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Post by destined2bmom on Jun 10, 2018 15:22:33 GMT
I wouldn’t because I am allergic to cigarette smoke. It causes me to get a non-stop runny nose.
I also would be careful buying a house that had a number of animals. We have bought this home that had cats, we don’t know how many but we have replaced most of the flooring and will replace all by the time that we are done.
But I do know of 2 horror stories That I have heard from people who have bought homes with cats. One of my neighbors across the street bought a house that had cats and a dog in it. Evidently, the cats and the dog went to the bathroom all the way up the bottom of walls of the home. Since it is large house; they’ve only replaced everything on the first floor including drywall and floors. They still have to do the upstairs. My neighbor told me it still smells really bad upstairs.
Horror story number two: My SIL’s next-door neighbors bought the home knowing there had been several (7) cats in it. They ended up removing all of the carpet, using Kilz on the floor before putting in new carpeting, and they ended up removing all of the drywall. Reason being, the cats had gone to the bathroom on all of the lower drywall in the entire house including the finished basement. And when they cut the drywall in half, they still couldn’t get rid of the smell. After two years they could still smell cat urine. But they couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Finally they had a contractor come in and they realized that the cats had urinated in between the frames of the windows in the doors. They had to remove the windows and the doors as well as the frames. Then they had to rebuild the frames before they put the actual windows and doors in. This was done to the entire house.
Edited to add: House 2 was a foreclosure so they bought as is.
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Post by jemmls4 on Jun 10, 2018 15:52:50 GMT
No way would I take that on. My mom was a smoker, I wouldn't say heavy. I have some of her stuff in my house after she passed away and I can still smell the smoke.
I would never, ever take on a home and deal with that.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 13, 2024 9:44:03 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2018 15:56:25 GMT
Absolutely not. I can't stand a faint smell of smoke and noamount of cleaning would totally eliminate it. Any strong smell would turn me off. When we were house hunting 3 years ago we opened the door to a house and our realtor said, "What is that smell?" I laughed and said, "that is the pungent smell of curry.". An Indian family owned the house and everything was permeated with curry smell. It gagged me and all I saw were $$$ we would need to spend together the place. The house never did sell and it's been off and on the market since then. I worked for not-for-merry maids and refused to clean Indian houses. Old and burnt curry is gag worthy.
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Post by anniefb on Jun 10, 2018 17:31:56 GMT
Friends did years ago. It took a while but they got rid of the smell completely by ripping out the carpet and redecorating.
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PrettyInPeank
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,691
Jun 25, 2014 21:31:58 GMT
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Post by PrettyInPeank on Jun 10, 2018 17:50:51 GMT
We recently bought a house, and while shopping, stepped in and stepped right back out because of the faint smell of cigarette smoke. No way, I saw time and money disappearing before my eyes.
That said, this thread makes me realize how being an indoor smoker drops the value of your home unanimously. I wonder if fellow smokers would care, or even notice though.
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Post by txdancermom on Jun 10, 2018 19:03:04 GMT
I would say no, unless the price was such a bargain that money could be put into the smell removal and I had time before I wanted to move in. smoke smell is one of the worst to get rid of
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Peamac
Pearl Clutcher
Refupea # 418
Posts: 4,218
Jun 26, 2014 0:09:18 GMT
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Post by Peamac on Jun 10, 2018 19:06:02 GMT
I wouldn't. We looked at one house of a smoker, and even though the realtor said the owners only smoked outside, it still smelled inside. We knew that on hot or humid days (basically all time, it was NC) the stink would be worse and really never come out, even with repainting and removing the carpet.
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Post by nellej on Jun 10, 2018 20:02:41 GMT
I bought my first apartment from a heavy smoker. After redecorating (with a special paint to cover the nicotain stains, I think) and new carpets, the smell was gone. (Not a hot climate though).
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peaname
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,389
Aug 16, 2014 23:15:53 GMT
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Post by peaname on Jun 10, 2018 20:07:04 GMT
I'd only buy it at a deep discount. Like half price.
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Post by scrapmaven on Jun 10, 2018 20:25:05 GMT
I would avoid this house. You have to replace so much in order to get rid of the smell and even then it might not work completely.
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Post by papersilly on Jun 10, 2018 23:13:21 GMT
I wouldn't. The smoke is in the walls and insulation. People say you can probably prime and paint the walls but to me, the smoke is still in the insulation, flooring, and deep in the vents. Nope. Unless I can take the house down to the studs, I wouldn't.
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Post by misadventurous on Jun 11, 2018 1:40:50 GMT
I would never buy a house that smelled like smoke. Not even at a bargain basement price. Gross, gross, gross.
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Post by chaosisapony on Jun 11, 2018 1:49:22 GMT
I would only consider it if it were my dream house at the perfect price and the sellers would leave money in an escrow account for the repairs necessary to mitigate the smell.
My next door neighbor at my old condo smoked in her place for 20 years. When she died a guy bought it and renovated it to become a rental. About 7 years later I walked through that place to talk to him and I could totally still smell the smoke.
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Post by myshelly on Jun 11, 2018 1:57:55 GMT
No. I would be too afraid I’d never get the smell out and wouldn’t want to risk my health and the heath of my kids.
Plus, if you can’t get it out, you might not be able to unload it on someone else.
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Post by mikklynn on Jun 11, 2018 2:05:47 GMT
We recently bought a house, and while shopping, stepped in and stepped right back out because of the faint smell of cigarette smoke. No way, I saw time and money disappearing before my eyes. That said, this thread makes me realize how being an indoor smoker drops the value of your home unanimously. I wonder if fellow smokers would care, or even notice though. I don't think they believe it. My sister blamed her yellowed walls on her DH's cooking. When she finally quit smoking, she denied that she smelled bad when she smoked.
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mallie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,253
Jul 3, 2014 18:13:13 GMT
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Post by mallie on Jun 11, 2018 3:47:31 GMT
There is no way I would ever. Total money pit and a positive outcome is not guaranteed.
My uncle was a heavy smoker. Ten years before his death (due to lung cancer), his kids started having kids and asked him to stop smoking in the house. He agreed. They decided to replace the carpeting and repainted the entire house. Also got new soft furniture. You could still smell the smoke pretty strongly at the time of his death. My aunt desperately wanted to sell the house because by then her kids had all moved to AZ and she wanted to go with them. Five years later, the house is unsold because the smell is still there and she cannot afford the remediation necessary. (She has been given estimates of $15K because the recommendations include replacement of all the duct work.) She feels trapped by the smell of smoke in her home. It is really very sad.
When we sold our house in 2 years ago, our town had been a very hot seller's market for 3 years. I asked my realtor about a house down the street that had been off and on for sale for 4 years -- why hadn't it sold? She told me it was because of the smoke smell. She said they had also replaced any carpeting (but it was mostly hardwood) and repainted, but the house still stunk. They dropped the price over and over, but even in a super hot market, it would not sell.
I have a coworker who used to be a house painter. He was telling me that he is allergic to cigarette smoke and he could always tell when a house had been previously owned by a smoker -- even if it had been years and had been repainted previously. He could even tell where the smoker had spent the most time (in what part of a room).
TLDR: My dream home would not smell like cigarette smoke nor require that much remediation for an uncertain outcome. Sounds like a nightmare, not a dream.
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Post by PEAcan pie on Jun 11, 2018 3:51:09 GMT
Nope, nada... for all the reasons above. Unless it is your dream property and then I would rule out every other home.
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Post by stampinchick on Jun 11, 2018 4:32:17 GMT
I have a friend who bought an older house from an old lady that smoked for years. It seemed to take us forever the clean that house to get it to the point where we could start painting. I remember wiping off the ceramic light fixture in one of the bedroom closets. It was so gross. I knew then that if something inside a closet that would have a closed door 99% of the time would get that gross, everything out in the open in the rest of the house would be even worse. I would never buy the house of a smoker. Or a cat owner for that matter. Looked at a house one time the reeked of cat pee. It was a cute house that I would have seriously considered buying but no way was I going to buy a house that smelled like that.
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Post by melanell on Jun 11, 2018 13:16:11 GMT
My grandparents smoked heavily. I brought home one piece of wood furniture from their house when my grandmother passed away and it took me years to get that thing to stop smelling like smoke. So, I don't think I'd want to deal with an entire house unless it was spectacular or a deal too good to pass by, even after all of the work. (Had I been looking to buy a house at the time their house was being sold, and it had been in a location I liked, I would have likely gone for it just because of how much I loved their house. It wasn't spectacular in a general sense of the word, but it was spectacular to me. But seriously, any other house would likely be a "no" for me.)
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SweetieBsMom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,611
Jun 25, 2014 19:55:12 GMT
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Post by SweetieBsMom on Jun 11, 2018 15:26:02 GMT
Nope. Even if it were my dream house at a bargain price, I would pass.
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Post by mikewozowski on Jun 11, 2018 15:44:19 GMT
smokers aren't going to be selling their houses for a 66% discount. they don't think there is anything wrong with them.
my mom used to smoke. doesn't anymore. her house doesn't really smell like smoke. it smells like old people and litterbox!
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Post by deekaye on Jun 11, 2018 16:18:47 GMT
A friend bought a smoker's home and fortunately he only smoked in his bedroom/office in the basement, but man it reeked! They originally just tore out the carpet and repainted the room but within a few weeks, yellow (tar?) stuff started coming through the paint. So gross. They ended up tearing the sheetrock off, and the ceiling off, down to the studs and started from scratch.
They tore out all of the carpeting in the whole house (their original plan anyway) and that seemed to alleviate the smoke smell. I'm sure if the guy had smoked elsewhere in the house they would have had to do more.
By the way, Kilz is great stuff. We flipped a house that had had a smallish kitchen fire and were able to save the cabinets by painting on Kilz before we painted them.
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StephDRebel
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,665
Location: Ohio
Jul 5, 2014 1:53:49 GMT
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Post by StephDRebel on Jun 11, 2018 16:28:29 GMT
not a chance.
My current home was lived in by a heavy smoker and it keeps popping up at unexpected times, 8 years later even
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,130
Jun 25, 2014 22:52:46 GMT
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Post by iowgirl on Jun 11, 2018 16:32:17 GMT
During high humidity (after the new paint and carpet) you could still smell cigarette smoke oozing from the house. Yep! My house is a very old farmhouse. We have lived here a long time, but when it gets very humid, I pick up weird smells. Smoke in the attic - i think there was a small electrical fire at one time when someone used pennies for fuses. I can also smell cat piss in one room where some lady kept cats (and wasn't supposed to). Even with central air now - I can still get a whiff of that stuff on a humid summer day. These things probably happened 40-50 years ago. When we were house hunting 3 years ago we opened the door to a house and our realtor said, "What is that smell?" I laughed and said, "that is the pungent smell of curry.". DD moved into an apartment that reeked of curry. Oh my god. It was so bad.
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Post by papersilly on Jun 11, 2018 22:52:20 GMT
i remember when we were looking for house and we would walk into a smoker's house. the smell would just hit us like a giant wave. it was really hard to focus on anything else about the house once the smoke smell hit. all i could think about was the amount of $$$ it would cost to get rid of that smell. all of the time, there was not enough money in the world.
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Post by Lexica on Jun 11, 2018 23:52:06 GMT
The house next door to me was owned by two heavy smokers. It was so bad that I could be downstairs in my house and get a whiff of cigarettes coming from their family room out to their back patio and up into my second story bathroom window. I would have to go shut the bathroom window to keep from getting smoked out. And they were not even outside smoking, they had just opened their slider.
The people that that bought the house had one heck of a time dealing with the smoke residue. They originally assumed the windows were all tinted, but it was just accumulation from multiple packs a day. The wife refused to clean the house because she worked all week outside the home. The husband was home and disabled with MS, but he didn’t clean either.
The new owners ended up pulling all the carpet, padding, wall board, and insulation from the house. They took it right down to the studs and even had to coat those because they smelled so strong. They replaced the cabinets in the kitchen and both bathrooms. In essence, building a new house using the cement foundation, wiring, and plumbing of the original house. And I could still smell cigarettes in there after all that.
They ended up selling and moving because the wife was so bothered by the continued smell. They purchased a piece of property and built from scratch because they were so bothered by what had happened in the house by me.
i once lent the smoking couple my fax machine for the husband to send off some medical paperwork. When they returned it, I had to throw out the remaining paper and clean the whole machine with alcohol to get the stink out of it. And it was just inside a few hours!
i do worry about the smoking history of the houses in the community I will be moving to. I wish they had to disclose that information like they do when someone had died in the home.
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Deleted
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May 13, 2024 9:44:03 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2018 0:00:14 GMT
Like everybody else, I'd pass!! That is such a yucky smell. No way would I want to live with it. Years ago we bought a piece of wood furniture from a store that was owned by a smoker. He smoked in the store. It took us MONTHS and months of work on that wood furniture to get the smell out. Some people just don't realize how much it stinks!! We almost just pitched this furniture, but it was very expensive, and we loved how it looked.
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Post by papersilly on Jun 12, 2018 0:20:17 GMT
I have to say, though, my dad bought a beautiful Mercedes from a cigar smoker. It had seeped into the leather seats and headliner but for some reason, the smell want so bad. The car smelled like a cigar lounge and it didn't bother me as much as cigarette smell still does.
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Post by lauradrumm on Jun 12, 2018 1:06:14 GMT
You can call in one of the services that’s used after a fire. It erases all smell.
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Post by drummergirl65 on Jun 12, 2018 4:25:33 GMT
No I wouldn't buy it. There is now evidence of something called third hand smoke. All that tar and yuk stuck to walls etc isn't good for you
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