How to remove serious secondhand smoke smell?

Hoi34139610
by Hoi34139610

We inherited my father in laws house (which is built into the ground as a basement). He used it as a bar/party place for years. He smoked about 4 packs of cigarettes per day. How do I remove smell. We have scrubbed walls, removed carpeting, took out the bar, and painted with Killz.

  8 answers
  • Kathy Gunter Law Kathy Gunter Law on Sep 27, 2018

    Charcoal is supposed to be very good at removing the smell. You can buy charcoal packets that are designed for this on Amazon. I just had some come in and I'm placing in my mother-in-law's car. It has a weird smell that detailing didn't take out.


    I used to work with a woman that swore boiling an onion worked as well.

  • Unless you used a vinegar and water solution or TSP to wash the walls BEFORE painting, you will just have to wait until the odor dissipates. Charcoal, newspaper, baking soda are all things that absorb odors.



  • Sharon Sharon on Sep 27, 2018

    Contractors use Room Shocker, you can buy it at Home Depot, Lowes, and Walmart. or Amazon.... https://www.biocidesystems.com

  • OceeB OceeB on Sep 27, 2018

    Did you also clean your ceilings and repaint. Try the products listed above and then paint. I feel your pain as have some items that wrapped up with dryer sheets in plastic to tone the smoke smell down until I can get to the point that I am ready to face scrubbing them

  • OceeB OceeB on Sep 28, 2018

    Am thinking it could be part. Talk to someone at Lowe’s, Home Depot about what you could spray there. Maybe google natural odor remover to use. Good luck!

  • Beth Beth on Sep 29, 2018

    If the ceiling is unfinished, you need to sand it. I had a decorating business, and I refused to paint smokers' homes. You could take a paint scraper/5-in-1 tool and scrape down the wall of their homes, and have a gold-ish sticky substance roll up on it. That was the tar/nicotine from years of smoking that had accumulated on the walls. Not visible to the eye, but if you scraped down the wall, you could remove it. I bet the ceiling is covered in it.


    I knew a man who sold his barbershop after 30-some years. When he pulled up the chairs (selling them), the posts were hollow, and filled with the same sticky substance! Over 30 years of smoking in that barbershop, and the smoke had managed to get into the steel posts that held the chairs! Imagine what smokers' lungs must look like!

  • Johnavallance82 Johnavallance82 on May 01, 2021

    Hi,

    Sounds as if the Smoke has gone into the fabric of the building. Maybe you should consider having it Tanked?'

  • Deb K Deb K on Sep 12, 2021

    Hello, you can get an ozone fog to get rid of the smell