Would you buy a smoker's home?

[welldone]

We found a house today that is just beautiful, with lots of potential. The wood work is all original (no lead paint!) and it has enough room for all of us. Problem is, they're smokers. The place reeks of it, and the dropped kitchen ceiling is brown (though the other ceilings seem fine).

Would you buy it? Can I get the smell out? More importantly, will it be safe? We play to rip up the carpet, re-finish the hardwood floors, and paint the walls. Eventually, a new kitchen would be in order.

What do you think?

[Benji'sMom]

I wouldn't. Smoke gets EVERYWHERE. And DH is VERY sensative to second hand smoke. His mom smokes and he has to take a shower, change his clothes, and flush out his sinuses every time we visit her. It's just too much trouble. I think the smell would just linger way too long.

[AllyRae]

We did, but I didn't know anyone had smoked in it until we got here and bought it (dh went and saw the house, while I was still several states away). We hired professional cleaners and had them clean the carpet a couple times (tons of black smudge) and they scrubbed the walls. We kept the windows open and fans on for months. The walls are still a little off-white, but it's been a year and a half and we can't tell anymore.

[iamama]

I would buy it. Do the things you mentioned and get the heating/cooling system cleaned throughly.

The house my husband is remolding (he's a carpenter) was in squaler (sp?) and now you'd never know and the people who bought it are going to laugh all the way to the bank with their fat profit. Clean that house really good and I think you'll never notice.

[shelbean91]

It would depend on how sensitive you are. If it will make you SICK while cleaning and redoing to get the smell out, no, I wouldn't buy. If you just don't like the smell and can manage to live with it while redoing, then yes.

[chasmyn]

If you plan on doing those things, and also make sure and have the air ducts cleaned as suggested above, I think it will be okay. But I'd get all of it done BEFORE you move in because it's true, that smell permeates everything. And it will get in your stuff, too. It sounds like a lovely house otherwise.

[Mama2E&O]

We bought our house from a smoker, and I was worried about this too. Once we had ripped up the carpet, scrubbed, and painted the smell was gone. And I am so sensitive to cigarette smoke that I get dizzy and have migraines, so I was a good tester. . .

[mamimapster]

We did.
At the time I was an outside only smoker, and my Dp who is allergic to smoke was also Pg with our DD. I did the following, all in the four days where I was mostly staying in the new house & Dp was in the old non-smoking apartment. EVERYONE in the family who used to live in our house smoked (including the 16yr old son). The house was totally carpeted, we almost didn't buy the house because of the smoke smell/brown stains everywhere. Over the course of four days I did the following (we were on a serious shoestring budget as recent grad student/current student/soon-to-be parents).

Day 1:
1.I hired a professonal cleaning company to power wash all walls/carpets
2. opened everywindow in the house and cleaned screens/windows
3. I couldn't afford to clean vents, but took off vent covers ran a vacum attachment into them, as well as hand washing with vinegar/water solution wherever I could.
4. Had a painting party 48hours after wall cleaning in which we painted almost the entire house, and took down wallpaper/borders that the smell had permeated.

By the time we were done airing out the house, cleaning/painting/removing the tar etc. My Dp was able to comfortably live in the house and never had an allergic reaction to the smoke.

On a funny note, About a month after we moved in I realised that what I though were "light tan" tiles on a downstairs bathroom wall were actually WHITE! I was cleaning the sink and sprayed up too high and watched as the "tan" rolled off the tile. That bathroom wasn't used very by us, and I had run the vent fan for two days straight so it didn't smell funny.
Three years later, i quit smoking and have become very sensitive to the smell. I Never notice it, nor do others in my family who are also smoke sensitive.

[celrae]

Have the vent cleaning be part of your contract (condition to buy). Do the rest yourself and it should be fine. The house we bought had 3 dogs and 4 cats and I am allergic to most pet dander so, cleaning the vents helped a lot. Pets and smokers can bring down the value of a house because, people don't want to deal with the clean up, you may get a deal.

[momto l&a]

I would buy it.

When we first where married we lived in a rental which once belonged to a smoker.

Fresh paint (paint with a stain blocker first in places like the bathroom), cleaning the carpet, and just general deep cleaning make a place new again.

You would have never know the house once belonged to a smoker. It smelled frsh and clean.

I second celrae on this

Have the vent cleaning be part of your contract (condition to buy). Do the rest yourself and it should be fine.

[KoalaMommy]

You can get rid of the residue, and it sounds like you're pretty much planning to do all the things necessary to do it. I would probably do those things before I moved in though. I could never stand to live in a smoker's house before having it cleaned up.

[CarrieMF]

never, unless they had stopped smoking for several years, I knew them and knew that they had thoroughly cleaned the walls/wood instead of just covering it up with fresh paint as many people selling do. We got some stuff from my mil. Both mil and fil chainsmoked up until 3 years ago. It took so much work and a few weeks to get the buildup off of the wood. When we sprayed it ran yellow/brown and was disgusting. I cannot imagine having to do that to an entire house. Depending on how long the people lived in the house, it would be very deep into the wood.

[GalateaDunkel]

I wouldn't, unless you are getting a deal on it as a fixer-upper which is basically what you will have to treat it as in order to get it into living condition for your family. I wouldn't pay full price for a house - for anything - that the owner didn't bother to fully clean before selling! Just because the dirt comes from their bad habit doesn't make it justifiable.

[inchwormz]

Not me, but I am also really sensitive to these things. And I would be kicking myself *every* day if I could still smell it in the home long after it had been cleaned!

[Shiloh]

Buy it. Smoke oil and particles can be cleaned, but don't keep any carpets, window treatments. Be prepared to scrub, and paint and paint.

That crap can get everywhere.

But I'd buy a smoker's house vs a house with water/mold issues termintes etc as the smoke won't grow...

Hire professionals to do the harsher cleaning, it may seem 'cheaper' to do it yourself - its not its agrivating...

[welldone]

Thanks for all your comments! We're going to see the house one more time tomorrow and see how we feel. Their realtor says they can't budge much on price, and they're asking way too much for a smoker's house (that also needs new siding and kitchen updating). I'll keep ya posted. I think it might be do-able.

[juju's mom]

Our first house was a smokers house. We ripped up the carpet (which was ugly anyways) and used Kilz on the walls before we repainted. After a while you couldn't tell anymore. And we sold it last yr for so much more than we bought it for! :LOL

[makinleesmom]

The house we are living in now was home to many smokers. It was built in 1958 by my great grandpa. As far as I know everyone that lived here before us smoked. When we bought it we took out all of the flooring & scrubbed the walls & ceilings 3 times (many ounces of orange EO was used). We then went back and painted everything! No one can tell it was a smoker's house for 41 years. I say buy it but go in knowing it will take about a month of hard work before you can move in.

[chisaomom]

A friend of mine bought a condo from a smoker. She ended up having to pull up all the carpet in the house and replace the walls and ceiling in the master bedroom. Cleaning, then painting the walls in the rest of the house took care of the smell.

She has noticed when she opens an infrequently used cabinet in the kitchen it still smells like smoke, but she was going to redo the kitchen anyway.

[PapayaVagina]

I wouldn't. I lived in a duplex for 8 months that I'd been told didn't have smokers in it. Every now and then when I'd come into it, I'd get a big whiff of it and then realized that at some point (at least 5 years before that because I know the previous tenant wasn't a smoker) there'd been a smoker in there. The whole time we lived there I suffered from chronic fatigue and bad headaches. I'd never do it again. I'm really sensitive. Once when I was little we moved into a home that had a large tree over the top. Little did we know not only was I allergic to the tree but the house also had a lot of hidden mold. We lived there for nearly a year during which time I had chronic headaches, major fatigue, breathing problems, and the only sinus infections that I've ever had. My parents felt horrible once we realized what it was. It took quite a while for me to recover once we got out.