To think I can clean the smoke smell away?

[OnAHealthyPath]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but I've had some great advice from mumsnet in the past.

I've recently decided to quit smoking after 15 years. I'm on day 5 and doing really well so far, I'm not even craving tbh.

I have been staying at a friend's all week to help as she doesn't smoke and I think that's partly why I'm finding it fairly easy atm. I'm just smelling the smoke on my clothes and bag now and it's gross!

I'm heading back to my place this evening and I just KNOW it's going to stink of stale cigarettes. I hardly ever smoked inside my house but occasionally I would and my ex would smoke weed in the house all the time.

My friend seems to think that I'll never be able to get rid of the smell but I'm sure that with some deep cleaning, carpet cleaning, air freshners etc that it'll eventually smell like a bouquet of roses!

So, any advice? 🙏

Having bought a house from a smoker I had to sugar soap the ceiling walls and floor before repainting every where to get rid of the smell. Carpets had to be binned. Never again would I buy a house from smokers. Good luck it's going to take a long time to completely remove the smell.

In my experience, no it won’t sorry. My parents house still smells faintly of smoke ten years after my father quit.

Unfortunately you have been smoking in the house for 15 years I agree with the poster who said you will need new carpets not cleaning and to sugar soap all the surfaces before redecorating. Your furniture is also going to smell of smoke and I think that's quite difficult to get out. we had to bin all of my parents in-laws furniture after they died due to smoke although they had been living in the house for considerably longer than 15 years. We inherited a recliner which had been in their house for about five years and even now several years later and having been washed down with vinegar et cetera it still smells faintly of smoke. But there was two of them and if you weren't a very heavy smoker you may be able to go along way to removing the smells through deep cleaning, dry cleaning et cetera

My mum died 12 years ago and when I go home to see my none smoker father the house still smells like a smokers

I'd be washing all the curtains, chair cushions etc and getting carpets professionally cleaned as a start

Sugar soap all the walls and ceilings as PP says and try vinegar wipe on the soft furnishings. Maybe hire a carpet cleaner.
think how much money you’ll have now without buying cigarettes
Well done for quitting and good luck !

You can get rid of the smell but it permeates into all the surfaces so is very difficult. As a minimum you'd need to change carpet/curtains/furniture and fully redecorate - strip back to bare walls, clean them thoroughly, then replaster and paint/paper over. You'll probably still have the smell from time to time because you can't really change the bricks the house is built out of and you're unlikely to be changing the floorboards.

It's critical you don't just repaint the walls - the residue of the smoking will ooze out of them. I used to live in a houseshare which had been bought from the relatives of a long-term smoker, the bathroom had been redecorated but whenever there was any steam or condesation a brown tarry substance would come out of the walls and drip down them. You'd wipe it away, and more would come out - it never got any better.

Thanks everyone!!

Stupid question- what's sugar soap?

I didn't smoke every day in the house or even every week, it would be just very occasionally.

I kicked my ex out a couple of months ago and haven't been able to smell weed at all since then so I guess I was hoping for the same thing with cigarettes.

I'm going to hire a carpet cleaner and I will be washing all the curtains etc, not sure if I'll be able to do anything about the sofa for the time being.

Congratulations.

Sugar soap is a decorators soap used for deep cleaning and degreasing. You need to wear gloves when using it it as it’s quite harsh. You can buy it from DIY shops or online from places like Amazon. It comes in ready mixed or concentrated
forms that you dilute at home.

There is some sort of machine that uses Ozone.

It produces Ozone and that reacts with all the volatiles/tar/other crap. I hear it works well, but you need to vacate the room you use it in because the Ozone is poisonous. Look it up on the web.

Sugar soap www.amazon.co.uk/Everbuild-EVBSOAPLIQ-Sugar-Liquid-Concentrate/dp/6095026121/ref=asc_df_6095026121/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=208316538906&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15496837202794915791&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007256&hvtargid=pla-421631090631&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

I've never heard of sugar soap before but I'll be getting some now thank you all so much!!!

I've already saved £40 this week from not smoking 👍

When you hire the carpet cleaner you could try to get one with the option for an upholstery attachment and try that on your sofa if you think the fabric can take it.

Oh, and congratulations on giving up smoking. Smokers never seem to have a clue how badly they smell. I remember a colleague turning to me in amazement a couple of weeks after she had given up and a different colleague had come back from a smoking break. She asked, "Seriously, did I used to smell that bad? Why did you never tell me?!"

Sugar soap - put it on with a mop and bucket - you will be amazed and horrified at the tar that comes off the walls. Take a photo and if you feel like having a fag then look at that !

I think you'll be able to take the smell out. The trick is to remember that burnt tobacco leaves an oily residue so any cleaning products you use will need to have a degreasing action. Sugar soap is great, vinegar also works ok, especially in a soaking solution for removable fabrics like curtains and sofa covers.

I've seen videos on social media where people mop the walls of a smoker's house (someone who smoked for decades) and the brown dirty water 🤢 It will take time, money and elbow grease but you can turn it around OP. Good luck.

You need to sugar soap walls and floors. Get rid of carpets. It stinks if that's not the biggest carrot for you to not go back to it. (You know you also stank like this!)
All soft furnishings need washing use lots of fabric conditioner in it too