Removing cigarette smoke

Bob,

Cigarette smoke, pet smells, etc are very hard to get out of fabrics and rugs. They become ingrained in the fibers.
The smells get worse in humid or hot conditions. I have had to even remove wood moulding and strip wooden floors
to get rid of these smells.

If you have the extra funds, I would replace the rugs and start fresh. It will attract more renters
and not offend any people who are sensitive to smells.

Dianna

You can add regular table vinegar to your carpet cleaning solution, 2oz to a gallon of cleaning solution, open all windows and doors and let the carpet completely dry however if the tenant was a smoker for ten years replaced the carpet, tear it all out!

You could rip out the carpet or call Von Shrader in Racine Wisconsin and ask for the closest dealer. I have seen an old carpet and they cleaned it and it looked ABSOLUTELY brand new. It was fasinateing to see the difference. I would HIGHLY recommend them.

I did receive Meghans "E" mail but filed it for later attention : then of course forgot all about it.Somehow I think there is a lesson here regarding "Procrastination..UHUH!

This is a great one , it actually kills the bacteria also ,plus the smells , animals , smoke etc You can purchase this at Walgreens it is $7.00 a bottle around here.Works really well.

Ozium - Air Sanitizer, Air purifier and Air deodorizer
www.atmosphereproducts.com
Ozium Air Sanitizer, Purifier and Deodorizer is a chemical system that actually eliminates smoke and unpleasant odors and reduces airborne bacteria. Ozium comes in Metered Air Sanitizer Refills and Hand Held Aerosol cans.

Take care
Curtis Fillers
(Charlotte,NC)

Very good information, I have had to rip up carpet, underlay and bleach the wood under it and leave it for a month to dry with the window open. I'll certainly try this if I come up against the problem again.

Thanks for the comments and information. I think I will try some of the suggestions. Unfortunately new carpet is not in the budget.

On another note, the new tenant's mother has offered to pay half the bill if I get the carpet professionally cleaned. I am thinking of taking her up on that offer. I just want to make sure whoever cleans the carpet has the correct machinery and/or chemicals.

Bob

Remove carpet/padding, vaccum, then use KILZ primer on the sub-floor to seal it- -then replace padding/carpet

The odors penetrate carpet, padding and seap into the sub flooring

Old school way is to use baking soda. Make sure you have a lot, considering the length of time the smoke has been able to really set in.

Lay a heavy layer on the carpet. Allow it to sit on the carpet for at least 72 hours, the longer the better. Then with a good vacuum and replacement bags, go back in and vacuum the baking soda up. Follow it up with a good dousing of Fabreeze. This should eliminate the odor. If the odor still lingers, you can repeat the process. This technique has worked out really well for me.

Good luck!

Cory
Success Academy Coach

Great comments everyone.
Keep in mind that smoke and other smells like that will not only penetrate carpet, padding, and sub-flooring, but will also penetrate the paint on the walls. Simply putting a new coat of paint won't always do the trick either. The smell can come out through even a new coat of paint or new carpet. you have to 100% encapsulate the smell.
KILZ is a great product that is very easy to use.
Here is what I do:
Get rid of all the carpet, padding etc. Second thing is to get all the windows and stuff in the house that you don't want to get covered in paint. ie. bannisters, mantles, tile flooring etc. Then I'll get a few 5 gallon buckets of KILZ and an airless paint sprayer. (get a painting contractor if you can't do this yourself) Then put a good coat of KILZ on all the walls, ceilings, and especially floors (with pet stains) with the sprayer. This will encapsulate all the smell from the walls, floors, and ceiling. Paint is the secret holder for bad smells that people don't think about. Once you are done with this, then you can go in and paint your rooms to the desired color but the KILZ is a great primer and will keep the soaked in smell from coming out of the paint and right into your nose. It works great!

One more thing I thought about dealing with smells. If you don't like the after smell that you get when using some paints like KILZ, simply do this. Get a small bottle for a gallon of KILZ or a bigger bottle of Vanilla Extract for a 5 gallon bucket of KILZ and mix it into the bucket well. the Vanilla will neutralize the bad smell that sometimes sticks around the house while it is drying. Works just fine. hope all of this information helps.
Keep working hard.

Happy Investing

Matt W.

like the Vamoose 1808T Tobacco Odor Fabric Spray. Several Rental Car Agencies and Major Hotels are using it. It works by getting into the fabric and chemically converts the tar and nicotine into a non-volatile gaseous state. It smells strong for about an hour but after that...the odor is permanently gone.

You can get it at Amazon; there are also other cleaners that you can check out there too-read the reviews...

http://www.amazon.com/Vamoose-1808t-Fresh-Scent-32-ounce/dp/B0011VXPO0

Valerie

Hi You may want to try an air purfier with ozone, I know of a good one, you can PM me and Ill give the info or any one else here, it has done wonders for mold and other air borne problems great for many uses even for beds, Jim ( I once put one in a house where they were actually smoking at the time and a foot away from the person smoking and you couldnt even smell the order and the smoke would disappear in front of you, awesome, works good for people with allergies( sp) too)

carpet cleaning machine...I know it works amazing on stains...it's also non-toxic and bio-degradable. Maybe scrub the walls to get any nicotine off use white vinegar it deodorizes pretty well too.

Thanks for all the input. What I have done is wash all the walls and ceiling with a pine-solvent product and water. Then I re-painted all the painted surfaces.

As for the carpet, I called around to a few carpet cleaning companies and found one that guaranteed they would get the smell out as well as the dirt. The only thing they wouldn't guarantee getting out was the nicotine stains. They cleaned the carpets once but not to my standard of clean. In fact, my wife used our little Hoover machine on a spot just to see if the carpet was in fact as clean as it could be. She did a better job than the cleaning company. So I had them come back and showed them how clean the carpet could be with hot water from the tap, ordinary carpet cleaning chemical you can buy at any store, and a non-professional grade cleaning machine. They cleaned the carpeting a second time and it looks much better. Their reason was that when they cleaned the first time, it brought the deeper dirt to the surface during evaporation of the water and that is the dirt I was seeing the second time.

Bob

Thanks Bob,great info

>> Rent an Ozone machine from Lowes, Home Depot, or Taylor Rental.

>> Kilz...paint the walls/ceilings with Kilz!

PS. Smoker's candles from Wal-Mart or Cigar shop...Dollar General sells a generic Frebreeze for Smoke & Pet Odors air freshener/neutralizer...Use a mixture of equals parts of Dawn & Hydrogen peroxide (50%), diluted with 50% tap water in a spray bottle for spot cleaning heavy stains on carpet.

You can clean your carpet by Carpet rug cleaning service their service are so good and cheap also

Cigarette smoke penetrates deep down into the carpets, leaving a stale and unwelcome smell. there are many simple process to do remove it. You can find it in dissertation writing service UK