My dad died in 2017 and my step mom just sold the house last week. The house still smells like cigarettes and step mom doesn’t smoke. Almost six years and it still has that odor.

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Originally posted by RogueJSK:

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Originally posted by pedropcola:
I grew up with smoking parents.

In my experience you can kill cigarette smell by completely painting the house and removing every stitch of carpet and pad

Perhaps that would be adequate for it to smell "non-smoking" to someone who either smoked or was used to living in a smoking home...

But the cigarette smell literally pervades the entire building materials.

Ozone generator?

Well it isn't magic. If you had smokers in the house at one point and you don't do anything to get rid of the smell it will stay.

If the new owners want the smell gone they can get it gone. This isn't me consulting a Ouija board, it is experience. You guys are a bit nuts on this. It can be done, it is done on a regular basis, it doesn't cost 40k in remediation or whatever he called it.

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Originally posted by pedropcola:
It can be done, it is done on a regular basis, it doesn't cost 40k in remediation or whatever he called it.

This is what I said "I was pricing in possibly $40K for a professional smoke mitigation of that house along with new HVAC and appliances."

New HVAC and appliances, that's pushing $10K right there if you go cheap on all of the above. Smoke remediation could be as simple as paint everything, clean everything, run ozone generator or it could end up being more involved. The ducts will all smell like smoke, maybe a duct cleaning and running an air purifier with the ozone would work, maybe not. But if there is carpet, then that is carpet and pad replacement also on 1,400 sq foot. That's $4K-$10K depending if the basement is finished or not. That's not even mentioning if someone decided to pour concrete into the septic system cleanout or rip out the plumbing and wiring on the way out.

Yes, I could have breathed 3rd hand smoke and sealing paint for a week doing it myself cheaper than paying someone to do it also, but this was "pricing in" that amount, if it didn't cost that much, then that's great.

My bad. I read it wrong then. In my head you wrote 40k to get rid of the smell, which isn’t what you wrote, it is what I read in my head. Then a bunch of guys piled on and on about how smoke smell is impossible to get rid of blah blah blah. It isn’t. It’s quite doable, I’ve done it. Many times. Old houses in California that people smoked in. I apologize for misreading your comment. Of course adding in HVAC and appliances would get expensive.

Ozone generator,, called a negative ion generator also. Will kill all smells, but not healthy for humans or pets. Turn it on, let it run. Leave. Then turn off, and open all windows. A major irritant for lungs so don’t turn on while working. But they do get rid of smells.
One ex. They once/are sold by a co. Named Bioaire/Alpine. Looked like a little bookshelf speaker. They were marketed as an air cleaner and IIRC for medical purposes. The gov put a stop to that for that purpose. They do get rid of smells. I had numerous respiratory pts who bought them. Their sore throats and bronchitis almost went away completely after unplugging.
Just use them now like they’re meant to be used.

My dad used to hoard boxes and stored everything in boxes, couple that with living in the same house for 40yrs and it picked up an old house smell. Without telling my brother and I he bought an Ozone generator on Amazon and ran it nonstop in the basement for a long period of time, all while having pancreatic cancer. He and mom were getting so sick they decided to call the fire department who educated them about the risks of using that in an occupied house and not ventilating.

Still don't know why he didn't discuss it with us hefore giving it a try, worried we would say don't do it? I don't know. They told us about calling the fire department and what the fire department told them.at least.

Sometimes you have to watch your parents closer than you have to watch your kids.

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Originally posted by Sigfest:
Ozone generator,, called a negative ion generator also. Will kill all smells, but not healthy for humans or pets. Turn it on, let it run. Leave. Then turn off, and open all windows. A major irritant for lungs so don’t turn on while working. But they do get rid of smells.
One ex. They once/are sold by a co. Named Bioaire/Alpine. Looked like a little bookshelf speaker. They were marketed as an air cleaner and IIRC for medical purposes. The gov put a stop to that for that purpose. They do get rid of smells. I had numerous respiratory pts who bought them. Their sore throats and bronchitis almost went away completely after unplugging.
Just use them now like they’re meant to be used.

I use mine for about 8 minutes after cooking fish. It works great.

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Sometimes you have to watch your parents closer than you have to watch your kids.

True enough, it's amazing how things change....

Scuba Steve, Can I ask what part of the state your in?

We bought an old house in 2017 from the family of a man who had it built in 1951 and lived there his entire life until he passed at the ripe old age of 91. His wife had passed maybe 10 years prior and must have smoked like a chimney in the kitchen because the hallway ceiling was straight up BROWN from nicotine staining. She must have sat in the corner of the kitchen and the smoke went out into the hallway.

I tried scrubbing it to no avail then ended up putting on 4 coats of that nasty thick oil-based Kilz Original and then 3 coats of ceiling paint to get it all white again. When we had the kitchen gut renovated last year the ceiling there wasn't as bad but the contractor put new drywall over the old ceiling.

What's weird is the house did NOT reek of smoke whatsoever. He did not smoke so maybe that 10 years between his wife and his passing allowed it all to dissipate?

Cigarette smoke? It got nothing on this.