Musty Old Person Smell in House

Raskolnikov

Quick one, a friend has just moved into a house that used to be occupied by an elderly smoker. As such, the gaff is a bit whiffy. I suggested to the friend that it should be enough to just pull up all the old flooring and carpets, clean the walls with bleach, and simply lay down some carpet and apply a few fresh coats of paint.

Do you folks reckon this would be enough, or should we look into hiring a steam cleaner? The smell isn't overpowerfully bad, but it is bad enough to be noticed easily. Thoughts/ideas?

Scrappychimow

Raskolnikov wrote: »

Quick one, a friend has just moved into a house that used to be occupied by an elderly smoker. As such, the gaff is a bit whiffy. I suggested to the friend that it should be enough to just pull up all the old flooring and carpets, clean the walls with bleach, and simply lay down some carpet and apply a few fresh coats of paint.

Do you folks reckon this would be enough, or should we look into hiring a steam cleaner? The smell isn't overpowerfully bad, but it is bad enough to be noticed easily. Thoughts/ideas?

Your 'friend' probably smells worse.

foxinsox

Buy a few bags of onions

Cut onions in half

Leave plates of cut onions all over the gaff

Onions absorb all the stink

sorted

Raskolnikov

Scrappychimow wrote: »

Your 'friend' probably smells worse.

After hours is that way --->

Johro

foxinsox wrote: »

Buy a few bags of onions

Cut onions in half

Leave plates of cut onions all over the gaff

Onions absorb all the stink

sorted

True. That works. Also if ya have a nasty cold or flu that stops ya sleeping coz your nose is all stuffed up? Half an onion cut up, on a saucer on your bedside locker, breathing it in loosens it all up and you can breathe. Yeah your bedroom will smell of onion but you'll sleep.

1chippy

just clean everything leave the onions out. (even absorb the smell of varnish) and that should do. personally i cant stand the smell of bleach.

Ponder013

Get some sugar soap, it's odourless, and use it to wash down everything, it cleans and removes nicotine stains/smells. You can buy it in hardware stores. I like to use the powdered stuff and make my own solution of the stuff (more cost effective).

Then open all the windows and give the place a good airing, the worst culprits for holding bad smells are fabrics, so wash curtains, wipe down the soft furnishings and sprinkle bicarbonate of soda on the carpets (available in supermarkets on the baking Eisle. Sprinkle it on, leave overnight and vacuum up.

fleet

Junk the carpets
Junk all soft furnishings
Junk the curtains

Wash (sugar soap) the walls then paint in latex emulsion (no more expensive than regular).

If after taking up the carpets there is obvious "leaks" then sand and wash them too.

If you have the money then strip the kitchen bare too (grease and generations of grime).

WEAR A MASK FOR ALL OF THIS, IT'S DIRTY WORK.


When he's done you won't recognise the place.

dnme

are we talking stale cigarette smoke here? it's awful and lasts ages. Also it travels. I recently bought computer kit off a fella on adverts.ie. When the kit arrived it stank to high hell of cigarette smoke. So much so I wrote to the fella and complained. I ended up giving the kit back, could'nt stand that stink.

I'd get busy in that house. Clean everything, especially fabrics. Steam walls, ceilings and floors. New paint etc

Johro

Ponder013 wrote: »

Get some sugar soap, it's odourless, and use it to wash down everything, it cleans and removes nicotine stains/smells. You can buy it in hardware stores. I like to use the powdered stuff and make my own solution of the stuff (more cost effective).

Then open all the windows and give the place a good airing, the worst culprits for holding bad smells are fabrics, so wash curtains, wipe down the soft furnishings and sprinkle bicarbonate of soda on the carpets (available in supermarkets on the baking Eisle. Sprinkle it on, leave overnight and vacuum up.

That'll work too, yeah sugar soap's great stuff and so is bicarb, Shake'n'Vac is just bicarb with added scent.

Stoner

I've had three houses, the last owners all died in the houses, in two you could see the shape of their upper bodies in the bedroom on the walls, smokers in bed i guess.

I just dumbed all the carpets tiles etc, every thing was cleaned down with chemicals and let air and dry, lots of open windows and wet floorboards as a result, even pulled down all the ceilings in two of them. I cleaned the walls with sugar soap.

With a risk of being totally manky, the only thing that I could never get rid of was the smell of wee in the toilets, the old spongy floorboard issue :eek:. These need to be cut out and replaced, no amount of cleaning will stop the smell for more than 2 or 3 days. I've recovered all the floors via floating wooden floor and tiles, but i always scrubed the place 3 or 4 times before i recovered.

Raskolnikov

Scrubbing everything down in sugar soap and dumping just about everything that wasn't nailed down has done the trick. Awful work involved - scrubbing walls down for ages, then rinse walls, and repeat.

If you've got a gaff - make sure you ban smoking!