I have a property that i had to evict a long time tenant from (lied about not smoking in the house).
so what is the best course of action to de-smoke my house?
i've already figured
>wash walls/ceilings with TSP
>use kilz primer and paint
>replace all carpeting
>clean HVAC system
>replace all wood (molding/doors/frames)
anything im missing?
>long time tennant
why not let them keep living there then? they seemed to be paying rent and already fucked up the place. seems like it would have been cheaper to just let them stew.
just wipe down everything enough to paint/seal over it again. why would you need to replace doors and moulding because they smoked in the house? that shit can be painted.
your HVAC system should have had a filter dingus. did you not install the right filter?
also what the hell were they smoking to make the walls that brown? ive been in houses where the tennants/owners have smoked for 20 years inside and the walls dont go that color. meth lab maybe?
>>922683
>why not let them keep living there then? they seemed to be paying rent and already fucked up the place. seems like it would have been cheaper to just let them stew.
have you ever tried to sell a house that had a prior smoker in it?
and the house isnt fucked up yet, but i'll be goddamned if im just gonna let it ride because lazy
>just wipe down everything enough to paint/seal over it again. why would you need to replace doors and moulding because they smoked in the house? that shit can be painted.
well i wanted to replace them anyway but wood soaks up nicotine like no one's business.
>your HVAC system should have had a filter dingus. did you not install the right filter?
yes. MERV 8 filters were used and provided to the tenant. but smoke permeates everything.
i hear a bit of butt-mad. I guess smoker detected.
>also what the hell were they smoking to make the walls that brown? ive been in houses where the tennants/owners have smoked for 20 years inside and the walls dont go that color. meth lab maybe?
random image pulled from web.
>>922673
My God... Those walls. They had to be smoking a absolute ton to do that.
I'm so glad I don't smoke.
Also if you ever get smoking tenants again. Require they use a air purifier rated to HVAC 13 or higher. 8 will not filter it out.
>>922673
>2015+1
>people still smoking
verified poorfags.only the shit tier downtrodden smoke these days. time to upgrade your tenant base.
>>922673
if those are the actual walls you're gonna have a hard time cleaning them. you'll need to wash the fuck out of them then prime and paint at least twice
other then the carpets and HVAC filter you should be good just let the place air out and burn a bunch of candles or some shit to get whatever smells are left
>>922763
>Being this discriminatory.
Why don't you take a seat over there.
I can tell you, JUST changing the ac filter will not remove the smoke residues from the ductwork, the vents, the blower wheel, and the evaporator coil... you will need to have that shit cleaned. it would probably be less work to replace the ac unit and the ducts
you will never get the smell out of the ac unit and the ducts. the insulation in the ducts will absorb that shit like nothing and there is no way to clean them
>>922688
Tar and other acrid byproducts of cigarette smoke created the discolorations, not nicotine, friend.
>>922770
In no way does that really matter here. His walls and floors still look and smell like crap, and all came from the same smoking stick.
>>922767
if he runs an ozone cannon in the house for a day or two with the HVAC system set to fan only to keep the air moving, it should neutralize most of the smoke in the ductwork to the point you cant smell it.
but regardless of what approach, OP will need to blast the house with ozone eventually to kill the smoke in the impossible to reach areas.
>>922763
I gotta admit, when I think of smokers, I think of retard white trash and legit niggers.
>I'm so fukkin broke cuz minimum wage is broken. Be back in a hour, gotta buy a $8 pack of camels, finished the pack I bought yesterday.
>>922835
Hmm, pretty sure all those hotels and motels that people smoked in for sometimes more than a century, just required a wash and new paint before being made "smoke free". Are you some new age hippie pushing ozone generators or something?
>>922673
Why not just let them smoke? Does it break some law or is it just your own policy?
>>922673
I was looking into a way to treat my grandparents basement for mold recently. I found an article somewhere about ozone generators. Turns out they aren't that effective for treating mold but they are supposed to work well for removing odors. According to the limited research I did at least. Might want to look into it.
As a side note, if you have a Tesla coil or know someone who does you could use that to generate ozone. It would be cheaper than buying a new device if you already had one on hand.
>>922910
>many property owners dont allow smoking inside because of how expensive the cleanup is once they move out.
Is it really that bad? Maybe it's because we have quite high ceilings but it's never been an issue in my house. If there's a barely noticeable yellowing over a decade or two, then so be it. Call it wear and tear.
>>922926
its not so much the walls yellowing since a bucket of TSP will clear that right up instantly, its the smell.
people that dont smoke and arent around it day after day can smell that shit before you get anywhere near them. so imagine a home that had a smoker.
the only way to fully 100% remove the smell is to replace all carpeting and strip and clean all the walls and ceilings, then reprimer and repaint it all.
slapping a coat of new paint on and calling it a day wont work.
the same concept applies to pet owners.
get an irresponsible owner that lets the pet shit and piss everywhere and the only way to remove the smell is to either acid wash and seal the slab or remove the affected wood decking entirely.
>>922947
>Most large hotels own an ozone generators
i used to do security for various hotels and can confirm.
if someone smoked, once the maids report back the room smells of smoke, an ozone machine is brought in and left in the room for about 6 hours (about the time when checkins begin again) unless the room isnt sold for the night the generator is left in there overnight
>>922947
It was more about the 'shit tier poor' than smoking, because yes, no-smoking is still okay to put on a lease.
>>922898
I work in hotels, switching over was a pain. We had to blast ozone for weeks
>>922673
Fellow landlord here.
>Baking soda.
>Get the kind that you put in the refrigerator.
>Put 2 boxes in the return air intake to the furnace.
>Sprinkle baking soda generously throughout the house.
>Open all windows for a day or two.
>After 3 days go vacuum the place.
Odor should be gone.
Sugar soap walls and ceilings then paint walls and ceilings.
>>922898
Ozone is what professionals use to remove odors from buildings. It's not like the hippie stuff. Deodorizing concentrations of ozone can kill a human in short order, which is why the rooms involved are evacuated for the duration.
>>922683
If people smoke like motherfuckers, you'd be amazed how sooted up their houses get. When I was younger, my friends and I were jumping off their living room couch to shake the house. I was taller and managed to put my head through their ceiling.
Hurt like a bitch, then we had to scramble to patch it up before their parents came home. Of course, spackle is white and their smoker ceiling was bullshit brown, so we had to try to clean the rest of the ceiling as well.
It was disgusting.
>>924154
This. Also, You're fucked if you want to clean the walls. Paint over it.
>>922926
your house and everything in it stinks and whether or not you smoke you stink and everyone your ever around knows it
>>924162
this a million times. had a lot of white trash tenants in Conimicut, RI. Always lied about smoking indoors, 6 months of winter and lazy motherfuckers.
this will help a LOT. Air it out like a motherfucker, just pop everything open.
Anything 'soft' like caulk will probably smell too, might have to strip and replace a lot of it depending on where they smoked.
White wine vinegar and dish soap somehow always gets the smell out of hard surfaces.
>>924154
I remember this. That shelf looks dumb.
>>922673
my grandma smoked in her house for around 30 years and an air purifier seemed to help with the smell quite a bit, that's about all i can offer up
>>922754
My dad chainsmoked cigars for about 15 years before he died. His office looked like that. I actualy forgot that the walls were white.
start using mesquite instead
Seek therapy,your clearly obsessive compulsive, and a germaphobe.
Cleaning tobacco smoke sucks bloated infected donkey balls. The smoke particles have many chemicals in them, not just soot like normal smoke, but tar, acid, and whatever the fuck else they add to them. The smoke chemically bonds to surfaces it lands on - a simple wash won't remove it.
Modify the following list depending on how bad your smoker infestation was. Mild cases can go from 1 straight to 4, and get by with a carpet shampoo instead of replacement. These instructions assume a shit case. Note, you CAN go straight to Kilzing the walls, but the paint will eventually peel if the tar is thick enough. Clean surfaces hold paint better and all that.
1. Wash everything with normal household cleaner. Fucking everything. Inside the vents as far as you can reach. Under corners of molding, inside electrical outlets, fucking everything. Throw out the carpet if there is any. Replace the hvac filter, and scrub all of the ducting you can reach, even inside the filter housing, etc. If air can get in, smoke can and did get in.
2. Scrub everything with a lot of elbow grease, to mechanically remove as much of the bonded smoke as you can. Do this at the same time as #1.
3. Chemically neutralize what's left. In places you can't reach (vents), this may be your only option. Baking soda dissolved in water and diluted vinegar (not at the same time, or they'll neutralize each other and not the chemicals in the tar) in spray bottles works wonders, or you can use commercial deoderizers.
4. Paint everything with fresh layer of Kilz, or other odor blocking primer. Then paint with the colors you want as usual.
Fuck smokers.
>>925839
>but tar, acid, and whatever the fuck else they add to them
When you hear that "cigarette smoke contains x thousand chemicals" or whatever, the implication is that those were added for nefarious purposes. As it happens, living things (such as tobacco leaves) normally contain thousands of chemicals, and burning them causes pyrolysis that mixes them up in new ways. Tar and most other contents of tobacco smoke are cooked up on the spot.
>>925846
Well, no, smoking them does.
Burning them in an abundance of oxygen produces just water and carbon dioxide.
>>925851
They still form from pyrolysis as the fuel chars. In a hot, well oxygenated fire, they go on to form most of the visible flame.
My father is some what of a slum land lord and he always uses sugar soap, seams to wash the gunk of the walls etc pretty easily.
>>925655
>rental property
>shelf looks dumb
>making a profit of $500 regardless of your opinion
Ok
>>924196
Did you get a face full of insulation?
>>926000
>$500
Gee, you make that sound like a lot of money
>>926096
>Gee, you make that sound like a lot of money
Do you even passive income, bro?
>>924239
buttmad autist detected
Multi-family facility manager here. Have the same issue with tenants smoking in our units. Unfortunately, not illegal in the state and company policy doesn't forbid it.
After trying almost everything (baking soda, vinegar, odor neutralizers, foggers, odor blocking primers, etc...) with no luck and talking to our vendors, finally found something that works. Wash the walls with Castrol Superclean (We get it from a local auto parts store). I'm not a chemist so don't know how a degreaser neutralizes smoke odors but it works.
IMPORTANT: Wash from the bottom up!!! Work around the room in approx 2-3 foot wide/tall sections. Have to work upwards because if you start at the top and it runs before you can wipe it up, it becomes a stinky gooey mess that is a royal pain to get off.
Once the walls have been thoroughly washed with the super clean, wipe with damp rags, air dry (with good ventilation if possible), and then prime/paint. Has worked well for us so hope it helps you too. Good luck!
>>926766
>how a degreaser neutralizes smoke odors
Most stinky stuff in smoke is nonpolar covalent compounds. Such chemicals are typically oily or oil-soluble. A strong degreaser could well be more effective than soap water.
>>926793
Ive actually found sugar soap to be more effective than solvol lately for cleaning engine grease off my hands if that helps.
>>926766
Can't you just charge extra for a property that lets tenants smoke?
>>926826
We can charge up to $200 for "odor elimination" but that wasn't covering the costs of pro services which is we tried the degreaser. Even with its low cost, we still barely break even once you factor in the hours of labor it takes. Wish we could go no smoking but corporate worries about "loss of revenue" and "discrimination lawsuits".
>>925836
>your
>>926826
We can charge up to $200 for "odor elimination" but that wasn't covering the costs of pro services which is we tried the degreaser. Even with its low cost, we still barely break even once you factor in the hours of labor it takes. Wish we could go no smoking but corporate worries about "loss of revenue" and "discrimination lawsuits".
>>926263
Not anon, but smoker. He's right. A handful of products help cover up the smell, but not eliminate it. Even if you smoke outside, you carry that smell back in with you. Best you can hope for is to not smoke shit tier tobacco - a Norwegian or good English pipe blend with a pleasing aromatic note, but most people are too lazy to care for and clean a pipe, and the smoke still sticks with you.
>>926793
wd-40.
What the FUCK! there's 47 posts here and nobody mentions the cheapest bestest stuff to get rid of smoke odor and stains: you get a sponge mop, dip it in water/bleach mix and do 1 pass on the walls, ceilings, floors, and any exposed wood. you're not trying to wash anything off, you just wet the surfaces and the bleach does the rest. wait 3 days then re-do if there's still a faint odor.
>>922673
You dumbass, should have just let them stay and charged them more. You have to do the same odor mitigation work, either now, or many years from now with lots more $$$ in your pocket.
All smokers should be homeless. Worthless f****** people!
