Few things are as unpleasant as the smell of stale cigarette smoke, especially if you aren’t a smoker. When you’re trying to sell a house where you or the previous owners were smokers, you may find the home smelling like an ashtray.
The flooring, walls, and window treatments may stink like cigarettes and show smoke stains from smoke residue.
If you’re planning to sell your home, the smoke residue could make that sale more difficult.
People who smoke can be “nose blind” to the smell of cigarette smoke, but that may not be the case for nonsmokers. Most likely, nonsmokers will walk away from a home that smells.
The brown stains of smoke residue can make a home look dirty and old, something you do not want when selling a home.
If you wonder how to get the smell of smoke out of your house, do not bother searching the internet, the answer is a resounding yes.
Even better, here we will show you how you can sell a house that smells like smoke. The odor of cigarettes and smoke residue from smoking in your house don’t have to snuff out the sale of your home.
Cleaning a house with smoke odors can make your home smell like the smoking in your house never happened. Unless you want to consider a cash offer with no repairs or cleaning, you can hire professionals or do it yourself and clean your smoky home.
How to Get Rid of Cigarette Smoke Smell in Your House
If cigarette smoke or smoke residue is making the home you’re wanting to sell smell like an ashtray, getting the smell of smoke out of your house is possible. Previous owners smoking in a house can result in smoke residue but cleaning your house thoroughly and repairing smoke damage can make the smoke residue and lingering smell disappear.
Follow these steps to get the smell of smoke out of your house for home selling success. You can sell a house fast in Texas in just a few simple steps. Follow these tips to get the smell of smoke out of your house.
Consider Professional Cleaning Services
Hiring a cleaning service to thoroughly clean your home before selling or to sweep away the smell of smoke if you’ve just bought the home where the previous owners smoked. Professional cleaning services have the tools, cleaning products that act as odor eliminators, and techniques that can leave your home fresh and erase the traces of smoking residue.
Professional cleaners can remove the smell of smoke and smoke residue through wet foggers, thermal foggers, or ozone generator shock treatments to battle the lingering smell of cigarette smoke. Of course, their cleaning expertise, products, and equipment come with a price, so add this to your home selling budget.
Remove Smoke-Stained Furniture
Cigarette smoke can leave a smoke residue that will stain fabric and leave a stale odor. If you’re a smoker and want to get the smell of smoke out of your house, one of the most effective ways is to remove smoke-stained furniture.
Putting furniture, especially soft items such as sofas and easy chairs and smoke-stained items, into storage when home selling can freshen up a house that smells like smoke.
If you don’t want to store furniture that smells like smoke, there are ways to clean furniture with smoke residue.
Scrubbing hard surfaces with solutions of warm water and white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or baking soda, spritzing on deodorizing fabric refresher, and moving furniture outside to air out are all ways to get rid of the smell of smoke in your home by cleaning furniture that has smoke residue.
Just letting furniture sit outside in the sun can help in deodorizing upholstery. The UV rays of sunlight can neutralize the smell of smoke. If you don’t want to move your upholstered furniture outside, you could remove it and have your home professionally staged or consider seeking a cash offer for your home with no realtor and no cleaning or repairs involved.
Repaint Rooms
Smoke residue from cigarette smoking can coat painted walls. Even if your home doesn’t smell like smoke, the brown-tinged walls of your home will give away the secret that previous owners were smokers. Repainting the rooms of your home will cover smoke residue and take away any scent of smoke that might be lingering in the walls.
Painting over smoke residue is a lengthy process since the walls must first be scrubbed with a degreaser to remove the nicotine stains. After the walls are clean, primer goes on next to keep stains from showing through the fresh paint.
When painting rooms with smoke residue, you will be going over every inch of the room’s walls multiple times. Often the entire interior of the home must be scrubbed and repainted to hide stains from years of cigarette smoke buildup.
Clean Rugs and Carpets Multiple Times
Another way to get the smell of smoke out of your home is to clean rugs and carpets multiple times. Carpets and the padding underneath can become saturated with cigarette smoke and smoke residue over time. Steam-cleaning carpeting and rugs multiple times will pull the stale smoke smell and smoke stains away from the flooring.
Follow the directions for the carpet cleaner you decide to buy or rent. Give your carpets time to air dry between cleaning sessions. You can also sprinkle baking soda into rugs and carpet, wait about two days, and then vacuum it up. Baking soda can be a powerful odor destroyer.
Another idea is to hire professional carpet cleaners to remove the smell of cigarette smoke and smoke residue from your rugs and carpets. If multiple cleanings are needed, you’ll need them to return. Short of removing carpets completely, repeated carpet cleaning is the only way to rid your home of that lingering smell.
Keep Windows Open Frequently
One of the most important steps in what to do if your house smells like smoke is to keep windows open to let fresh air inside. Stagnant smoke residue and the smell of cigarette smoke will be diluted by fresh air.
Investing in an air purifier can also help take the stale stench of smoke out of a room. Replacing air filters with HEPA filters on the home’s HVAC system can help in deodorizing the air, too.
Running fans indoors when your windows are open could promote air circulation indoors and move air with the smell of smoke out. You should also remove and clean or replace window treatments such as blinds and drapes that may carry the smell of smoke or stains from smoke residue.
While you’re letting the fresh air in, make sure to clean light fixtures. Wiping them with cleaning solutions or one cup of vinegar diluted with warm water should remove smoke particles and a lingering smoky smell. Placing air fresheners or essential oil diffusers throughout the home or lighting scented candles before an open house can help, too.
Can You Sell Your Smoke Smelling House?
Statistics show that the cigarette smoking of previous owners can prevent homes in Arlington, Texas, and elsewhere from selling. Nonsmokers will be turned off by the stale smell of cigarette smoke, and the smoke residue on the walls will make the home look dirty and dingy to potential buyers.
Don’t wonder how to get rid of the smell of smoke in your home when you could sell your home in Arlington, Texas as is, quickly and without a realtor. Cash home buyers in Arlington will make the home selling process painless.
We Buy Houses Fort Worth won’t require you to rid your home of the smell of cigarette smoke and smoke residue stains. Selling a house in poor condition is not only possible but easy.
The first step to sell your house as-is is to contact Four 19 Properties for a free, no-obligation consultation. You’ll meet with a real estate expert who will give you a cash offer on your home in the Arlington, Fort Worth, and Dallas, Texas areas without DIY work or paying for expensive cleaning and repairs. Your Texas home could be sold in a month or less.
In the length of time, the cleaning and repair of smoke damage will take, you can have a cash offer for your home as is. Four 19 Properties can work with you to make the home selling process quick and easy.
Conclusion
If you’re a smoker but want to sell your house in Arlington, Texas, you may have work ahead of you. Getting the smell of smoke out of your home isn’t impossible but cleaning up a smoky home can involve repainting walls, removing and cleaning upholstered furniture, cleaning carpets and rugs multiple times, and keeping windows open to let fresh air indoors.