Smoking Is Gross

bobman1235

So I'm moving into a new apartment soon. It's my grandfather's old apartment (he's moving into a nursing home) and he was a heavy smoker his whole life. He lived in this place like 11 years. I just can't believe what the smoke has done to all the walls, floors, cielings, woodwork, etc etc. Everything is yellow and sticky. I've already spent a week cleaning and painting and I'm nowhere near done.

I smoked for a couple of years during college, and just thank God I gave it up when I did.

Just a mini-rant.

Willow

There is an industrial strenght primer that covers everything even smell ,I can't right now think of the name. Do a google .

bobman1235

Originally posted by Willow
There is an industrial strenght primer that covers everything even smell ,I can't right now think of the name. Do a google .

I think you're talking about "Killz". A few people recommended it to me.

My biggest problem is reallly that half the place is either faux wood-panel walls or wallpaper. :rolleyes:

shack

I started smoking in high school and ended up being a 3-pack-a-day smoker. Quit cold turkey 16 years ago (literally put the last one out and never lit up again). Best thing I ever did.

VR3

Paint gets rid of the smell just fine man...

Killz is for getting rid of water damage on ceilings...

I've remodeled houses with "Smoker Damaged" countless times, paint the ceiling first... paint the walls... paint the trim...the doors, get the carpet cleaned (if there is any) very thoroughly... the smell will actually start to dissapear after you get done painting...but if there is carpet, it is a must to get that clean as well.

Get rid of that wallpaper...wallpaper is nasty! DIF works REAL well... that really high textured wallpaper (like a textured finish throughout) is very strong, if you stick a scraper under there and pull...it will pull off in sheets, but the glue leaves a textured surface behind which requires sanding...

Do not use a "Steamer" to get rid of the wallpaper if you havn't used it before... steamers can completely eff up sheatrock... my Dad did this

As for wood paneling... never had to deal with that, is it possible to sand it and refinish it or is it like a vinyl or something?

Willow

Originally posted by bobman1235
I think you're talking about "Killz". A few people recommended it to me.

My biggest problem is reallly that half the place is either faux wood-panel walls or wallpaper. :rolleyes:

No it's not Kills it's somthing else I'll try to find out what it is.

madmax

Is it odor-x or somthing like that?
madmax

bobman1235

Originally posted by Vr3MxStyler2k3

Get rid of that wallpaper...wallpaper is nasty! DIF works REAL well... that really high textured wallpaper (like a textured finish throughout) is very strong, if you stick a scraper under there and pull...it will pull off in sheets, but the glue leaves a textured surface behind which requires sanding...

As for wood paneling... never had to deal with that, is it possible to sand it and refinish it or is it like a vinyl or something?

Thanks for the tips Sid. My dad has a great carpet shampooer, so I'm definitely borrowing that for the rugs. Most of the ceilings are actually those drop ceilings, so I may just replace the panels depending on how much they cost. The only thing I'm really painting is woodwork,a nd i'm just scrubbing it with 409 and when it's dry painting over it.

As for the wallpaper... I don't know if I'm going to get rid of it quite yet, just cuz of the amount of work involved - I have way too much other stuff to do and not enough time to do it -- it's not like I can just take a month off of work for this . I'll see how it goes once I move in with the smell and whatnot. Ditto for the wood panelling - hopefully just a good scrubbing will be sufficient, but if it needs to be sanded I suppose that's probably an option.

avelanchefan

For short term you can paint over wallpaper. Its a fast effective way instead of trying to remove it.

I have done it twice and I never had a problem, just buy paint thats real good to cover it. Otherwise you will have to do it multiple times.

Even if it's that old textured wallpaper, it basicall gives the wall a textured look.

Just an idea.

I have also painted over wood paneling. All I did there was get a real good primer and made sure all the cracks and grooves were covered. Then I used a real good paint again to do the rest.

I used Dunn Edwards paint. Its expensive as all get out, but you get what you pay for. Ever since I will only use Dunn Edwards. It cleans up real nice (scuffs, hand marks) and it lasts a long time.

unc2701

Never had to do smoker repair, but Killz will go over anything- I can totally reccomend it- same thing on DIF.

I would NOT paint over the wallpaper. Someone did that in my house and it was a huge **** pain getting that paper down. It was too thick for the scorer to get through it and the DIF couldn't soak in due to the paint.

Painting over paneling works, but you'll still have ugly paneling, and now it's just covered in paint- try to find a house where this has been done and decide if you can live with it before you paint over paneling.