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Cigarette smoke removal

Darren Wright

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
Spent the day washing down cabinets and walls of the kitchen and dining room. I need to work on an automated solution, maybe just buy a carpet cleaning system I can use on walls, as well as, ceilings.

This particular spot he spent much of his time, but the central air system made sure it made it into every room.
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I’m using a mix of ammonia and dawn, about 1/4 cup ammonia, 1 tsp dawn, 31 oz or so of hot water in a hand held garden pump sprayer. Also wiping down with microfiber towels and clean warm water, which I’m having to dump and change every 4’ of wall space. :(

I will still need to put down some mats and spray and wipe the ceilings down, will be removing carpets soon, which will serve as the mats in most rooms.

For much of the kitchen cabinets I was having to really work to remove a layer of grease from cooking oil or skin oil build up. I eventually tried some easy off stove spray and found it removed it with a simple spray and wipe down ,but may do damage if left too long to the cabinet finish.
 
45 years ago I was buying, and reconditioning juke boxes and other amusement vending machines, many of which had spent most of their early lives in bars and similar places where the air was heavily laden with tobacco smoke and grease from cooking. I was buying gallons of a concentrated version of "409" or "Fantastic" spray cleaners and cases of paper towels to clean them and their parts after dis-assembly. At the time, very little worked well for this cleaning job. Go to a refrigeration parts supplier and ask for "Refrigeration Coil Cleaner". about 10-15% in water worked quite well, but the heavy cooking grease is likely best handled the way that you are already doing it. If you aren't using gloves for this cleaning, you had better. The cleaners are hard on skin and the nicotine and tar from the smoke residue will stain your hands. Always wear safety glasses and a face shield when doing this too. You don't want any of this getting into your eyes.

There were a couple of juke boxes that I gave up on, and just used parts from them to fix other similar models. This was the nastiest part of the job, and nobody would buy a juke box or other machine for their home game room if they smelled like tobacco smoke, so they had to be clean. The games were changed out often to keep players interest up, but juke boxes could stay in the same place for 20 + years.

Charley
 
I don't know a darn thing about how to remove cigarette smoke but let me tell you a little story I learned watching Mysteries at the Museum.

Wallpaper back in the olden days was not washable. People burned coal oil lamps and coal in their fireplaces. The smoke would leave a sooty residue on everything in the house including, of course, the wall paper.

This man whose name I have forgotten invented a product that was like bread dough that could be rolled across the wall paper and it picked up the soot and smoke stains. Well, when fewer and fewer people used coal the product sales dropped. The company still had this product and tried to find a new market for it. They colored the dough and sold it as a kids toy which we all know today as Play-Doh. And I imagine most of us have at one time or another used it to lift the images from the funny papers in the newspaper which mimics its original purpose.
 
We've got a duct cleaning service coming in the morning. They will clean all the ducts and spray them with a neutralizer that should help. He does a flat rate of $500 for the service, and cleans the dryer duct as well.

I think once the carpets are removed and we finish cleaning walls and ceilings we'll notice a big difference. My allergies were really bad until we vacuumed everything. Getting through most of the days here now without feeling like my head is clogged.

We've got most of the old clothing either washed or bagged up for donations. I've got a few weeks of trash bagged up and staged in the garage to go out weekly or until we decide to tackle the carpet and get a dumpster. Most likely I'll finish washing down the ceilings and walls, and possibly kilz before removing the carpet, just to help with clean-up.

Also have a corner of the garage that we're piling up boxes of things for garage sale or donations.

Both the beds had new(ish) tempur-pedic mattresses, which had removable and washable zipped-on tops, and also had mattress covers on them, so we'll be keeping the mattresses. I do prefer my sleepnumber bed though, just sayin. ;)

I need to find some matching trim, or remove a couple of trim pieces, to take flooring shopping. The golden oak wainscoting in the living room and wood trim and doors throughout will stay stained, not painting them.
 
When burned houses are being rebuilt, the smoke smell is quite hard to get rid of. What you are doing already is about what gets done, but building the structure that is lightly charred and not going to be replaced, like the under side of flooring, etc. is usually sprayed with a thinned coat of poly to seal it. If not treated with some kind of sealer, a damp day can cause slight odors of house fire in the structure after the building has been restored, even if covered over with new drywall. If your problem is this severe, you might want to consider spraying any areas of the building structure that were exposed to this tobacco smoke in a similar way. This is about the best solution to stop this odor (if you can't clean it, seal it in). A new pump garden sprayer set to spray a fine mist has been the applicator that I've seen in use. It's likely trashed at the end of the job.

Charley
 
Years back when dad had his gas station, he used whitewall cleaner. Sprayed it on the dash, ceilings of pickups and hose it out! Man that stuff would run down in brown/black streaks. I know it is stupid, I know it is cancer causing, if I weren't so stingy, after the age of 90 I would start smoking again in a heartbeat. But the price of tobacco!!!!!! WOW!!
 
Jonathan Shively said:
Years back when dad had his gas station, he used whitewall cleaner. Sprayed it on the dash, ceilings of pickups and hose it out! Man that stuff would run down in brown/black streaks. I know it is stupid, I know it is cancer causing, if I weren't so stingy, after the age of 90 I would start smoking again in a heartbeat. But the price of tobacco!!!!!! WOW!!
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I happened to be behind a young man who was paying for his purchases at a convenience store. He placed those items on the counter and asked for two packs of Kools. He said, "How much are they?" The response was $12.99 per pack.

You gotta be kidding me. I had no idea that cigarettes were that expensive. People who are still smoking have to be crazy. When I was a kid my father smoked. For Christmas I always bought him a carton of Chesterfields which was his brand. I don't think I ever paid more than $2 for a carton.

I am way too cheap to pay $12.99 for a pack of cigarettes.
 
Mike Stafford said:
I am way too cheap to pay $12.99 for a pack of cigarettes.
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I stopped smoking 20 years ago and one of the things that go me to stop was how expensive it was getting back then I think then it was $3 and something a pack. When I was in the Navy and we went out to sea we could by sea store cigarettes for $1.00 per carton.
 
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Don Baer said:
I stopped smoking 20 years ago and one of the things that go me to stop was how expensive it was getting back then I think then it was $3 and something a pack. When I was in the Navy and we went out to sea we could by sea store cigarettes for $1.00 a carton
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I was stationed at Cherry Point, NC in '67. Cigarettes were $2.00 PER CARTON(!) at the PX.
They'd only let you buy two cartons at a time, since some Marines were blackmarketing them out in town, or even mailing them home to other states.
 
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Jim DeLaney said:
I was stationed at Cherry Point, NC in '67. Cigarettes were $2.00 PER CARTON(!) at the PX.
They'd only let you buy two cartons at a time, since some Marines were blackmarketing them out in town, or even mailing them home to other states.
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Yeah, buying cheaply taxed cigarettes in N.C. and selling them in states with a much higher tax has long been a lucrative criminal enterprise.

I remember one instance of a guy who was hauling hundreds of cartons of cigarettes inside a stack of boards on the back of a flat bed. He was hauling them to New York and it was reported that he made $10K per trip. I wonder how they caught him.

If cigarettes are $12 a pack here what are they in NYC?
 
Mike Stafford said:
...If cigarettes are $12 a pack here what are they in NYC?
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According to Google:

A pack of cigarettes in New York, as of late 2025, averages approximately $14.55, making it the most expensive state in the U.S.. Prices often exceed $15 in New York City due to high taxes, with a combined state excise tax of $5.35 per pack.​

That's simply nuts. :rolleyes:
 
I quit drinking in 86 so I could quit smoking in 87 most I paid then was $1.50 at a vending machine. I smoked 3 to 4 packs of cools per day back then. That would be a $39 to $52 per day habit now. :doh:I'm with Jonathan and if not for cost start again in my 90s. I liked to smoke and the only reason I quit was because they were going to ban smoking in the shop and I knew if I didn't quit I would lose my job....... I quit the job because of the union a year later anyway
 
Jay Caughron said:
I quit drinking in 86 so I could quit smoking in 87 most I paid then was $1.50 at a vending machine. I smoked 3 to 4 packs of cools per day back then. That would be a $39 to $52 per day habit now. :doh:I'm with Jonathan and if not for cost start again in my 90s. I liked to smoke and the only reason I quit was because they were going to ban smoking in the shop and I knew if I didn't quit I would lose my job....... I quit the job because of the union a year later anyway
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When my grandfather was hospitalized with kidney failure at 96 he was not given a high chance of living more than a few days. His kidneys started working and he was able to go home.

I happened to be the designated driver to collect him from the hospital so I was there when the doctor gave him his discharge instructions. One of the things the doctor told Granddaddy was that he should stop smoking. My grandfather's response was, "I have been smoking since I was 8 years old. I don't give a darn if I die tomorrow. I have outlived all my brothers and sisters, all my friends and one of my children. Why should I worry about dying at this point?"

He lived to 99 years and 5 months.
 
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