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?

You can spot the smokers on here! Just open the windows?!
Ffs!

My friend has just moved into a rented house that stinks of smoke. Her fil, who's a decorator, said all the paintwork will need to be sanded back to the wood and treated and repainted with a special stuff. They've already changed all the flooring.
My sister bought a car that had been owned by a smoker. She's had it properly valeted numerous times and has bi-carbed it and got air fresheners and it still hits you as soon as you get in it.

My mil and fil we’re 60 a day smokers and their house absolutely stank and everything was yellow. They stopped smoking and redecorated with new carpets& soft furnishings etc and the smell went. Within a couple of months you’d never have known.

It's pretty tough getting rid of the smell. Would never buy a house that smelled of smoke or cat pee

@CallmeAngelina
I can imagine a decorator saying that, adding this is going to cost you...and that's just for starters, then there's the roof insulation to think off and the wiring - that will all have to come out. Might be a good idea to have the old motar scraped out and the house repointed. Are those roof tiles clay? They're like bloody sponges for smoke they are, Oh slate.. thems even worse, they are.
A gardener might add... well we'll have to dig out all the top soil and have that replaced... that pond will have to drained. I'm surprised the fish aren't dead actually.

Might be okay if it's fully stripped, decorate dc carpeted etc which I'm sure you intend to. Smoke can be evil though. I moved into a private let after a smoker. It had been cleaned and painted throughout, new curtains, all my own furnishings etc. The carpet wasn't replaced but shampooed. It took weeks for the smell to go!! Vile! I don't think smokers realise how bad it is. My mother tried washing curtains that my smoker relative owned. She washed them about 8 times the they still stank so they were binned. It lingers!

Most of the people saying no are just looking for an excuse to express their disgust at the very idea of smoking Yup

I had this problem when I sold my fathers flat after his death - only 5 years of 50 a day, but it was ghastly.
I googled on getting rid of the smell, white vinegar is your friend. You just leave open bowls of it everywhere - I was worried that it would just smell like a smoky chip shop, but it did work, and I sold the flat really quickly. I think we had it painted throughout (white/smoke yellow walls), or it might just have been a deep clean - but the vinegar really did clear the smell, and the flat was carpeted throughout and I left the curtains.

[quote WhoWouldHaveThoughtThat]@CallmeAngelina
I can imagine a decorator saying that, adding this is going to cost you...and that's just for starters, then there's the roof insulation to think off and the wiring - that will all have to come out. Might be a good idea to have the old motar scraped out and the house repointed. Are those roof tiles clay? They're like bloody sponges for smoke they are, Oh slate.. thems even worse, they are.
A gardener might add... well we'll have to dig out all the top soil and have that replaced... that pond will have to drained. I'm surprised the fish aren't dead actually.[/quote]
If you read my post - it was my friend's fil who said this, and he was going to do the work for them for free, as family, so nothing in it for him.

Sugar soaping a smoker's ceiling really isn't pleasant.

Our house was owned by a chain smoking alcoholic. It smelled and looked like a pub before the smoking ban. It’s in a great location and was the biggest house we viewed in budget. It was on the market for months when houses near normally sell in days / weeks. The EA said the smell had put every single viewer off. Result for us as we put in a very low offer which the vendor snapped up. We paid for an end of tenancy type deep clean and decorated everything. It’s bloody lovely, we’ve been here 10 years.

It’s a 1930s house so I doubt very much if our vendor had been the only person to smoke in it.

@CallmeAngelina - I did read it but there was no mention of it being free...

Just to pop in and say my gloss work on doors skirting etc turns yellow from brilliant white , no one has ever smoked in this house, i bought it as a brand new build. Annoying but not always down to nicotine.

I remember it being discussed on an episode of Location Location once. Kirsty Allsop said you have to strip all the plaster right back to the bricks and start again, in every room, as the stink absorbs right into the plaster and will keep seeping out through any amount of paint or paper. I can’t abide smoke, and would never buy a smoker’s house.

YANBU - it hangs around forever! My beloved (and heavy smoking) mum passed away almost three years ago & I can still smell smoke off of some of her stored furniture. I still have her house which I rent out and it needed a lot of redecorating to get rid of the smell. I remember taking a plant from her house and having to get rid of it because it still stank of smoke after weeks!

@Babdoc

I remember it being discussed on an episode of Location Location once. Kirsty Allsop said you have to strip all the plaster right back to the bricks and start again, in every room, as the stink absorbs right into the plaster and will keep seeping out through any amount of paint or paper. I can’t abide smoke, and would never buy a smoker’s house.

This is completely unnecessary. My 100 year old house has its original horsehair plaster and I know the previous owners were smokers m, as were I expect every previous occupant given how many people used to smoke. It doesn’t smell of smoke although it did for a couple of months when we moved in in certain places like the kitchen.

As a previous poster mentioned people who are invested in house renovations ( like Kirsty) will always be heavy handed wrt what needs to be done. Mostly deep cleaning will sort it.

Oil-based gloss paints do yellow @Bubbletrouble43 and humidity/moisture exacerbates the problem. Have you tried a water based gloss paint?

@Coughsyrupsucks

A friend bought a house from an old lady that smoked a lot. He lobbed all the carpets and curtains. But everytime he tried to repaint the nicotine would come through, no matter how much scrubbing or cleaning he did. You could see the white paint turning yellow. In the end he had every wall and ceiling in the place Re-plastered and that got rid of it. Was about £500 per room, so maybe factor that in as a cost in case you need to get it done?

Nonsense. I bought a house from a chain smoker. Walls and ceilings were yellow with it. Didn’t even wash them, just painted over. No bleed through, no smell. All that needs doing was changing carpet and underlay and repainting Wallis and ceilings.

@Isitgiroday - are you certain that plant wasn't a tobacco plant?

We did but it was a house that needed extensive work.
I probably wouldn’t if I was doing minor redec works as before we bought our house (a repossession) it had been vacant for over 2 years and we could still smell the smoke

[quote WhoWouldHaveThoughtThat]@CallmeAngelina - I did read it but there was no mention of it being free...[/quote]
No, but at that point he was giving advice. So, as a family member, he would be unlikely to ham it up unnecessarily.

Our house was awful, we removed every piece of carpet, fabric, furniture, redid the kitchen, windows, doors etc and it’s not noticeable at all day to day but when we come back from holiday I always notice it again. We paid people to sugar soap the walls and the Brown water was foul. We had planned a total overhaul anyway so wasn’t a massive problem

No, I’d not buy a house that had been smoked in. It lingers everywhere.

We did. We stripped out everything back to bare floors and walls, including fitted wardrobes. All surfaces were cleaned with sugar soap before painting and one particularly bad ceiling was sealed before it was painted. The smell didn't linger. I wouldn't have been keen to take the chance if we hadn't been able to do that though, and we loved elsewhere for a few weeks while it was all done.

*lived