Just Bought House, Smokers Room

[Raitis Zile]

Hi Everyone,

Looking for 100% solution on this situation.

Customer moved in to new house painted walls etc.
After 2 weeks noticed that one of the rooms have strong smell of smokers den.
Asked me for advice on this. As I don't do these kind of jobs, only upholstery and carpets I lromised to seek advice.
Came around, yes, 100% someone has been smoking there for a while.
Smell gets stronger every week.
Customer got quote from local company to clean the room with some sort of chemical that would neutralise smoke smell, but not 100% guaranteed. Quote would be equal to 150 pounds for treatment of walls.
I suggested to change plasterboard altogether, will work out cheaper in the end. It's only 20sq/m room at the most.
Does anyone agree with me or there really is some magic solution to this that removes smell of cigarettes through painted walls from plasterboard.

Looking for replies from those that have dealt with this before.
As always, much appreciated for replies.

Ray

 

[Ian Hare]

An ozone machine will work.
Smoke penetrates every crevice and penetrates fabric, wall coverings, paintwork. Open windows every day will also help as it will dissipate over time.

 

[Ken Wainwright]

As Ian says, an ozone machine used after a thorough clean is the tried and trusted route to travel. You could also try a fogging machine, again after a thorough clean.

Something less orthodox and no guarantee.

When my son flew the nest, his room stunk of stale tobacco. As a short term problem solver, I used a plug in air freshener formulated for tobacco odours. In a closed room I left it on all day, turning it off at night (as per instructions). After about 10 days I stopped using it. Total and permanent success. May be worth a try if the customer can keep the room closed 24/7

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

 

[Raitis Zile]

An ozone machine will work.
Smoke penetrates every crevice and penetrates fabric, wall coverings, paintwork. Open windows every day will also help as it will dissipate over time.

Would this be guaranteed result Ken, say over space of certain time or immediate problem solver?

 

[Ian Hare]

It may need more than one use but yes it does work.

 

[Ian Hare]

As a footnote; never guarantee anything in this trade because nothing is certain.
If you achieve 75% to 80% in anything you undertake in this trade then you have done very well, any thing above is a bonus.

 

[Ken Wainwright]

Would this be guaranteed result Ken, say over space of certain time or immediate problem solver?

As Ian says Raitis, NOTHING is guaranteed in our industry. All we can claim is that we will carry out a treatment to the product manufacturer's specification.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

 

[Peter McDougall]

I have some experience in this. I regularly perform ozone treatment for exactly this. Both Ken and Ian are correct to never guarantee 100% removal but I'd say 99% success is possible.

If it's years and years of it I would clean the room thoroughly from ceiling to floor with a good degreaser then let everything dry thoroughly and run an ozone machine and a fan pointed at the ceiling to circulate the air for around 8 hours though it may need more if the smell is still present after a few days.

 

[Raitis Zile]

I have some experience in this. I regularly perform ozone treatment for exactly this. Both Ken and Ian are correct to never guarantee 100% removal but I'd say 99% success is possible.

If it's years and years of it I would clean the room thoroughly from ceiling to floor with a good degreaser then let everything dry thoroughly and run an ozone machine and a fan pointed at the ceiling to circulate the air for around 8 hours though it may need more if the smell is still present after a few days.

Thanks to everyone for replies. Customer now trying to find anyone in area that does Ozone treatment, very difficult to find someone reliable.
This leads me to investigate further on Ozone treatment as additional service in future. I hope my training with World of Clean in April will answer few more questions regards this.

Thanks again everyone,
Keep sharing your wisdom, together we make houses cleaner!

 

[Martin Campbell]

I have cleaned quite a few rooms like this in the past,and Riatis is correct first port of call is to clean the room top to bottom with a high alkaline cleaner like smoke away plus or prochem ultapac renovate
The odour most likely will have traveled to other areas although not visible of stain, there is no one solution as Ian and Ken have pointed out,there is also thermal fogging but rooms need to be sealed and windows open and fire department notified.
The biggest problems that I find is wood being porous the odour can not be removed and will need to be sealed in with a shellac paint , basically the more porous the material the more odour it can carry ,
And never gaurentee 100% removal

 

[Ken Wainwright]

Hi Raitis

We look forward to meeting you next month.

As such, we do not go into ozone cleaning but it is a relatively simple and straight forward task to complete. Appropriate and effective use and safety controls will be included with the machine you purchase.

I do, however, explain what ozone is and how it works because ozone is naturally occurring in the atmosphere even at ground level. This is on the upholstery course. If you are not attending this course, I can go through it with you, just remind me.

Solution have a superb product working in a similar soil spectrum to that mentioned by Martin. Nitro is our cationic Restoration product of choice https://www.worldofclean.co.uk/nitro/

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

 

[Ian Morton]

...Ozone will only be as effective as possible only after the cause of the odour (residual nicotine, tar and the associated bacteria feeding on it) is as far as is practical and reasonable completely removed from all surfaces...with my CarCleanse UK work in regularly decontaminating pre-owned dealership vehicles for Volkswagen, Audi, Jaguar Land Rover, Porsche, Nissan, etc we never gurantee 100% removal as smoking damages the fabric of a room or vehicle interior...I perform this service for dealerships and private owners every week.

Ensure the ozone generator machines with the highest output possible are used, not the toys and low output machines available from eBay or Amazon, they must be commercial grade and high output to be truly effective...I pump ozone into vehicle interiors with commercial grade ozone generators creating an output of ozone of at least at 24g per hour

 

[Raitis Zile]

...Ozone will only be as effective as possible only after the cause of the odour (residual nicotine, tar and the associated bacteria feeding on it) is as far as is practical and reasonable completely removed from all surfaces...with my CarCleanse UK work in regularly decontaminating pre-owned dealership vehicles for Volkswagen, Audi, Jaguar Land Rover, Porsche, Nissan, etc we never gurantee 100% removal as smoking damages the fabric of a room or vehicle interior...I perform this service for dealerships and private owners every week.

Ensure the ozone generator machines with the highest output possible are used, not the toys and low output machines available from eBay or Amazon, they must be commercial grade and high output to be truly effective...I pump ozone into vehicle interiors with commercial grade ozone generators creating an output of ozone of at least at 24g per hour

Very technical feedback Ian, thank you

 

[Raitis Zile]

Hi Raitis

We look forward to meeting you next month.

As such, we do not go into ozone cleaning but it is a relatively simple and straight forward task to complete. Appropriate and effective use and safety controls will be included with the machine you purchase.

I do, however, explain what ozone is and how it works because ozone is naturally occurring in the atmosphere even at ground level. This is on the upholstery course. If you are not attending this course, I can go through it with you, just remind me.

Solution have a superb product working in a similar soil spectrum to that mentioned by Martin. Nitro is our cationic Restoration product of choice https://www.worldofclean.co.uk/nitro/

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

Looking forward to see you all as well Ken. I'm on 3 day full vac pack

 

[Raitis Zile]

I have cleaned quite a few rooms like this in the past,and Riatis is correct first port of call is to clean the room top to bottom with a high alkaline cleaner like smoke away plus or prochem ultapac renovate
The odour most likely will have traveled to other areas although not visible of stain, there is no one solution as Ian and Ken have pointed out,there is also thermal fogging but rooms need to be sealed and windows open and fire department notified.
The biggest problems that I find is wood being porous the odour can not be removed and will need to be sealed in with a shellac paint , basically the more porous the material the more odour it can carry ,
And never gaurentee 100% removal

Thank you Martin, regards shellac paint - very useful to keep in mind in sealing cleaned open timber surfaces

 

[Garry Neilson]

Most sealers should work with frequently use zinnser red which is shellac but also brown which is not on both walls and wood, a decent coat of latex for the platerboard or any scrubbable paint would also work if they were cleaned properly. Use sts or bio degreaser for hard surfaces, carpets as norm. Smell may not be the walls.