Awful cigarette smell

[MarasmeAbsolu]

Our new house is an ex-smokers home. They were chain smokers...
I think we can deal with most of the house (by ripping all carpets and wall paper) - however, there is one room which much have been a smoking den...
The woodwork, wallpaper, ceiling are a deep shade of tan (on what was originally cream / white - I have never seen anything like it). The stench is unbelievable, but mostly contained to this room.

So far we have...

• ripped the carpet
• stripped all wallpaper
• kept windows wide open all the time we were in (whole days)

[still stank]

• vinegar-ed and steamed-clean the windows and UPVC
• started to sugar soap the woodwork
• removed the underlay

[still stank at 5pm tonight]

just before living (we have not yet moved in, still in remedial phase) DH wacked the ceiling (plasterboard) as it became apparent that we could not scrub it clean (steamer generate deep brown droplets of nicotine-filled water).

I left old lemon peels and a big bowl of vinegar in the room when we left.

What do we do if the smell is still there tomorrow night?
Will paint "seal" it away, or is there a risk it will seep through?

We cleaned with bicarbonate of soda, wiped down with vinegar, everything you are doing... in the end we gave in and asked a plasterer for a quote.

We had the room (a back bedroom) stripped of plasterboard, stripped off all paint; washed it all down again, aired it and then had it reboarded and plastered.

oohhhh crap.
once we ve got the ceiling "off" there is nothing to remove.

Next step: sanding + acrylic seal on floorboards, and PVA + vinyl paint on walls.

the room could be an anti-tobacco public health advert

It seems to me that when you wash down with sugar soap or steam (and sponge away the brown water), the smell seems to come out as it dries, and is then much improved.

If there is wallpaper, wet it well and strip it off, wash all surfaces well. You can take radiators of to wash and paint them, and the wall behind.

Budget for replacing all plastic switches, sockets and light fittings, which are likely to be yellow and smell.

Please don't put PVA glue on any surface which you hope one day to paint.

We thought that too, PJ. Sadly in winter 1, when the heating kicked in we were forced to smoke 20 a day

We've just dealt with this in our house, oddly enough it was the stairwell/landing as well as the box bedroom that were the worst affected. I'm afraid we did have to get them both replastered - they're lovely now though!

We are dealing with this in most rooms - we've found that as you lay new flooring and paint, the smell does tend to go. We've used this and found it good for the smell as well as the stains. Smoking is just such a grim habit. We also had the brown 'tar' oozing out.
We've also burned quite a lot of these, every little helps!

ok - i m back

we re now taking the ceiling down... and have also discovered a damp patch

with the humidity these last few days, the smell as strengthened x10

GRIM

Thanks Lago - will check these out!