ripped out, the fat had seeped down the back of all the units, we had to strip everything back to bare walls, have it all boarded & skimmed, paintwork stripped as well as multiple coats of paint to cover the vivid purple paint they had used in every room & the bathroom plumbed in with offcuts of copper pipe with thousands of joints & the shower cubicle that filled up with water when the bath was draining. If you aren't desperate, run away & keep looking.