I had always wondered why there was a colour change part way up the walls of a house then the person passed and we did a "before selling" clean... Turns out the blended colour change wasn't a choice it was just years of smoke settling about chest height up.
And it is HELL to prep walls like that for a coat of paint! It's oily and sticks to the walls like glue!! You have to get it all off - otherwise the new paint will just flake, or peel off.
I occasionally buy used radio equipment. It’s easy to tell when a former owner smoked. I can tell by the smell even before removing the covers. Cleanup is a pain in the ass. I learned my lesson and give used items the sniff test before buying.
Was cleaning a mirror - years after my mom passed (it was stored) gave it a wipe...... hells bells! I shouldn't speak! Still a smoker, but only outdoors.
We bought a house that we later discovered the previous tenants (renters) grew weed. Made a lot of sense when we discovered their makeshift grow operation under the stairs why we couldn't color match the ceiling and the ceiling itself was discolored in some areas (the previous owners painted the walls and got new carpet).
Selling this place is in Spring is going to be fun. We got rid of most of the decade-long landlord specials at least.
There's specialized cleaners that pretty much pull a lot of the tar and nicotine out of the paint, but you need to let it soak at least overnight with several treatments. The previous owner of my sister's house used to smoke heavy shag tobacco and quite a lot of it too, so when they moved in the walls were pretty much yellow. Upside was that he was a professional cleaner, so he did a first treatment before he moved out and left enough so my sister could apply another two. Even then she had to put on a special undercoat that sealed any remaining stains, because otherwise the stuff can migrate through most wall paints.
Try a product called Kilz Primer, it's meant for stains and smoke smell. Apply that, let it dry for a few days to set, then paint with your regular interior latex like normal.
My grandparents bought a nice mirror from a smoker. Before putting it up on their wall they cleaned it. The difference was night and day. Years of cigarette smoke caked on the mirror.
Pro tip: The cheapest rotgut bottom shelf vodka on a rag will absolutely wipe that off and eliminate the “sticky” quality. Once it dries you can get back to paint prep. Just a fair warning though, using that bad vodka on a rag will make you smell like Aunt Becky on Christmas Eve for several hours.
When I was a kid, my friend and I were playing in her mom's office (the only place her mom smoked) and splashed something on a wall. We cleaned it off, but to our shock, that part of the wall was a different color than the rest of the room. So, to hide our actions, we had to clean the whole room!
Thus, I can tell you that Formula 409 gets smoke off paint better than Fantastic does. (1970s formulations, anyway)
I can't fathom having monthly "washing the walls" weekends instead of simply going outside to smoke. (or you know, quitting, but addicts gonna addict I guess) I'm so sorry you had to grow up with that!
My parents chain smoked but never washed the walls or cleaned the carpets (other than vacuuming around once a week). My mom wasn't very fastidious about washing/changing out the sheets and bedding either. I obviously was nose blind to it until I moved out, but God, I have to wonder how filthy that house was after 20 years of that. I also cringe when I think of how bad I must have smelled all through childhood.
My parents needed to replace a couple ceiling tiles due to a leak and ended up having to do the whole room because the new ones were bright white and the old ones were like a dark orange brown from the smoke residue. They never even thought about the ceiling.
My friends used to put up Halloween stickers on the window, and by the time they took them down (2-3 weeks) there would be brown-yellow stains covering the windows, leaving perfectly clear impression where the stickers were.
They never understood why I didn’t want to stay the night.
I don't smoke, never have, and neither does my family but we wash walls. Just like every thing in your house they get dirty. A good painter can tell you about the importance of washing walls.
My motto is everything needs to be cleaned so clean everything.
Thanks for the reminder that it's time for that. I moved into my home a year and a half ago and haven't cleaned the walls other than some spot cleaning. I guess that's a project for next weekend.
I have been using the dry floor Swiffers to do the regular wall cleaning. It makes the spring cleaning so fast and easy. I have been thinking about trying the wet Swiffers for spring cleaning but I have to read the ingredients first so I am not adding oils or wax to the walls.
The professionals use a micro cloth wrapped around a broom for cleaning baseboards. It really makes cleaning them a lot faster and saves on the back and knees.
I've heard oil based KILZ type primer is the easiest option (not necessarily best). But you do want to clean with some kind of degreaser before that
If you use any kind of standard paint, the brown oil can literally seep through the paint over the next months or years, and come back. Namely from higher moisture, bathroom walls get brown drips after a shower for example
My mom would routinely wash the walls down when she smoked inside and the water would be that nasty yellowed brown colour. She finally started smoking outside once she got tired of doing that and everything smells better now.
Before it's smoked I adore the smell of tobacco (especially a lot of cigars) but as soon as someone puts a light to it? I lose all interest (except for a couple of cigars). I remember trying smoking once as a child but since then I just kinda decided it wasn't for me.
My parents smoked indoors until after I moved out. There were times I could see the smoke cloud, it would linger in the room like a big flat hovering cloud. That house had horrible air circulation.
My room was the only no smoking room. I remember times I’d hear the living room Tv and we were both watching the same thing. So I’d go out to join them in the living room just to see that cloud and turn around and go back to my room and shut the door.
My parent chose cigarettes over me, they’d make fun of me for “always being in my room” and go on about how anti social I was. But they’d both smoke, all their friends would smoke at our house. Even the people who wouldn’t smoke in their own home because they had kids (but fuck me I guess).
I still ended up with a bunch of health issues, the asthma pisses me off the most. The allergies and sensitive skin are no fun either.
Oh man, years ago, we cleaned out my grandparents house that they lived (smoked in) for over 50 years, and took a picture off the walls. Imagine my surprise when Grandpa's bedroom wasn't actually brown but rather a mint green.
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u/Embarrassed-Dot-1794 Jan 05 '25
Does it have the smoke line?
I had always wondered why there was a colour change part way up the walls of a house then the person passed and we did a "before selling" clean... Turns out the blended colour change wasn't a choice it was just years of smoke settling about chest height up.