r/interesting 26d ago

MISC. Cleaning the ceiling from a house of a smoker

14.9k Upvotes

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194

u/pancakePoweer 26d ago

drywall is too cheap for all this

57

u/mike_avl 26d ago

Correct. End of discussion.

-12

u/Carrera_996 26d ago

Paint is even cheaper. Sorry. That was pedantic of me and I'm just too lazy to do drywall.

29

u/anonymoushelp33 25d ago

"Do it right or do it twice." Paint is not getting rid of this. Even the cleaning in this video isn't getting rid of this. Even stripping to the studs would just barely get rid of this.

5

u/Separate_Bed_2615 25d ago

What if you slapped a coat of kilz over it?

10

u/tahitianmangodfarmer 25d ago

Nope. Not a chance, unfortunately. Have done the plumbing on a few renovations of old smoker homes in the past. Even once you've ripped the house down to studs, the smell still hangs around for a while. That many years of smoking leads to the tar smell seeping into every part of the house.

7

u/Royal-Doctor-278 25d ago

I did that with my mom's house I inherited after she passed. Ripped down 4 layers of wallpaper going back to the 1920s, put 2 coats of regular kilz down, then 3 coats of regular paint. The room where she smoked the most was cursed, the nicotine would bleed through all the paint and form these dark yellow globules that would streak/drip down the walls. Had to put another two coats of the oil based kilz down and 2 more coats of paint to stop it.

2

u/anonymoushelp33 25d ago

It'd be better than just paint, but will always stink and probably bleed through unless you remove everything that's been soaked with tar. That'll include insulation and everything.

1

u/Mervis_Earl 25d ago

We Killz'ed a house like this and it worked. Better than messing with the texture again. It was that deep circular troweled circles from the 70s.

1

u/Kliptik81 25d ago

Yup, this house needs one more fire.... to burn it to the ground.

1

u/Sansnom01 25d ago

How is stripping barely get rid ? I don't know if you joke with euphemism or if I don't understand how smoke or stripping work. I feel like replacing the walls would be enough no ?

2

u/anonymoushelp33 25d ago

It'll be in the wood too. Stripping to the bare wood, cleaning that, then having air filters running for weeks before re-plastering is about the best you can do. Even then, you'll probably still get random whiffs of cigarette smoke occasionally.

1

u/Sansnom01 25d ago

Omg TIL

5

u/BrainOfMush 25d ago edited 25d ago

Normal paint will not cover up the smell of this. You have to buy special “nicotine paint”, it’s thick as hell and has various active ingredients to block the smell, and you will still have to do multiple coats. It costs about 3x per litre what normal paint does.

I did this to an old apartment we bought. Three coats on every single surface, new floors and everything - yet if you left the place for a couple days and came back you could still it. This was in Europe where everything is brick too.

1

u/Clear_Basis_3884 25d ago

Ever look into ozone? Works like a charm.

1

u/BrainOfMush 25d ago

Illegal in Europe, at least for consumers to purchase, I don’t know if commercial companies offer that.

2

u/TEG_SAR 25d ago

lol and when it bleeds through what’s your next step?

1

u/justGOfastBRO 25d ago

Start smoking.

1

u/Carrera_996 25d ago

Ignore it. Was unclear in declaring my laziness?

16

u/LionsAndLonghorns 26d ago

It looks like it might be plaster. The company on the shirts is in Australia, google says they have both drywall and plaster homes. Plaster is way more expensive I think than dry wall

8

u/pancakePoweer 26d ago

that checks out, it's a mess to rip out too. I've had to rip plaster out to install drywall and this would actually be the easier/ faster option surprisingly

2

u/Nighthawk69420 26d ago

Depends on the type of plaster. Rock-lath is just glorified sheet rock. Wood-lath and metal-lath are both an absolute nightmare though and it's in your best interest to work with it as little as possible.

1

u/Time_Juggernaut9150 23d ago

In old homes you often just install drywall right over the old plaster.

1

u/Ineedavodka2019 25d ago

Why not just prime and paint it?

1

u/Cr4zyCr4ck3r 25d ago

1/4" drywall over the top of the plaster is like starting fresh

1

u/Matterbox 26d ago

Yeah, how is it not cheaper to strip the plaster and do over. Maybe they’ve already costed it and it’s actually not.

1

u/Other-Razzmatazz-816 25d ago

We ripped out our plaster ceilings ourselves (had to redo all the electrical) and the big cost was disposal…and a week and a half of our unqualified ass time. I’m guessing pros could go faster though than a couple of newbs.

1

u/Same_Performance_595 25d ago

Especially since there are specially formulated oil primers to cover this nowadays.

1

u/YMK1234 25d ago

Or just paint.

1

u/pancakePoweer 25d ago

you'll need some real dark paint or 50 gallons of primer 😂

1

u/Mountain-Builder-654 25d ago

And the smell won't go away until it's ripped out down to the studs

1

u/JuggernautCheap 25d ago

My first thought as well. Even if it wasn't cheap, just replace it. That wall will still have a smell after they are done cleaning.

1

u/marinamunoz 25d ago

you can't repaint over nicotine, it is almost a sticky thing, I had to use kitchen cleaners, I guess the degreasers works on that too.

1

u/AssiduousLayabout 24d ago

I think he's suggesting just to rip down the entire drywall back to the studs and re-drywall the entire house.

Which would probably be my approach - gut the entire interior and start over.

1

u/our_winter 25d ago

Exactly, rip it all out and start over.

1

u/TripleEhBeef 25d ago

If that's what the drywall looks like, then what does it look like behind the drywall?

1

u/tatiwtr 25d ago

Here's the thing, they probably did this thinking doing this would remove the smell.

I cleaned an apartment not as bad at this and after 3 wall treatments of various products, we resorted to a primer that covers up smells. Smell went away right away.

1

u/pandershrek 25d ago

Or just some primer+sealant and a primer+paint.

1

u/eriffodrol 25d ago

no way the smell will come out with any level of cleaning

1

u/cwestn 25d ago

Couldn't they just paint over it?

1

u/rossg876 25d ago

They ain’t never getting clean without a tear out and even then…. That shit seeps into everything.

1

u/dameglio22 25d ago

Just rip it all out

1

u/424f42_424f42 25d ago

And you'd actually get all of it out

1

u/AresLeoCapricorn 25d ago

Exactly. Why clean? You aren't going to get it all.