Cigarette Smoke Removal: 4 Great Professional Removal Steps

10/22/2021 (Permalink)

Contact the professionals at SERVPRO for smoke removal services!

The best way to remove cigarette smoke from your home is by professional cigarette smoke removal services.

If you've ever smoked inside your home, you know how cigarette smoke stains and smells linger on surfaces for years, and the number of damages will depend on how long cigarette smoking has occurred in the home.

Cigarette smoke contains a chemical called nicotine which bonds to porous materials like wood, fabric, and paints. It doesn't matter if the cigarette is out; as long as it was lit at some point inside the home, there will be lingering traces of cigarette odors.

The best cigarette smoke removal tactics will require a combination of cigarette smoke odor neutralizers and specialized tools that remove cigarette smoke from different surfaces. In the following blog post, we will go over our professional cigarette smoke removal process for a home that was smoked inside for thirty years. By the end of this post, you will know how cigarette smoke is removed from a home and reasons not to smoke inside a home.

Removing decades of cigarette residue

Recently a homeowner called the professionals at SERVPRO of Union, Towns, Fannin & Gilmer Counties for water restoration services after a sink trap leak caused damage to the subflooring underneath a homeowners kitchen tile flooring. While performing our initial inspection, we realized that the home not only had water damage but also had cigarette smoke damage throughout the property. 

We asked the homeowner how long they have been smoking inside their home, and they let us know that it has been over 30 years! 

When cigarette smoke is present for a long time, everything in contact gets stained and discolored. For this customer, the cigarette smoke had been lingering in their home for years, not allowing us to know:

• The actual color of the carpet flooring 
• The color of the walls 
• The color of the ceramic tile in the bathroom

The customer asked us to perform both the water damage and cigarette smoke removal services because they planned to put their house on the market in the next six months.

The cigarette smoke removal process

The professionals at SERVPRO have found the best way to attack a cigarette smoke removal job is to attack it like a soot cleaning job.

First step: Strategically place ozone machines that disperse cigarette smoke odor neutralizers throughout the damaged areas. The cigarette smoke smells drawn into the ozone machines are changed through oxidation, which removes cigarette odors.

Second step: Wipe down walls, light switches, and door frames using a professional soot sponge. A soot sponge is a lint-free, absorbent sponge that cigarette smoke residue absorbs into.

Third step: Seal and repaint the walls. The cigarette smoke stains on the walls are now gone, but you will want to repaint them to make them look fresh and new.

Fourth step: Go over the entire area with a wet/dry vacuum removing all cigarette ash particles from soft surfaces such as carpets and fabrics. It may be best to completely remove and restore all damaged carpeting rather than spending time removing years of cigarette residue.

The entire cigarette smoke removal process took several days for the above job because cigarette smoke had seeped into both the padding and subflooring of their home. In the end, we are very proud to say that our cigarette smoke removal process allowed us to remove over 30 years' worth of cigarette odors and discoloration from the entire house!

Why you shouldn't smoke inside your home

As smoke and fire damage restoration professionals, we can't wrap up this blog post without giving you reasons not to smoke inside your home. Cigarette smoke damages everything it comes in contact with over time, not to mention the countless fire damage calls received caused by a single cigarette. So please do yourself a favor and do not smoke inside your home! 

For more information about cigarette smoke removal services, please contact us today. SERVPRO of Union, Towns, Fannin & Gilmer Counties is available 24/7 to answer any type of smoke removal questions you might have.