Smoke smell on walls AFTER painting?

Question

I believe the previous tenant smoked in my mom's new apartment as it reeks terribly! I had the landlord replace all the carpet and they did repaint, but I'm guessing that they didn't clean the walls first or use a sealant like Kilz because we can still smell the smoke. Will it help to clean the walls ourselves despite the new coat of paint or should we just repaint using a sealant? Anything else we should consider deodorizing that may help?

Answer 1

Smoke permeats everything. I would give the landlord the option to do it right this time or tell him you will do it and take the $ off your rent. I am assuming you paid a cleaning deposit and if it still smells like smoke in there, it wasn't cleaned properly. Yes, you are correct, you have to wash the walls with bleach water, use KILZ and repaint. You need to use a good cleaner like Pine-Sol or Murphy's oil soap on the doors and cabinets too. That is the only way we got the smoke smell out of my mom's house when we re-did it. Good luck!

Answer 2

Us non smokers can smell the nicotine as others can't. you'd have to clean everything and seal what you can but if they were very heavy smokers it's going to take some time for it to completely go away. Seeing it's an apartment you might have to stay there until another non smoking unit comes up cause I doubt very much the land lord is going to prime/seal the whole apartment and then repaint and again you've got to do everything, if the walls are an off white I can't believe the nicotine isn't bleeding through the paint film. good luck Les the painter

Answer 3

how about the air ducts and woodwork? kitchen cabinets too, especially if they are paper lined, and exhaust fan filters. all of these can catch odors. i don't think cleaning the walls would help if the smell is under them. try the other suggestions and if it doesn't work you may have to re seal the walls with a vapor sealer primer, make sure you have really good ventilation when using it, and then re paint. good luck