How do you get rid of cigarette smoke in the house?

Darlene
by Darlene

My husband & I purchased a mobile home. Before we decide on paint colors, does anyone have a suggestion on how to rid the disgusting smell?

  5 answers
  • Gk Gk on Mar 16, 2019

    Hello Darlene. Priming and painting the walls will remove some of the cigarette smell. Wash all the walls well first with a warm water/vinegar mix. Cleaning any carpet with a steam cleaner will help or removing any carpet and replacing would be even better. I don't know what is in your mobile home for a ceiling but cleaning that will also help.

    • Darlene Darlene on Mar 17, 2019

      Thank you for replying to my question. We have cleaned all the walls & will be getting ready to paint soon. We have no carpet, so that's a plus!

  • Laura Cooper Laura Cooper on Mar 16, 2019

    The best way to remove this is to first clean and then use an ozone machine. The ozone actually destroys the smoke. A fresh coat of paint as already suggested will then freshen everything

  • Nancy Turner Nancy Turner on Mar 16, 2019

    Every surface has to be cleaned. There is probably a coating of the tar from the cigarette smoke on everything! If you paint after cleaning, use something like kilz before you apply the paint to prevent any bleed through. After cleaning anything that is fabric or carpet, spray it with vinegar after testing it to make sure it won't change the color or texture of it. The vinegar is a good deodorizer, if it gets rid of horrible cat pee smell, it will get rid of the smoke smell. Remember to do the closets, too, or your clothes will smell like smoke, also clean both sides of the closet doors real well also. I hope this helps!

    • Darlene Darlene on Mar 17, 2019

      Thank you so much for all the advice. I will be sure to try your recommendations.

  • Twyla J Boyer Twyla J Boyer on Mar 18, 2019

    There are actually additives you can add to the paint you use to scent the rooms. They will dissipate over time, of course, but one would hope that within the several months it takes for the scent to dissipate, the lingering cigarette smoke scent would go, too.


    Prep the walls well by cleaning with a grease cutter kind of product (to cut through the tar residue). Rinse well. Clean with TSP to remove any cleaner residue and rinse again. Prime with a stain blocking primer like Kilz. Then add the scent stuff to your regular paint and have at it. I haven't personally used it, but a similar product was recommended to me at Benjamin Moore a few years back and the product seems to get good reviews. Here's a link to one I found through a quick Amazon search - I'm sure there are others. https://www.amazon.com/Paint-Scentsations-103-10-Additive-Fragrance/dp/B0067NIC0E


    If you don't want to buy chemical paint scent, I have heard of people adding vanilla extract or even essential oils to their paint, but I don't know much about that, so google it before trying.