Cigarette smell

[TerrysNo2]

We've just bought a house and the previous owner was a smoker who lived here for 30 years.

We are currently gutting the place and due to the rewiring the house will be replastered throughout. there will be new floors in all rooms except we are going to try and sand down the original wooden floors in one side if the house.

Will this be enough to get rid of the small of cigarettes or is there anything else we should be thinking of or doing to the house?

thanks!

I saw a programme where Kirsty allsopp said she bought a smokers house and had to take it back to the plaster to get rid of the smell, I'm not sure how their that is though.

Will the rewire strip all the old plaster/walls or just bits for the runs of new wires?

Anything left - walls, paintwork (I am thinking doors/skirting/windowsills) would be worth washing thoroughly with strong sugar soap and rinse very thoroughly. Strip wherever you can to take to top layer (or two or three) off. Personally, I would consider sending the doors to be dipped if they are nice, if they are horrible anyway then I would replace them.

What is happening with the ceilings? If they are not being redone then they will need a good strip/wash and it may or may not be enough (depends on how porous they are).

Keep the windows open with a good draught blowing through as much as you can and it should clear, but may take a while.

Congratulations on your new project - sounds fun :-)

watching with interest. My sister is moving somewhere smokers have been. They only lived there for a couple of years and non smokers before that, but she's had to have new flooring pretty much throughout and repaint all walls/woodwork and cleaned everything and the smell is still there.

I moved in to a smoker's house but luckily it was mainly just in one room. Was pretty awful at first - no amount of open windows helped but then we painted all the downstairs rooms and ceilings and that seemed to do it.
Still haven't got round to changing the carpet in the room - even though it needs it but is on the long to-do list - but it is the buggy dumping ground study so we don't use it that much and I don't really think it smells much anymore, a year later.