Cigarette Smelling House

[pilates]

Just went to view a property and it stinks off cigarettes. How easy is it to get rid of the smell?

You will never get it out the carpets and will have to repaint every wall and ceiling in my experience.

The carpets would be ripped up anyway but was thinking if you repaint the walls would the smell come through?

You can use blockers like zinsser before painting otherwise it would come through. Wash thoroughly with sugar soap first.

It's a greasy/oily residue stuck to everything so a good scrub with soapy water before you paint walls etc will work wonders. It can be done but takes effort.

My home had smokers in it for 20 years but has no trace now.

Thank you 🙏

When we stopped smoking (in a flat) it took about three months before we could no longer smell it.

We didn't have to remove the carpets or repaint, although by then perhaps our nose were beyond salvation...

A friend of mine bought a smokers house and all the walls had to be painted with a special coating eventually as the smoking residue kept coming through the paint. It was so gross!

Yeah it has put me off tbh

We bought a house that stank of cigarette smoke in summer 2025 - the previous owners had been smoking inside in the 5 years they owned it.

It had been on the market a while and they had to come down by 20k. We bought it because it was perfect location, 5 min walk from first choice school etc. We spent 5k professionally cleaning the carpets and having entire house repainted. The majority of the time you can’t smell the cigarettes now one year on, but when it’s very humid it does smell and I think that’s because we have exposed brickwork which must have absorbed so much smoke over the years.

unless the house is perfect in every other way I would advise to avoid. It’s been worth it for us though

Summer 2024* - sorry

A friend bought a smokers house and despite coating the walls, scrubbing the walls etc the smell never really went. They ended up taking all the plaster off the downstairs rooms and having it replastered, a big and unexpected job.

We bought our house nearly fifteen years ago.
We’d viewed it in the summer and all of the windows had been open.

The first night, I cried and cried because the smell was unbearable. Until every single room had been painted with Zinnser Bin primer, and every carpet replaced, the smell was there. Every bit of hard plastic…sockets, light fittings etc was yellowed.

Even now, if a room is steamy, the yellow seeps out from the plaster. I would never buy a smokers house again.

Very very hard to get rid of and not to mention expensive. It leaves a "Tar" type residue everywhere- literally even the beams in the roof will have a coat.

Pubs don't smell of smoke anymore and they used to have dozens of people smoking in them all day every day . . . .

I reckon as long as you give everything a good clean and once you've decorated and lived in there for a month it will be just fine.

One of my DC bought a house which had belonged to a pipe smoker - brown walls 😅

It was bought in need of updating so part of redecorating was painting on some stuff which either sealed it in or drew it out (I can’t remember which). That worked fine and the painted finish smelled of nothing worse than paint. The house was a bargain, probably because most people don’t want the faff of treating the walls or are simply deterred by the nicotine stains/smell.

Don't touch the house, avoid buying.
We stupidly bought a house (smelt very strongly of bleach when we viewed it, and I thought oh it must be clean).
Turns out when we was in it the smell crept back and I could even smell it on my clothes after washing, after being hung in our wardrobe.
We changed carpets and stripped the walls, new paint/wallpaper etc, still got the awful smell when you left the house for a while and came back in. It was embarrassing when we had people round & miserable.
You can't get rid of it, as It's in the ceiling & everywhere, it clings to everything.
I hope they can't sell it, to teach them a lesson not to fucking smoke in a house because it's disgusting.

I viewed a house that reeked. It put me off totally…. I stank after a 20 min viewing. DH had a house years ago that he rented to 3 smokers. It took a hell of a lot of cleaning and painting when he wanted to sell. And despite that, the smell lingered. I wouldn’t touch it.

DId you try Zinnser or one of the other specialist solutions? You are describing the state of the house DC bought minus the bleach smell and as part of the refurbishing the walls were coated and they have never had an issue.

Normal washing/paint/paper will not get rid of it, you need to use one of the wall coating solutions underneath.

My friend bought a smokers house and for years after the smell came back when it rained. I wouldn't do it

You have two good options @pilates

1. Find a car detailer with an ozone generator. They use these to get rid of smells in cars and take them back to that new smell. You will need to leave the house for a while, but that will get rid of any smells permanently.
2. Borrow my dog after he has rolled in something. This may not be your favoured option, but it will get rid of the smell of cigarettes.

Thanks everyone for sharing their experiences

No didn't try anything like that, just replaced carpet, and did the walls it was awful tho. Must have been in the ceiling as well. We managed to sell it, altho I don't know how, It was in the doors as-well.