Painting over cigarette smoke in a house.?

Question

Need to clean and paint a house that smokers lived in 7 years, Help

Answer 1

As a painter, this will work:
For a real good job
1. Wipe down paint area with basic water and soap
2. Paint area with special prime "kill blocker" from Home Depot.
3. Make sure all surface is cover with "kill blocker"; wall, trim, etc.
4. Allow to dry properly.
5. Apply finish coat of paint and you are set.

Answer 2

Cigarette Painting

Answer 3

J.D. had the right idea. I used to work for a company that did only fire and water damage repair. The cleaning company we worked for, had waterless chemical sponges they used to wipe smoked walls, but even after that and on all wood surfaces we used oil based Kilz. It sealed in smoke smell and made a good base to paint over. The waterbased version of kilz sucked but it may be improved some now. But I would say use the good stuff and forget about it.

Answer 4

Get some TSP from a paint store and follow the directions on the box to make a cleaning solution. Scrub the walls and ceiling with that, then paint.

I used to be a house painter, and this works well besides being the least messy and the cheapest method I've found.

Answer 5

I've been told that there is a kind of paint that will seal in the smell of cigarette smoke. You should ask about it at the store when you go to buy paint.

Answer 6

I just cleaned an older homes walls with TSP and discovered to my great surprise that it had very old very durable paint under 40 years of nicotine I did'nt even have to paint however the water was so brown I had to change it constantly and wear gloves because my heart started palipating from nicotine absorbing into the skin of my hands Good luck

Answer 7

You will have to wash it down with a strong solvent. Ask for advice at a paints store like Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore. My painter once told me that he had to scrape layers of yellow goop off of walls in a smoker's house. Can you imagine what it must do to their lungs?

Answer 8

Clean all walls and ceilings with soap and rinse first! Then, apply a stain suppressing primer, apply paint. Do NOT try to apply latex paint over walls without the above...you will have strong burn through of the stain, coat after coat.

Answer 9

You can prep the walls with a product called KILZ.
It's used many times in even more extreme cases like home repairs after a fire.
It works great.
Paint over it when you're ready to finish the job.

Answer 10

scrub the walls down with pinesol, lysol... any household cleaner, you can use a new mophead to wash from floor to ceiling, then prep it with a coat of stain kilz, or any oil based primer will do, dutchboy has a good one too... they you will probably need 2 coats of latex paint ( depending on color & coverage) if you ahve textured ceilings... those are neigh unto impossible to wash.... you are going to have to give them 2 coats of primer & 2 coats of latex, if you have smooth ceilings or acoustic tiles, those are easy enough to paint, (you will need a brush & a tall enough ladder to reach the ceiling to fill in the gaps between tiles) if you have drop ceilings, then you can remove the tiles paint the frames, and it is really best to replace the tiles... but if that is not an option they can be painted, if they are solid (not fiberglass) paint all sides with primer first then paint. you can lie the tiles on the floor to paint them.