The necessity to get rid of the smoke smell in a house may emerge due to various reasons. Maybe, you’ve quit smoking and want to remove the last evidence reminding you of the bad habit, moved into a new home previously owned/rented by a smoker or want to sell a house with a persistent smoke odor without dropping the price or watching it being stuck on the market for too long.
Unfortunately, you’ll be quite frustrated to find out that the smoke smell is probably the hardest house odor to get rid of. It sticks to windows, walls and ceilings, impregnates carpets, mattresses, couches, hardwood floors, drapes, blinds and even kitchen cabinets. You’ll scrub and wash your home from top to bottom in attempts to eliminate it. And, depending on the intensity of the odor, the amount of time your home was exposed to the influence of the cigarette smoke and the extent to which the smell ingrained in the house, you may discover that even a thorough cleaning is not enough to completely remove the smell. Sometimes hiring professional house cleaners is the only way to get the smoke smell out of the problem surfaces.
But, don’t give in to despair once you face the smoke smell issue right away. Try these tips and cleaning routines to remove it from your house. With the sufficient patience and dedication, you’ll be able to restore the freshness in your beautiful home.
7-step cleaning guide to remove smoke smell
1. If you rent the property or want to buy the house
In case if you rented the property without attending the site and found out about the smoke smell only after moving in, it’s better to talk to your landlord about the issue prior to conducting any cleaning procedures. Most likely, the provisions of your tenancy agreement include the landlord’s responsibility for handling such cases and compensating the professional cleaning expenses.
If you absolutely love the property that features the smoke smell issue and you don’t mind dealing with it after the purchase, you should estimate the clean-up costs and negotiate the price with the owner not to spend too much money on the problem house.
2. Purify the air
Now, let’s get to the actual work and remove that terrible smoke odor. The first step to take on this bumpy road is to clean the air. As expected, opening windows and airing the house out won’t solve the problem, but it will certainly make staying in the house more bearable.
The next thing that will make the air in your house a bit fresher and absorb the smoke smell is vinegar. Set the bowls with it all over the house and leave them for a day or two to do the job. Finally, rent a bunch of air purifiers or ozone machines and set them up in the rooms. They’ll collect the molecules of the smoke, clean the air out and eliminate most of the odor.
3. Clean walls and ceilings
As I’ve already mentioned, getting rid of the smoke smell in the house involves scrubbing it from top to bottom. Literally. It means that you’ll have to wash walls and ceilings with ammonia and glycol containing cleaning products, as those work best when it comes to neutralizing the smoke smell.
Beware that these chemicals are quite harsh, so be really careful while applying them and let your house air out once you’re done. Don’t use them on your own if you’re allergic to any of the aforementioned ingredients.
Check if the walls and ceilings still smell of smoke a few days after cleaning them, as the smell of cleaning product may mask the odor for a while. If you didn’t manage to neutralize the smoke smell this way, you should probably commit to hiring painting contractors and repainting your walls and ceilings. Make sure to talk to the worker at the paint shop and ask him to give you a special sealant. When applied to the surfaces prior to repainting, that product traps the smell and doesn’t let it seep through the new layer of the latex-based paint.
4. Wash windows and blinds
Clean windows, windowsills and window frames with vinegar and water solution. Soak the blinds in a bathtub filled with warm water and 1-2 cups of vinegar for 15-20 minutes. Then, scrub and wash them if you can and hang up to air dry to remove the smoke smell.
5. Remove smoke smell from wooden surfaces
Wipe down wooden surfaces using the all-purpose cleaner or homemade water and vinegar spray to remove the smoke residue. If that doesn’t eliminate the smoke smell completely, clean your wooden furniture using natural oil soap and water and bring it outside to air out. Try out other smoke smell absorbing techniques that are safe to use on wood. For instance, vinegar or baking soda bowls placed inside drawers or cabinets for a few days will absorb most of the smoke odor without leaving behind another unpleasant smell.
6. Wash everything washable
Wash everything that’s retaining the smoke smell: curtains, furniture covers, bedding, clothes, pillows and pillow cases, comforters, mattress covers, etc. You may have to bring certain items to the dry cleaners not to ruin them in the wash.
If possible, do the laundry in hot water and add a cup of vinegar per load for some extra odor-neutralizing powers. Just make sure not to soak your items in water with vinegar for too long, as it might cause fabric discoloration.
Use a dry cleaning sponge to remove the smoke smell from the surfaces and materials you can’t wash or clean otherwise. This applies to lampshades, ceiling tiles, decorations and other small interior elements you don’t want to throw away.
7. Deep clean your carpets and upholstery
Carpets and upholstery retain most of the smoke smell, and they’re the second hardest to tackle after the wooden furniture. Conventional carpet cleaning products and vacuum cleaners won’t be able to deal with the stronger smoke smells. You may use them as the first preparation step if you don’t mind the extra work.
The most effective and the fastest way to extract the smoke smell from carpets, furniture upholstery and matrasses is to get them shampooed or steam cleaned. You may either rent a steam cleaning machine and that on your own or leave a request for professional carpet/upholstery cleaning contractors on HireRush.com to entrust this part of the smoke smell removal task to the qualified cleaners our team will match you with.
Sometimes even these odor elimination techniques don’t work and homeowners need to reupholster and re-carpet. This may be quite costly, so make sure to give different cleaning methods/products/machines a shot before spending a lot of money on new stuff.
This intense cleaning guide proved itself to be quite effective at getting rid of the smoke smell in a house. It requires a lot of time and effort to complete, though. Therefore, if you’re tight on time or have smoke smell allergies, it’s better to hire a house cleaning crew to conduct a professional smoke smell elimination treatment.
Thanks for the tips, a few days ago I gathered with friends at home and some of them are heavy smokers. The smell of cigarettes left behind is not good. I will try to use vinegar because previously only use coffee placed in a small dish. Hope your tips work well