Replies

1. 
   Longhair | Jul 26, 2004 11:07am | #1

   lol fuggitaboutit

2. 
   DanT | Jul 26, 2004 12:15pm | #2

   Years of heavy smoke infiltrates everything.  Behind base boards, doors, anything porus like..........popcorn ceilings.  Alcohol based primers are the solution but done thoroughly and all at once.  If you leave a room undone the oder will still show up throught the house and again affect other areas.  Maybe not as much but it will still be there.  I have never read or even heard of the mere odor being a health risk, just a PITA to live with. 

   I have a friend who bought a home from a 30 year owner that smoked cigars heavily.  That house although very nice had some rooms with a knotty pine paneling.  It all had to come out as the smoke had gotten into the gaps in the wood and attached itself to the board underneath.  Good luck. DanT

3. 
   Sphere | Jul 26, 2004 02:47pm | #3

   Easy, start smoking. 2 weeks and ya won't even smell cat poop.

    

   Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

   Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations. 

4. 
   DANL | Jul 26, 2004 03:12pm | #4

   What the other posters said about the smoke getting into even the boards is right, but I would get rid of the popcorn ceilings--that stuff is very porous and will really hold the odor. Someone else wrote in here how to best do that, but I'd try a paint scraper and try not to tear the paper surface of the drywall under the popcorn. Then prime with Kilz or similar white pigmented (alcohol based) shellac. It's used after fires to seal in odors, so it should help here (I know you said you used it already, but I think that blasted popcorn is so bumpy it didn't really seal). 

   You might try hanging mesh bags of an odor absorbant like Zeolite (I think that's the name). There are also commercial deodorants that you spray on. Dow Chemical has something called Citrace that smells like oranges and removes things like pet odors--that may work, but it may nor because it's an enzyme that digests the odor causing compounds and I'm not sure it works on smoke.

   If all else fails, you could bring in someone who does fire restoration, but they'll probably just paint it with Kilz.

   
   

   ---

   Edited 7/26/2004 8:14 am ET by Dan

5. 
   moltenmetal | Jul 26, 2004 03:16pm | #5

   If you have forced air heat/air conditioning, see if your fan is powerful enough to permit you to use an activated carbon filter.  It will help cut down the odours, but you'll have to replace it frequently.

   As far as the health risks go, there's probably not much in the remaining material to worry about.  If you've painted the rooms, the stuff that's condensed on the walls is probably entombed in a layer of paint now, so it's less of an ingestion hazard.  Some of the worst compounds in cigarette smoke are both a significant ingestion and inhallation hazard.

   Former owners of our place were big eaters of food fried with cumin and garlic.  Even with thorough cleaning it took years for the smell to dissipate, but it did eventually.  But if you tear off a layer of construction material even today, the smell is still there- it's adsorbed right into the framing.  With little air circulation back there, there's nothing but diffusion to draw it out, so that odour may be there 20+ years from now.  So you may get a whiff of it from time to time, regardless what you do. 

6. 
   Frankie | Jul 26, 2004 04:00pm | #6

   What's the flooring situation? Did you replace the carpet with carpet or wood? Have you refinished the floors? What condition are they in? Many times when people install ww carpeting they don't seal the flooring below. Therefore the subfloor or unfinished floor has also absorbed a lot of smoke. This must be sealed. The new carpeting is now damaged. Maybe you can get someone to clean it - OFF SITE - and then reinstall.

   In order of action:

   a) If you can, install a charcoal filter in your central air system. This will help with cross contamination during renovation.

   b) Scrape all popcorn ceilings. They are incredibly porous.

   c) Prime ceilings with shellac.

   d) Skim/ patch ceiling so ceilings are smooth, or laminate with 1/4" or 3/8" GWB.

   e) Prime walls and ceilings with shellac.

   f) Sand and seal flooring. If you only have a subfloor, give it a light sanding/ screening (80 - 100 grit) to take off the top most smoke logged material and then seal. Using a laquer sealer would be appropriate.

   g) Paint.

   Note: Keep doors closed while working and after completing each room until the whole house is done.

   Sounds like a PITA, I know. The sooner you start the sooner it's done. Do it all at once or you're wasting your time and money.

   F.

7. 
   pebble | Jul 26, 2004 05:00pm | #7

   Find a Shaklee distributor in your area. Ask to try out the free 3 day trial of their Airsource 3000. If it works then your'e set, buy one. If not, then oh well, its back to the drawing board. I turn mine on whenever I smell something funny (garbage, laundry, whatever) and voila!... no more funk.

   Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK

   "If yer gonna drive fast on the highway why not go as fast as you can? Like... a hundred miles per hour or more lol."

1. 
   rez | Jul 26, 2004 05:04pm | #8

   After all the mechcanical aspects of odor removal are done add a mega amount of houseplants."sobriety is the root cause of dementia.",     rez,2004

   "Geodesics have an infinite proliferation of possible branches, at the whim of subatomic indeterminism.",Jack Williamson, The Legion of Time

8. 
   csnow | Jul 26, 2004 05:24pm | #9

   Been there.

   I'm doubting there is any health risk.

   Sounds like you have hit the big items, like ductwork, carpets, and repainting.

   It really will go away eventually.  Open the place up on nice days.

9. 
   mudlogger | Jul 26, 2004 05:45pm | #10

   I know for a fact that the hotel folks deal with this issue when they change a smoking room to a non smoking room. They use a machine that puts out a high dose of ozone for a day then open the windows. I have seen this work with incredible results. Also on a gory side, there are companies that specialize in this sort of thing when a body decomposes in a room. They use the same machines. I would talk to several hotel managers in your area and see if you can get a telephone number. Most of the cleaning services that do this sort of thing don't publicly advertise and have cryptic names like "Special Cleaning Services" etc...

   Hope this helps.

1. 
   UncleDunc | Jul 26, 2004 05:58pm | #11

   Or Google for "ozone generator".

2. 
   moltenmetal | Jul 26, 2004 07:56pm | #13

   Be VERY careful with ozone.  It's a very, very nasty gas- must be handled with great care.  Not for the DIYer, nor the faint of heart, nor for anyone who's got respiratory problems.  Think chlorine gas- that's approximately how dangerous it is.   A couple of lungfulls of the stuff when it's concentrated can lead to rapid pulmonary edema and death.  Lower concentrations give you a nasty chest pain every time you breathe in or out, lasting about an hour.  Every molecule of it you breathe does harm to your body.   Fortunately it's also very short-lived, so there's no worry about persistence beyond a day or two after the treatment. 

   But there IS risk of damage to all sorts of stuff in your house- a sort of "artificial ageing".  Anything that's made of "rubber" will be attacked, amongst other things- the degree of attack related to the duration and concentration of exposure.  As to how effective it might be with the odour components of cigarette smoke, I'll take mudlogger's word for it.  I do know it has some odour-reducing properties, though you can detect the ozone itself down to a few parts per billion with your own nose once you know what it smells like- kinda ruined the smell of "fresh air" on clothes taken in from the line for me...

   Personally, I'd take other measures rather than ozonating my house, unless it was dead empty, under reno and I wasn't living in it- and the stench was really bad.  I worked with the stuff long enough in my water treatment days to have a healthy respect for it.  I breathe as little of it as I can.  Again, professionally applied to an empty house with all the rubber goods removed, it may not be so bad.

1. 
   Sphere | Jul 26, 2004 08:34pm | #15

   ozone smeels like my old bell ranger copter, when the ele's fried. If that's what ya mean. 

   Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks

   Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations. 

10. 
    aimless | Jul 26, 2004 07:53pm | #12

    I've seen several suggestions to scrape the popcorn ceiling. Just a note that I've read on this site that popcorn ceilings often have asbestos. So if you decide to scrape, make sure you get your children out of the house and use proper abatement procedures when you scrape.

    As for the odor problem - just throw a dead fish in the house, close it up tight, and leave for vacation for 2 weeks. Your tobacco odor problem will be solved!

    Seriously, good luck with solving your odor problem.

11. 
    m2akita | Jul 26, 2004 08:09pm | #14

    Try the ozone machine.  Have a friend who swears by it.  Has his own machine, used it on a few fire damaged renovations he's done.