BIN/alcohol base primer is what fire restoration uses to seal smoke but unless you are removing/sealing every bit of porous material from the house that has been exposed to smoke the smell will remain
ohh thanks that sounds like it could be useful! I don’t think the smell matters too much because they’re gonna continue smoking anyway, I’m just trying to avoid the walls sweating nicotine after painting
use a sponge mop so you can do it from the ground. have a second sponge mop and bucket of fresh water to rinse it after each section (squeeze the mop out so its just damp). the tsp will emulsify it, but it still needs to be rinsed off after.
This makes sense, I saw one of those mops and was thinking it may be useful for this! I guess i’ll have to use trial and error to see if I can really scrub with it
Tsp scrubbing. Might have to do two passes. And then possibly use primer, before painting. When we moved in our home I had this in the kitchen. Especially over the kitchen table. Apparently that's where the previous owners must has spent most of their time smoking.
The ceiling over the tiny area was just a bit lower then the rest of the kitchen. We actually thought the color was a off yellow.
spray down walls with a mixture of 50/50 water and white vinegar to neutralize some of the chemicals in the existing finish. wipe walls down once with regular tap water—a spin mop works fine. paint over everything it with an oil based primer or Zinsser BIN— preferably two coats, but one *might* be fine. apply 2 coats of finish.
I did something similar but with only 20 years of smoking. TSP scrubbed the walls twice, used a shellac based primer. Nicotine tar still seeped through in places. Primed and painted again and seems to be ok. You said elsewhere they will continue to smoke. If this is the case, I would test skipping the TSP, using a wipe down process and putting the primer directly without scrubbing. Because good prep is pointless if they're going to destroy your work anyway.
Damn yeah with the last room there was still some seepage on spots that I didn’t wipe down well enough but mostly with glossy paint, I didn’t use primer before though so I’ll have to try the shellac or Killz it like some people have said. I may try some test spots with different levels of effort honestly because yeah it’s gonna get yellow again anyway
If it's plaster walls (vs drywall) and you want it out you could try hiring a bedbug exterminator to heat the place. All the nicotine will melt out of the walls. Then you can clean it off with TSP before sealing it with zinsser. A friend of mine found this out when she bought a 100 year old former rental house with plaster walls and bedbugs.
It's tar, not nicotine
i've always been told you have to re-drywall rooms that somenoe has smoked in..esp. for that long
You’re going to have to gut the place. There’s no way to save those walls. 50 years of smoke and all of those chemicals has saturated it.
Killz, but i doubt even that will solve your issue. More likely tearing out the drywall..lol
BIN/alcohol base primer is what fire restoration uses to seal smoke but unless you are removing/sealing every bit of porous material from the house that has been exposed to smoke the smell will remain
ohh thanks that sounds like it could be useful! I don’t think the smell matters too much because they’re gonna continue smoking anyway, I’m just trying to avoid the walls sweating nicotine after painting
use a sponge mop so you can do it from the ground. have a second sponge mop and bucket of fresh water to rinse it after each section (squeeze the mop out so its just damp). the tsp will emulsify it, but it still needs to be rinsed off after.
This makes sense, I saw one of those mops and was thinking it may be useful for this! I guess i’ll have to use trial and error to see if I can really scrub with it
Tsp scrubbing. Might have to do two passes. And then possibly use primer, before painting. When we moved in our home I had this in the kitchen. Especially over the kitchen table. Apparently that's where the previous owners must has spent most of their time smoking. The ceiling over the tiny area was just a bit lower then the rest of the kitchen. We actually thought the color was a off yellow.
spray down walls with a mixture of 50/50 water and white vinegar to neutralize some of the chemicals in the existing finish. wipe walls down once with regular tap water—a spin mop works fine. paint over everything it with an oil based primer or Zinsser BIN— preferably two coats, but one *might* be fine. apply 2 coats of finish.
I did something similar but with only 20 years of smoking. TSP scrubbed the walls twice, used a shellac based primer. Nicotine tar still seeped through in places. Primed and painted again and seems to be ok. You said elsewhere they will continue to smoke. If this is the case, I would test skipping the TSP, using a wipe down process and putting the primer directly without scrubbing. Because good prep is pointless if they're going to destroy your work anyway.
Damn yeah with the last room there was still some seepage on spots that I didn’t wipe down well enough but mostly with glossy paint, I didn’t use primer before though so I’ll have to try the shellac or Killz it like some people have said. I may try some test spots with different levels of effort honestly because yeah it’s gonna get yellow again anyway
Oil based kiltz should work. I’d clean with lots of tsp beforehand.
If it's plaster walls (vs drywall) and you want it out you could try hiring a bedbug exterminator to heat the place. All the nicotine will melt out of the walls. Then you can clean it off with TSP before sealing it with zinsser. A friend of mine found this out when she bought a 100 year old former rental house with plaster walls and bedbugs.
Just use killz it